An early arrival and a late arrival may have required the same effort under different conditions.

Punctuality is visible while the conditions behind it are not. One person’s early arrival cost them nothing, and another person’s lateness cost them more effort than you spent on your whole morning. The clock records the outcome and hides the terrain, which is why arrival time is such an unreliable measure of care.

Before reading a late arrival as indifference, consider what you cannot see from the doorway. Ask rather than assume, and give the benefit of the doubt to the person who apologises without explaining. And if you are the one who arrived late after a hard morning, you are allowed to know that your effort was real even though no one witnessed it.