Dear Alma, There’s one musician who always turns up late
OrchestrasDear Alma,
A member of my chamber ensemble is always late for rehearsals, barely makes our flights, and the other week we had to delay our start time for a concert because they misread the concert time and they were out enjoying a dinner.
We all really like this person but it’s been like this for a while and we are all frustrated. It also means our rehearsals often run overtime to compensate for the late start.
Any advice?
Dear Any advice?,
Yes frustrating! You like your colleague so you don’t want to cause any stress, so let’s keep that in mind as you decide your next steps. Having a chronically late or unreliable coworker adds anxiety into your group environment and it certainly feels like there is a lack of respect here. Let’s find some ways to steer the ship in the right direction before this behavior negatively affects other parts of your work environment.
Talk to your other colleagues about this situation. Come up with several ways of dealing with the problem, from direct to passive.
Direct route: bring the concern up in a group meeting. Together, decide ground rules for tardiness, expected behaviors for travel, and what time to arrive at the concert hall before concerts.
Indirect route: don’t wait to start rehearsals, just go ahead and begin to work. When they show up late, they might feel awkward and change their behavior in the future. End your rehearsals on time. Just because Jefferson is always late doesn’t mean that you have to stay later than planned to accommodate him. Ask your coworker if there is anything you can do to help them be on time – there may be something happening at home that you are unaware of, and offering to help might be welcome.
Any Advice?, please address this issue as soon as possible. It is very dangerous to have distrust and anger building in a group – it can be the harbinger of the end. Come together to find a solution which respects all members.
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
This seems yet another nonsense ‘letter’. It’s the management’s job to monitor on time attendance and act when a musician is consistently late. It is not the job of the other musicians. This is particulrly true if it necesitates expensive overtime. The so-called Alma’s response is totally wrong.
Not all musicians and groups have management.
This is for a small chamber ensemble, Nick2, I think, not an orchestra.
Point taken, but if even a chamber ensemble is flying somewhere for concerts, there has to be a manager somewhere in the wings. If not, who does the organising?
My music theory teacher is always late. Like 8-12 minutes. Right under the 15 minute mark where we can leave class. It’s totally annoying. And he doesn’t even apologize.
Oh so entitled. That’s the reason. That and low on competency.
If it were me, and it was a routine tardiness, I would ask the teacher the next time, “Shall we change the start time of the class to…” and specify the 12-minutes-late time.
I assume the teacher makes up the time lost, that you are paying for.
Alma, sorry, you have missed this one completely. I have been a professional musician for four decades. I have never known a professional musician to be late for anything, let alone be consistently and continually late. This is inconceivable to me. I cannot fathom how this has been tolerated. I’m all for being kind to people, but it is your colleague who is being incredibly unkind to everyone including it seems even your audiences. I would have no idea how to move forward because your group has allowed this situation to become entrenched. It’s on all of you at this point.
Direct route: advertise for a replacement and conduct auditions/trials *openly*.
Indirect route: advertise for a replacement and conduct auditions/trials *discreetly*, ensuring that the tardy colleague is not aware of the situation until his/her replacement (who may be a short-term appointment pending a more substantial trial or audition process — sometimes, one can get a very distinguished player who does not want to join you on a long-term basis but who will help you in an “interregnum” situation, and may even be able to recommend a successor) is confirmed and booked.
The choice of route depends on how good and/or indispensable the tardy player is — depending on temperament, professionalism, and other opportunities, there is a possibility that he/she may resign in protest or “go on strike” or threaten to sue as soon as he/she learns of your intention to replace him/her. You can prepare for this eventuality by programming some works that do not require the player (or where the part for the player can be taken-up very easily and quickly by a dep) and/or by ensuring that you have a couple of good deps with short-notice availability among your professional contacts.
Of course, both options raise the question of who owns and governs the ensemble and its brand. Presumably, there is no codified formal procedure for sacking a player (otherwise it would have been invoked by now), so ensure that you have unanimous agreement among all the other players on how to proceed. If the soon-to-be-sacked player is a shareholder in the ensemble, it may be expedient or necessary to “buy out” his/her holding.
Jay – I have been a member of a quartet for 6 years and we also have struggled with lateness. It’s a bit awkward but we just try to deal with it.
