Cultural differences around the world range from those that are obvious like language, clothing, food to some of the more subtle ones like family dynamics and working styles. Rehnuma Choudhury, a muslim woman of Bangladeshi origin, now living in the UK shares her experiences understanding the concept of punctuality and time across different cultures – especially Western culture as compared to Asian culture.

From Rehnuma,

I grew up in a small but quaint city in the south west of England, UK. And growing up as the only person of non-Caucasian heritage in my school and friend circle, I learned a lot about how different cultures can view the same thing very differently. One of the things that always stood out more was seeing the difference between how my Bangladeshi family and friends’ families understood being ‘on time’ versus my non-Bengali, exclusively Caucasian friends.

When we were told a family wedding started at 2pm, we would turn up at 3pm and so would all the other guests. For a dinner party starting at 6pm, we would roll comfortably in at 7pm – along with most of the other guests.

I always thought this was a Bangladeshi, or perhaps even just a South Asian thing. So you can only imagine my surprise when after moving across the country to work at a huge, multinational marketing agency; my colleagues across the world would also turn up to virtual meetings a consistent 10 minutes late and be very casual about it.

It wasn’t just colleagues from a few countries; it was colleagues from several different countries, in different continents that would do this.

Confused and perplexed, I turned to Google for answers. Traipsing through the results brought up mostly blogs about business culture; apparently, other people had also wondered why their colleagues are always late too!

And that’s when I learned about how different cultures view the concept of time totally differently, and that your view of ‘punctuality’ depends a lot on where you’re from.

Western cultures perceive time as linear

Most things we do that are bound by time, for most of us in the West, have a definitive beginning and end. As we believe that we have limited time, we tend to structure their lives, especially business operations, by milestones and deadlines. These time-related goals are so key to everything we do that not meeting these can call our work ethic or competence to do our jobs into question.

In other cultures I worked with, I found that more importance was placed on doing things right the first time and maintaining harmony. In this context, deadlines could be viewed as targets to be met in the midst of other equally important tasks and priorities.

They were viewed in terms of avoiding damage to a particular relationship, rather than getting something done just for the sake of meeting a deadline.

‘Time orientation’ affects how people view time

A culture can be past, present or future-oriented, and the way it orients itself affects how well people think they can control time. In places like the United States, considered to be future-orientated, people tend to run their lives by the clock. Many Americans are always looking to the future and an emphasis on not ‘wasting’ time meaning that busy-ness is in itself sometimes seen as a sign of success.

Present-oriented societies see the past as behind them and the future as uncertain. In other words, what is done is done and tomorrow may never come so focusing on today is the priority.

Past-oriented cultures look to the past for inspiration and guidance. These cultures tend to direct their efforts and resources and invest them in what already exists. Time is viewed more like a cycle with an emphasis on tradition, as opposed to living for today or investing in tomorrow.

The way we think of time affects how we manage tasks

The way we perceive time affects a huge variety of things; including how punctual we are, our willingness to wait, how we approach face-to-face interactions and our reactions to time pressure. In monochronic cultures like the US, Canada and many northern European countries, time is divided into small units and seen as a commodity that can be spent, saved or wasted. Regimented schedules allow for the ‘control’ of time. Tasks are often completed one at a time, and people see this as a way to use time to their advantage.

In polychronic cultures, people are less focused on accounting for every unit of time and take a more fluid approach to get things done, sometimes working on multiple tasks at the same time.

Relationships and tradition dictate the use of time, and more importance is placed on patterns and routines that exist throughout the seasons, within rural and community life, and religious calendars.

Many Latin American, African, Asian and Arab cultures fall into this category, especially countries like Mexico, Pakistan, India, rural China, the Philippines, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Overall, understanding different concepts of time can lead to better working relationships.

With so many of us working with people in different countries all over the world, it’s becoming increasingly important to understand and work more effectively with people across cultures. Cultural differences about managing time don’t have to interfere with the work we’re trying to accomplish; understanding how cultures view time can help us to manage our own approach to getting things done in a way that feels effective and timely for everyone involved.

You can read more about this concept of how different cultures view time here. Have you ever worked with colleagues from a culture that holds a different understanding of time and punctuality?

Thank you so much Rehnuma for sharing. Things like punctuality across different cultures isn’t something that most people think about when they are looking to learning about others cultures. But it certainly makes a huge different especially when you are working with a cross-cultural team.

Rehnuma Choudhury is a content writer who helps ethical companies build purpose, passion and inclusivity into their brands. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion in brand marketing, and aim to help ethical brands reach more people and serve marginalized communities through their work.

{Words by Rehnuma Choudhury; Instagram: @the.conscious.copywriter}

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