Adjusment Reflections: On the clock

In his book, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson comments on American efficiency and innefficiency. He raves about how impressed he was to receive free coffee and donuts on a casual trip to the post office, but was baffled by the same post office's inability to deliver mail when a small error in zip codes was committed (which when you think about it, one would wonder how we worked ourselves into dependency on a set of 5 numbers designated to a post office and our ability to think of towns and cities beyond postal codes may be a reflection of American individualism at its core).

The same kind of paradox is my daily life. Getting used to American perceptions of time is quite difficult after years of rooting out pesky habits like checking my watch and arriving on time or even a few minutes early, knowing that no one else would be there. Living on the hora panameña meant always leaving a 15 minute to hour buffer on any kind of meeting, arriving on time was at least 30 minutes after you said you would be there (or calling from your house with no intention of leaving for about 45 minutes and saying that you were on your way).

Not so in America. Buses come on schedule. Efficiency. They only come once every two hours. Inefficiency. Meetings start at the appointed time. Efficient. There is usually 10 to 15 minutes of pointless banter like "How are you?" (this one I can understand) and "Your wife's hemorrhoids?" (this is pushing it). Inefficient. Buildings and homes are torn down to build straighter, more direct roads. Efficiency. Nothing is done to make sure everyone can take advantage of said roads (aka, lower gas prices, easier financing options for those with limited credit, etc.) Inefficient. Work is set out, prioritized and handed out to employees. Efficient. Employees do what they want, in the order they want to do it. Inefficient. We plan our days in PDAs and iPods and Outlook and Palms. Efficient. We spend most of our time synchronizing our webcalanders, PDAs, Laptops, Servers and Personal Intergalactic Satellite Uplinks. Inefficient.

Another ambiguous American attribute (yeah for alliteration!).