Judging by the the OP’s letter, the punctality problem is persistent and substantial, and it implicates one player in particular. Being forced to delay the start time of a concert is a very serious matter that puts the reputation and professionalism of the entire ensemble in jeopardy, and such a situation should be tolerated only in exceptional circumstances (which circumstances must be explicable fully and transparently to colleagues and the concert promoter).
Misread the concert time?
Start auditioning.
Sounds like this person might have a substance abuse problem. It’s good if the group can try to talk about it and see if there is a deeper issue.
I sometimes go through a couple of months where I am struggling and late all of the time. Dropping the kids at school late and late for rehearsal. It’s good to hear the other side. I eventually just requested we start 15 minutes later and it did the trick.
For a glorious illustration of a musician who always comes late, watch Spike Jones’s performance of the Poet and Peasant overture, available on YouTube. It’s priceless.
Kick this member out of your ensemble.
Problem solved.
This kind of behavior is either a mental issue or a disrespect issue.
OK then, maybe a meeting first? Seems like an issue which could be resolved. Getting a new member is very time consuming. Better to try to work it out.
The problem is that such people can’t be fixed, can’t be trusted to change their behavior and improve. No-no, this kind of people, even if very talented – must not be tolerated because the more you tolerate them the more crap they will bring upon you and your colleagues.
Kick out!
I toured with a trio for 18 years. We would have guests pretty frequently. One of my favorite guests was a French Horn player, and he was a total mess personally. Musically just divine. I heard later that he was sacked from his university position and I am not at all surprised.
The old saying goes:
“If a person shows up late, it’s because they didn’t want to be there in the first place”.
Maybe they have little kids. Maybe they are a single parent. Maybe they have personal issues. Maybe they have a substance problem. Maybe they are taking care of a parent. It is good for the group to talk about it. Maybe just a later start time or different schedule can work.
Misreading concert times? Almost missing planes? There seems to be something seriously amiss.
Maybe stop inventing stories and take your meds, BRO
Either your colleague needs to leave or you should, but only once you have secured a position with a more reliable ensemble. Professionalism first.
There’s and old saying:
“He who arrives late, never wanted to show up in the first place”.
It’s true. I had a friend who was consistently late for meetings, like scheduled lunches. I finally put it to him that if he continued to be late I would stop meeting him. He countered that it a a harmless sort of offence, and I said that I read it as passive-aggressiveness, perhaps mild in his case, but essentially saying his time was more important than mine and I could just await his convenience.
He was never late to me again, and he told me he had considered what I had said and picked up his punctuality everywhere.
This nonsensical story is a lot more bizarre than that as we are talking professionalism, or lack of it (on both sides).
It also depends upon culture. In southern Europe, one agrees on a meeting at 2 and everybody arrives at 3 and that was understood right from the start.
Absolutely. I agree. It depends on where you live. Maybe the group has some people from Germany and some from Spain!! Haha.
Yes, I’ve run into that. But we were in a northern city, and neither of us was Latin.
These letters and the subsequent ‘advice’ either display the cloud cuckoo land many musicians live in or they are pure fiction.
Just start without him. He’ll get the message soon enough.
“They” seem to be someone with a multiple personality disorder. Maybe one of them was actually in time, but was not noticed because being imaginary.
My PA always came-in an hour too late, till I moved working hours an hour earlier and then she began coming on time.
So: do agree with your ensemble members on rehearsels an hour earlier, when the lazy one is present, and agree on the right time at the real hour by phone later-on.
Who is Jefferson?
Being late is often merely a belief that turning up on time is not so important. I started my career with a three month training course at the BBC in London. In those days, many of the programes went out ‘live’. On our first day of the course, we were informed that being late once would result in a final warning. Twice – and termination of emplyment. This had been agreed with the relevant Union at the time. Knowing the consequences certainly ensured that we all turned up well on time. It is a ‘caution’ that I have kept in mind ever since. Once you get used to turning up on time, it becomes second nature to plan around that – whatever other issues one has to deal with in daily life.
My double bass teacher told me, “Don’t ever be late for a service. Always keep in mind that there are ten other bassists waiting in line for your gig that play better than you do!”