somewhat off tangent:
1. it seems that people are more likely to reschedule and not hold to commitments than 20 years ago.
2. has the population changed, or some other external factor, or has the culture changed?
3. why?
1. it seems that people are more likely to reschedule and not hold to commitments than 20 years ago.
2. has the population changed, or some other external factor, or has the culture changed?
3. why?
These guys carry three cellphones AND a pager, but will never show up on time for an appointment or call to tell you they're not going to be at your house on the day you took off of work. But when that bill is due lookout: they're magically available and on the phone with you constantly.
I lived in the East Coast before that and didn't have as many flakers.
I lived on the East Coast for 5 years, and people there were flakier than their West Coast counterparts -- even though traffic on the East Coast is more predictable and less congested. The difference? People on the West Coast try to make their commitments -- but run in to traffic. People on the East Coast leave late and blame the traffic.
Another way of saying this is if I planned to arrive 8 minutes early, I would have been on time 95% of the time for an appointment in Mountain View driving from Oakland.
If the traffic is that bad on a regular and consistent basis, people could account for it by leaving their origin earlier.
I lived in LA for 23 years. Consider: Traffic means that a sometimes-20-minute commute can take 3 hours. And while you can sometimes predict sort of when it will take longer than it should, you can't always. Everyone has to be a lot more flexible. The alternative is to be willing to show up at every appointment an hour or two early... but most people aren't.
Who knows if this is the "root cause" -- I doubt it. But it certainly contributes to the "lets play it by ear" philosophy you find predominant in LA.