Honesty and Punctuality — Values Extraordinarie

I read a post of a user recently where she narrated her experience with being punctual which she grew up with because her parents trained her to inculcate such a value. In her post, she said punctuality and honesty go hand in hand and I agree with this statement.

I have developed punctuality since I was a young girl and you can never find me still at home when I should be somewhere either in the church, school or mom's shop. My parents instilled in us that great value that they made sure we were never late to school and every other place we ought to be. We were never late for Sunday school as I was always among the few teenagers who would be seated, waiting for our teacher to arrive so we could start the service. Many times, I would take the praise and worship at the teens' department when they needed to judge based on who arrived early.

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When it comes to being honest about punctuality, some people are fond of something and that is being dishonest about time. For instance, when someone has given time to be at a place and he is the one keeping others waiting at the venue and when he is called to ask where he is, instead of saying the exact place he is at, you will hear something like, "I am on my way, there is traffic" when in truth, he is still at home and probably hasn't even gotten up from bed. This is something that bothers me when it is being done to me because I don't keep people waiting.

Such dishonesty could affect me in such a way that I start to rush things which might make me forget things behind. This is why I don't joke with time and respect another person as I am always time-conscious. Rather than rushing and being in a hurry because of a lie I have made for another person, I would be conscious of time and do the needful on time so as not to be late to wherever I am going.

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An experience with being punctual and honest is with the issue of showing up at a place of work and writing the exact time one arrives. While I was still in the university and was posted for teaching practice for 6 months which was split into two; 3 months at 200 level and 3 months at 400 level. I was always early to the school I was posted to and would write the exact time I arrived without changing it. Other times when I arrive late, I don't lie about the time of my arrival as I am always honest about it. This caused misunderstandings between my colleagues and me.

My colleagues were always dishonest about their arrival time and would write a different time to when they arrived. They talked to me about my attitude towards such honesty but I refused to dance to their tunes.

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The same thing happened a few weeks ago at my workplace as I continued to be honest in writing the exact time I arrived at the school but other colleagues of mine would write different times. Let's say they show up at 7:45-8 am, they would write 7:00 am or most times 6:50 am. I never minded them because it doesn't concern or affect me in any way. This, they do every time until one particular day, I arrived before them which was 7:45 am, and I was the first person to write my name on the attendance book, while I was doing that, other corpers came and saw that I wrote the exact time I arrived, they shouted and I was like "what happened?" because I was somehow confused.

I overheard one of them whisper that if they'd known, they would have written their names first before mine because, to them, I had ruined their plan. I made them realise it was the time I arrived and did not see what was wrong with that. That was when they opened up that it shouldn't be done that way because we are in Nigeria.

I was like "So, if we are in Nigeria, does that mean I should join them in doing the wrong thing? I won't do such even if others are doing it, knowing it is very wrong" That was the end of the conversation when they saw I wasn't willing to bend to whatever structure everyone was doing.

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That experience prompted me to ask a few people on my contact list this question to hear their replies and I got honest answers from them. Here is the question:

In an organisation where the time you are to resume work is 7:40 am, you arrive at that exact time. What time do you write in the attendance book that you arrived? Be sincere.

Out of 8 people who said they would write the exact time, only one person said she wouldn't write the exact time if it has passed 7:40 am which is the maximum time for a teacher to resume and anything after that is lateness.

Instead of trying to lie about my arrival time, I'd rather be at work early and that is something I have grown up with and if there is anything I wouldn't do, is to be dishonest with the time I arrive at my place of work.

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