Waiting in line
I guess most of us abhor waiting in long lines. We do not need psychologists to tell us that we are inherently impatient and often want to be gratified immediately. In fact, the lag of time doing nothing as one waits in lines is what creates most complaints.
Delays in airports, as we wait for the airport queues to finally allow our plane to land or leave gets to us even if we profess to have loads of patience. This is attributable to how much we value time.
In business, where time is literally translated in pesos, a few moments of delay may to a certain extent be tolerable but long waits end up with irate customers and disgusted executives. In fact I have noticed that most of the executives who profess to maximize their time are among the most jittery when they wait in line.
This could be because their schedules are too cramped. So full is their day that a slight slack would mean a late meeting or ending up tardy in the next appointment, which dominoes to several changes in their plans.
I recall one of my bosses and good friend Orlando Abelgas who is consultant to many international NGOs advice. He told us to pack in a little time for laziness. For truth is, there will always be a day in a month where people will need to pause and stretch to recharge. Steven Covey calls this sharpening the saw. I call this rest to clear my head.
Still, I do not think we should hang around certain places longer than necessary. Take the case of having to pay your cellular phone bill. I bet all of us have experienced having to sit almost half a day to get your number called. Until now, I wonder why there are so many unattended terminals when I pay my phone bill. With the many people lining up, I find it inconsiderate of the company not to beef up their manning when they see the many people waiting. More so, my eyebrows make their dramatic rise when I am told to wait longer because their system is hanging. And they profess to have faster connectivities!
My recent phone bill experience has improved though. When paying, the lines are faster and there are more people in collection plus there are other methods of payment now unless you need an official receipt early on.
However in inquiries, lines have remained snakelike as lesser people attend to the questions. The ratio of people with queries to an attendant is much higher than the payor-to-cashier ratio and yet, I find myself lining up to ask one question with other people who have their own concerns to just one attending personnel as I detect two other terminals beside her empty. Where are those people then? What are they doing? If there are no people to man those terminals, better take those terminals away as they build up the expectation that the wait will be shorter. So after five minutes we see individuals glance at their watches every so often as a bewildered display of confusion. I say confusion because you are caught between keeping your place in the line to going ahead with your other concerns but feeling bad because you have already waited long enough.
I find those who own restaurants and “waiting places” like the airline ticketing offices, ticket booths, train stations, and yes!, government offices to be most often indifferent and inconsiderate to the people whose time is wasted waiting, and sometimes, only to be told that there are no more flights, no more numbers to be dispensed for priority, or that the time has reached its cut-off limit. I totally find it disrespectful of the patience and good nature of some of the customers or clients.
However I also beg for more indulgence for those who wait for their doctors, dentists, and consultants, as you wouldn’t want to be rushed when it’s your turn especially as doctors have to do their rounds, check on their patients and perform surgery or whatever needed procedures. We also have to maintain a demeanor of patience when towing the line in grocery lanes, cashiers’ lines, restaurant waiting areas, parking lots and traffic as a courtesy to those who are ahead.
As Dr. Adrian Furnham, a professor of psychology at the Norwegian Business School said in his article on The Psychology of Waiting when he talked about patience in waiting ,“we should be amazingly proud of this quiet, orderly and dignified display of one of our great virtues. Too many people suffer from "hurry sickness," dysfunctional impulsivity, and childlike impatience, and could learn a great deal from the fair play and equality of learning to wait. After all, postponement of gratification is one of the signs of maturity.”
So to keep our goodwill, let’s be patient. Better still, let’s be sensitive to others, and be efficient.
God bless us all!
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