Most Americans are busy people and a great number of them schedule their daily routines down to the minute. For instance, Doob (1990) emphasizes that, "The mandatory requirement of language is evident in modern societies which stress the importance of punctuality. ‘Let us meet at two o'clock today': we immediately know that r

In addition, people who fail to be on time also demonstrate – whether intentionally or not – what may be considered as a callous disregard for other people and their time. According to Wouters (1995), "Today, good manners do not distinguish any longer between 'the best people' and 'other people'; they function to enhance the understanding between all people," with punctuality representing one of the important components of etiquette in a modern society (p. 107). Likewise, a recent survey found that punctuality, together with good grammar and – some surprisingly, cleanliness, are veritable hallmarks of good manners today (Kelly, 2006). This point was also made recently by Alexander (2006) who notes that, "Punctuality is one of the modest virtues hitherto regarded as good manners" (p. 18).

In the United States, then, the importance of punctuality is well established and those who are even a few minutes late for say, a job interview, run the very real risk of losing out to lesser qualified candidates simply because they were unable to find a place to park in time. Similarly, people who are consistently late will be viewed as unreliable by most employers and also run the risk of losing whatever employment they have managed to secure in the first place. In this regard, Corcoran, Danziger, Kalil and Seefeldt (2000) report that, "report that a primary reason participants in a Chicago program lost jobs was that many failed to understand the importance of punctuality and the seriousness of absenteeism, and resented or misunderstood the lines of authority and responsibility in the workplace" (p. 241). Some authorities suggest that the problem of unpunctual workers requires organizations themselves to

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