Mike Munger discusses people who are late to meetings and is basically on target.

To his point on office proximity and lateness to meetings (point #2) I have to concur, and further would note that the same is true (for me, at least) with office proximity and being on time for class. When I taught at UT and had a long walk to class, or at Austin Community College and had a long drive to class, I was always early to class. Now that my office is in the same wing (some rooms as close as right across the hallway), I have a tendency to be a minute or two late to class. Since there is no walk to class, I tend to want to use every last second of office to do something and am, therefore, often late to class. I have tried this semester to be more cognizant of the time, however. (Also the proximity of my office to classrooms means the likelihood of a student popping into the office to ask some quick question at 2 minutes prior to class is quite high).

In point #1 he notes the following:

Competent people adjust; if you are capable of getting better at your job, you will be given progressively more and more responsibility. And that includes managing your own time and respecting that of others.

This made me think of my favorite adage (that is normally applied to parenting): “no good deed goes unpunished.”