MM163 - Punctuality | MM Book Study Pt. 21

Punctuality is the new superpower in the American workplace. Do you want to get ahead at your job? Show up on time and do what is expected of you.

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♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Welcome to Morning Mindset. A daily dose of practical wit and wisdom with a professional educator & trainer, Amazon best selling author, United States Marine, Television, and Radio host, Paul G. Markel. Each episode will focus on positive and productive ways to strengthen your mindset and help you improve your relationships, career goals, and overall well-being. Please welcome your host; Paul G. Markel.

*Professor Paul*

Hello and welcome back to yet another Morning Mindset podcast. I'm your host Paul Markel, I remain your host Paul Markel and I will be until I'm not anymore. Alright, we're going to continue with the Morning Mindset book study Morning Mindset: a 30 Day Plan for a More Positive and Productive Life and we're a little more than two-thirds of the way through the book.

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Now today, we're going to talk about punctuality. I'm guessing that many of you when you were young. Learned about punctuality or was explained to you whether it was through school probably a lot through school often through school because in school especially Junior Highs and high schools. Well, every school they have bells.

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What does that bell mean? The bell means, that when the bell rings, you're supposed to be where you need to be, on time and if you don't, you know, if you don't get there on time. what happens? Then you're marked as tardy and that's right, you're marked as tardy, and if you get so many tardy slips- I don't know how they work it anymore.

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But in the olden days, if you get X number of tardy slips than you earned detention, then you will be detained and you don't want to be detained, do you? No, of course you don't. But most of you are not in high school anymore, junior high or elementary or what have you. So you don't have bells and you don't have tardy slips and you don't have vice-principals that are the disciplinarian. But in the adult world, punctuality has become the new superpower. In the American workplace, punctuality has become a superpower and I'm going to explain to you how that is.

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Many of you know that my beloved spouse has been a manager. She's been in the restaurant, food services management business all of her adult life. She's managed coffee shops and fast food joints, and she actually managed the buffet at a casino and at pretty much everything in between, and what that means or what that meant to her was that she had to hire and supervise people all the time.

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A couple of years ago, she hired a young man who I think was 18 or 19, but he was out of high school and he was looking for a job and she gave him this job. She hired him and in the first seven days of the first seven days of working, he was late 4 times. The first week that he was working there for her at that business.

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He was late for times and the last time the last straw he came in 30 minutes late for his shift, and so he was called and he was told that he no longer needed to worry about getting up and coming into work, because he no longer had a job there, and this individual this young man actually said “Well, I don't understand. I was only 30 minutes late.”

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Yes, only 30 minutes late. You guys out there listening to me, I'm sure the vast majority of you are gainfully employed or you have been in the very recent past. How can you imagine? But say you are at one of those jobs. I've had a lot of jobs where you couldn't leave until someone was there to relieve you, shift work where when I was a police officer, when I was a United States Marine and so on and so forth. You know, the bodyguard stuff, you don't get to check out, you don't get to go home, you don't get to relax or go back to your room or what have you until someone else is there to relieve you.

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So that there are no gaps, and everybody knows when they're working an 8-hour shift, or 10 or 12-hour shifts, as I have worked that when the time comes to go, you're ready to go. Let's say You're supposed to get off at 11 p.m., and about 10:30 p.m., maybe 10:45. You start doing the end of shift wrap up stuff. So that by 10:45-10:50, you're completely done. All the end of shift wrap up is completed, you're ready to go and you're waiting for your relief to come.

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Then it's 11:00 and 11:05, 11:10, 11:15 11;20, 11:25. You’re like “Where the freak is this person who supposed to be relieving me?”, and then they come strolling in at 11:30, and you say hi. What's up? I like “It's only 30 minutes calm down.” Now, everyone has flat tires, everyone has dead batteries, everyone gets caught in traffic behind an accident or something once in a while. That happens to everyone occasionally. But when you make the habit of not being where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there, people will not rely on you and well if it's early in your job, they’re going to get rid of you because they don't have time for that nonsense.

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If it's late in your job. Let's say you started out well, and then you slipped into this habit of habitual lateness. Then what happens? They may not terminate you in it, you know right away, but they are going to pay attention to it. A lot of folks out there are like, “You know, I've been here just as long as John's been here, John and I both been at this job the same amount of time, and there's a shift leaders position that's coming open. We both have the same amount of experience and we both been here at this company the same amount of time, and I think I should be the shift leader.” Do you probably think that right but the person who's making the decision is going to look at your and John's employment record? They're going to look at your punctuality.

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If you are constantly, let's say you want a shift leader position, you want a supervisor's position. You want to some type of position where you get more money and more-, is your boss, the leader, the owner of the company, are they going to put you in a position where you will be demonstrating to everyone else that works for you, but it's okay not to be there on time?

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You know, like “Well, that's not the case.” Yes, it is because if the boss, if the shift leader, if the supervisor is never there on time, you can't expect the employees to be there on time. Cuz you know the employees are just going to do what they see. Punctuality is the new superpower in America. If you are a young person listening to me right now, and you are beginning your career, or maybe you have an entry-level job or just have a stopgap job to get yourself some money to get through school or to get a better one or whatever, and you want to be appreciated at your job and you want to make more money you want to get a raise all this stuff show up on time.

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Yeah, and I don't mean you know, if your shift starts at 8 a.m, to be there by 8:01 every day. I mean to be there at 5 minutes, till eight every day. Be there on time, before time, and I'm not telling you to clock in 20 minutes early, because you get in trouble if you do that. But you need to clock in before that our be there on time and one other thing shows up on time and does what is expected of you. Most employers do not expect their entry-level employees to come up with difficult solutions to complex problems.

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They're not asking you to cure cancer or do long division. They just want you to be where you're supposed to be on time and do what's expected of you. If you can maintain a habit of showing up on time, all the time and being where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there, you will get ahead you will be recognized.

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It's sad to me that in this modern world that being where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there has become a type of superpower. Punctuality. You want to live a more productive and positive life. You want to be recognized you want to be appreciated. You want people to have faith in you? It's as simple as this be on time. Alright, ladies and gentlemen that is it for today. Thank you for joining me. I am your host Paul Markel and I'll talk to you again real soon.

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♫ Trenches by Pop Evil ♫

*Alex*

Thank you for spending time with us today. To get show notes, submit a topic request, for more from your host Paul G. Markel, visit MorningMindsetPodcast.com. That’s MorningMindsetPodcast.com. Please leave a review of this podcast on your favorite podcast player, we appreciate your time & effort, and we look forward to reading your honest feedback.