I used to work in the railway industry in the UK, and large infrastructure projects would always end up overrunning the schedule and exceeding the budget. There was a knowing acceptance of this amongst many workers; a recognition that time and cost estimates were a function of the process of getting a project funded, and not wholly reflective of the reality of constructing a new station, new high speed line, or whatever else.
Publically though, managerial staff would persist in claiming that works would be done in time. It sometimes felt like they were attempting to manifest this reality; “if I say it and believe it enough, it will happen”. Or, they were unable to admit that targets wouldn’t be met because they were part of the process that constructed the unachievable unrealistic timescales in the first place and it would reflect poorly on them personally. Loyalty to clock time is enforced by the system that requires the use of clock time (along with monetary cost) to measure the value of any public project in the first place!
The other function seemed to be as a method of motivating workers; “this is the target, work at the rate required to meet this rather than the rate that matches your body’s capacity to work”. Whilst many people resisted this push to work beyond capacity, the constant measurement of individual productivity against an impossible target rate derived from an impossible schedule was genuinely very stressful and damaging for many people as well.
Here are some citations from a random article I found about US-American anthropology students experiencing clock time culture shock in rural Ireland in 2004:
''Indeed, the Irish concept of time was discussed repeatedly
by students dismayed at not finding clocks in bedrooms, diningrooms, kitchens, convenience stores or pubs. One notes wryly
that the clock on the church tower is set permanently at
11:20. Expressing shock that wristwatches are worn as
mere ornament, if at all, she writes, "It was striking not to
hear expressions such as time wasted, spent, saved, and
lost."
Apparent disinterest in time extends to sports, and stu
dents were appalled that Gaelic football games they attended
"lacked a clock, or a timer, to regulate the sporting events."
During these games there was no final countdown of seconds.
"No one with the authority of timekeeper is ever recognized
or referenced in conversation" and "the time periods are not
questioned." How is the game declared over? One informant,
Mary, dismissed such a query with an offhanded, "everyone
just knows."
Students also noticed a distinction between the American
and Irish instructors' understanding of classroom time:
...
One of the
phrases I frequently heard him utter was, 'Don't worry;
you've got plenty of time.'
...
On the other hand, once students had gotten used to the
idea of it being appropriate to arrive five or even ten min
utes late for classroom and village events, it was difficult
for them to make the shift to systematic and operational
temporal realities. One student puts it this way: "Imagine
our surprise when we almost got left behind because the
Irish bus system is the only thing that didn't seem to run on
'Irish time!"'
What soon became apparent to the students is that most
situations, be they games, classes, or other types of events,
lacked any sense of urgency. "After the games, no horns
are honked and there is no real rush to leave." At the weav
ing classes, "progress is determined by amount and quality
of work done rather than time spent." At an Irish wedding,
one student was told that, "the Irish will make a wedding
celebration last for days, not hours." Musicians were loosely
scheduled to arrive at ten o'clock in the evening, although the
performances did not always start exactly then. The group
came to the realization that punctuality is neither enforced nor
highly valued. "By the time of our departure," one confesses,
"I had fallen into the pattern of the people of this village; I had
started to live by 'Irish time.'
This rather tickled me to find, as I was learning about 'ADHD time blindness' as well as Marta Rose's Spiral Time at the time too. I was growing up in a northern Irish city in 2004 and I find my clock time cultural expectations are somewhere between the 'how do they not time the football matches? Really?' and 'well of course 5-10 mins late for a village event isn't 'late'!'
For context, the anthropology students were visiting the partially Gaelic speaking village Gleann Cholm Cille, the article is called ''Commentary Immersed in Local Knowledge Structuring Undergraduate Travel Education in Ireland,' on Jstor unfortunately not open access.
I used to work in the railway industry in the UK, and large infrastructure projects would always end up overrunning the schedule and exceeding the budget. There was a knowing acceptance of this amongst many workers; a recognition that time and cost estimates were a function of the process of getting a project funded, and not wholly reflective of the reality of constructing a new station, new high speed line, or whatever else.
Publically though, managerial staff would persist in claiming that works would be done in time. It sometimes felt like they were attempting to manifest this reality; “if I say it and believe it enough, it will happen”. Or, they were unable to admit that targets wouldn’t be met because they were part of the process that constructed the unachievable unrealistic timescales in the first place and it would reflect poorly on them personally. Loyalty to clock time is enforced by the system that requires the use of clock time (along with monetary cost) to measure the value of any public project in the first place!
The other function seemed to be as a method of motivating workers; “this is the target, work at the rate required to meet this rather than the rate that matches your body’s capacity to work”. Whilst many people resisted this push to work beyond capacity, the constant measurement of individual productivity against an impossible target rate derived from an impossible schedule was genuinely very stressful and damaging for many people as well.
Here are some citations from a random article I found about US-American anthropology students experiencing clock time culture shock in rural Ireland in 2004:
''Indeed, the Irish concept of time was discussed repeatedly
by students dismayed at not finding clocks in bedrooms, diningrooms, kitchens, convenience stores or pubs. One notes wryly
that the clock on the church tower is set permanently at
11:20. Expressing shock that wristwatches are worn as
mere ornament, if at all, she writes, "It was striking not to
hear expressions such as time wasted, spent, saved, and
lost."
Apparent disinterest in time extends to sports, and stu
dents were appalled that Gaelic football games they attended
"lacked a clock, or a timer, to regulate the sporting events."
During these games there was no final countdown of seconds.
"No one with the authority of timekeeper is ever recognized
or referenced in conversation" and "the time periods are not
questioned." How is the game declared over? One informant,
Mary, dismissed such a query with an offhanded, "everyone
just knows."
Students also noticed a distinction between the American
and Irish instructors' understanding of classroom time:
...
One of the
phrases I frequently heard him utter was, 'Don't worry;
you've got plenty of time.'
...
On the other hand, once students had gotten used to the
idea of it being appropriate to arrive five or even ten min
utes late for classroom and village events, it was difficult
for them to make the shift to systematic and operational
temporal realities. One student puts it this way: "Imagine
our surprise when we almost got left behind because the
Irish bus system is the only thing that didn't seem to run on
'Irish time!"'
What soon became apparent to the students is that most
situations, be they games, classes, or other types of events,
lacked any sense of urgency. "After the games, no horns
are honked and there is no real rush to leave." At the weav
ing classes, "progress is determined by amount and quality
of work done rather than time spent." At an Irish wedding,
one student was told that, "the Irish will make a wedding
celebration last for days, not hours." Musicians were loosely
scheduled to arrive at ten o'clock in the evening, although the
performances did not always start exactly then. The group
came to the realization that punctuality is neither enforced nor
highly valued. "By the time of our departure," one confesses,
"I had fallen into the pattern of the people of this village; I had
started to live by 'Irish time.'
This rather tickled me to find, as I was learning about 'ADHD time blindness' as well as Marta Rose's Spiral Time at the time too. I was growing up in a northern Irish city in 2004 and I find my clock time cultural expectations are somewhere between the 'how do they not time the football matches? Really?' and 'well of course 5-10 mins late for a village event isn't 'late'!'
For context, the anthropology students were visiting the partially Gaelic speaking village Gleann Cholm Cille, the article is called ''Commentary Immersed in Local Knowledge Structuring Undergraduate Travel Education in Ireland,' on Jstor unfortunately not open access.