Late means past the agreed time. Be it past minutes or more, the person is late. Many times others complain saying "but I am not very late, its only ten minutes past the time we agreed”. This mentality has caused others to term friends as real African. Being an African is not bad but under which context….?

I personally feel good to be called a real African, when I perform as expected. I hate it when I perform poorly, which I normally avoid because it appears like it will be tarnishing Africa’s image.

For every person who comes late, creates an excuse to his or her boss. The most common are; it was raining heavily, irrespective of his or her monthly earnings and the cost of an umbrella.

I went to bed or slept late like that person did not know he was meant to work the next day. I first had to meet some one and …………….and many more excuses.

Although others might be genuine reasons, the fact remains that a person is late. Its worse when the boss comes late. The boss is meant to be exemplary; he should be at the work place before any other worker. 

Considering that the boss is always right, and not answerable to any one, the worker can only look at them. What do you think they are thinking about since they do not even have the right to know why you are late?

Marketing Manager Nakumatt shopping mall, Joseph Ndugu explained that as a head he reaches the work place early.

"In the morning before we start work I conduct training. The training is aimed at enabling my workers serve as required and expected. I also give them time to express their challenges to enable smooth running of work”, he said. He further said that with Nakumatti shopping mall, the first qualification for one to be employed is to agree with keeping time.

"Irrespective of which means of transport the employee uses to come to work, he must make sure that he is at work before time”, he said, adding that it gives them a fresh start and a settled mind.

"Being time conscious is meant to be part of life, since it starts when some one is still in his or her early age”, he observed.

A Manager of a Restaurant in Kigali City, said that when one worker is late, it affects the work of the whole restaurant. He added that; "Here work is done with specialization”, explaining that each worker does what he is best at. Therefore when one member is not yet at work, it means no one will do that specific duty.

"Our work is basically on time alongside other factors”, he said adding that "It’s no work done if food is ready when our clients have already left”, he said.

In his explanation, he said that people have meals on time. Others even fail to turn-up for lunch because of the assigned work for the day, yet time is little.

"Others make calls before they come, to make sure that they do not come and spend a lot of time here”, adding that it’s wrong for such a customer to then come and find the food not ready.

Explaining further, he said that keeping time in all their duties is one way of maintaining and winning more clients in the business. He also observed that it is very easy to lose a customer than winning one.

"It takes time for a business to win a customer, since it includes making observations for a long time. One time when he realizes a weakness or dissatisfaction in the services, he easily changes his mind hence resorting to your competitor” Richard Butare, a Doctor at University Hospital, said that coming late for work is shameful.

Speaking as a Doctor he said that given the nature of work he does, he cannot afford reporting at work late.

"A Doctor, suppose I am meant to operate a patient and then I come late…?” he asked explaining more about what may happen when he fails to attend to a patient in time.

It is not only in the medical professional that time consciousness is important, but in every responsible business or services i.e.  offices, meetings and other related responsibilities.

Ends