I Taught Them Punctuality?

I started working as a full time staff member in 1984. The memory of the early part of my residency was still fresh in my mind then. My Registrar would ask me to be present for the morning round at 7:15 A.M. But she would turn up at 8:15 A.M. The morning's work with the seniors would follow, so that I missed breakfast 60-70% of the times. She made me miss dinners 20% of the times for no reasons. I lost 11 kilograms of my weight in six months. I did not do a course in time management any time, but I started being punctual from the first day of my job a Registrar and continued later as a staff member of the hospital, because I did not want my juniors to suffer as I had suffered. When I became more senior, so that there were a couple of staff members junior to me in my unit, the difficulties started. The residents were quite happy with my punctuality, but the staff members were probably resentful because they had to report on duty on time. They did not voice their feelings, and I did not understand how they felt until much later. That they were not punctual came to my notice when I took a planned casual leave, canceled it at the last moment, and reported on duty. They all would come late that day, knowing I would not be there. They would often be late when I was on vacation. They were often late when they changed units or got units of their own. Many years have passed, but human nature has not changed. A large number of juniors have worked with me, and some are still working with me. Things are exactly as they were before. We had a lecturer, who went on a maternity leave, and then remained absent for three more months without sanctioned leave. Finally she joined duty, got promoted as an Associate Professor in another institute. The matter of her unsanctioned leave was still pending. So she called me and said she had learned a lot from me. I kept quiet. Considering her work while she had been with us, I was doubtful how much she had actually learned from me. So she said she had learned punctuality from me. That was hilarious. She had been late by three months when she came back to work after a maternity leave while I worked without a Lecturer, and she believed she had learned punctuality from me!