Oh you were waiting for me? Sorry I’m late, I was… doing nothing! I’m going to talk

about Ecuadorian unpunctuality and the reasons I really am against it.

It’s well know, even among us, that Ecuadorians suffer from lack of punctuality, and we

take that like something normal, like something that doesn’t affect our daily life. In my

opinion long-term consequences are striking.

Punctuality is one distinct example of the differences between the Ecuadorian and North

American cultures. Most expats tend to be compulsively prompt and even, by local

standards, ridiculously early. Ecuadorians, by contrast, are much looser about being “on

time.”

What surprised me most was when Kyle told us of how people of Minnesota behave and

how was the change when he came to live in Ecuador. In Minnesota, people always

showed up 10 to 20 minutes early while Ecuadorians showed up 30 minutes after class

had already started.

Since friends, family, or even bussiness’ meetings have adopted the “ecuadorian hour” in the

country, generally, those events start 20 or 30 minutes after the scheduled time, whixh is

unimaginable. Just imagine an expat going to a meeting here in Ecuador. He would have thougth

he was in the wrong place or the meeting ended.

I realized you believe I exaggerate a lot, and you’ll say “it’s just 10 or 20 minutes”. But, that time

long-term is important. According to some researchs, Ecuador loses about $ 700 million a year,

equivalent to 4.3% of GDP, only for what you believe, is something that does not matter.

And if you really don’t care about that, I do. For instance, what would happen if you went to

school and the teacher appears 30 minutes late? Well, in fact that happens sometimes, and what

do students do?, Just wait until teacher appears because students also come late to class and

don’t have a reason or excuse for claiming him he was late.

What if Internet takes around 10 minutes to connect, you’ll probably be calling to the company

which gives you the service or you’ll be pluuging and unplugging the modem waiting for a

miracle. What if 2016 gets late for 30 minutes because God forget such an important date?

Wouldn’t you be bothered about that? Of course, and so are the people who have to wait for

you to begin an event that should have started 30 minutes ago.

Altought I’ve read some articles related to this topic that justifies unpunctuality and tell that is

good and part of our culture. The fact that you feel pressured because of a hurry or your meeting

isn’t important because everybody seems to experience less time pressure, less stress, more

awareness of the present, more life in the flow of now, are used as a reason that wanna support

unpunctuality. I’m sorry but that’s just nonsense. I prefer being part of a culture that always is

on time to a culture branded as unpunctual.

I don’t consider myself as a punctuality example, I get late too, and most of the time it’s for

nothing. Summarizing, there are 3 things to make you change that ugly habit:

- First, be ready and have your stuff done the night before. You have plenty of time to

check what else you need for the next day appointment.

- Prevent delays before they happen. The same excuses given are always also the reasons

for which are late. "There was a lot of traffic," "The bus was delayed," "I ran out of gas."

All these excuses can be avoided if you just take care of it as soon as possible.

- Change your attitude about tardiness and stop considering time as your enemy. If you

do, you'll see improvements in your work or studies that were never thought to go.

Thanks for your attention and sorry for being late.