[avner]

If I may chip in,

0. Lack Of Respect For Time- A person who does not respect time will be limited in what he can accomplish in this world, regardless of talent. Besides your own, if you don't respect other people's time, your integrity depletes by the second until there is none left. Almost everything else is a byproduct of this, positive or negative.

[elblanco]

> if you don't respect other people's time, your integrity depletes by the second until there is none left.

It's interesting that you hi-lighted this. I just had an extremely annoying experience the other day with a VP in my company. Long story short, he decided to question what I was spending my time on and why client engagements took more than a 45 minute meeting like he experiences when doing a sales pitch(I perform most of the execution end of business relationships in my company -- things that take dozens of hours).

I decided after a couple meetings of having my time questioned like that that I had lost quite a bit of respect for him and will probably not suffer that kind of thing again without there being serious repercussions inside the company -- like a reorg so that we're no longer in the same management chain.

He absolutely didn't respect the 80 hour weeks I put in to keep the company afloat. Since that's time out of my personal time, and I could be doing something at another company for the 40 I'm supposed to be doing, it's a lack of respect for me.

[loewenskind]

If you're putting in 80 hours and getting paid for 40 then it sounds like you don't respect yourself. Why would he?

[elblanco]

Welcome to working in a startup.

[loewenskind]

Well, if you have a part of the company that's one thing but if you're an employee, startup or not, putting in these kind of ours is a waste.

[anamax]

> I just had an extremely annoying experience the other day with a VP in my company. Long story short, he decided to question what I was spending my time on and why client engagements took more than a 45 minute meeting

Ask him to do a client engagement and let you observe so you can do better in the future.

One of you will learn something.

[elblanco]

It's an interesting suggestion. However I perform execution end of deals (system integration, analytical methodology development, etc.) while he handles the paperwork behind the scenes. If he spends 60 minutes in direct contact with a customer it's amazingly long for him. We also do not have interchangeable skill-sets. As much as I'd like to do the "let's change places for a day" exercise, it just isn't plausible.

I believe I respect him when he says part of his job was particularly challenging and time consuming (like getting contracts executed). I don't particularly feel respected when I say something took a lot of time and effort and get asked, "like what?".

I'm not sure that's a bridgeable gulf.

[anamax]

> I'm not sure that's a bridgeable gulf.

He thinks that it is. In telling you that you're taking too long, he's also saying that he has some constructive ideas about how to reduce that time.

He may need some help to "show you how it should be done", but you should insist that he do so because he has pointed out that this is an important issue.

You really don't want to argue about his competence.

[elblanco]

Actually, I was thinking about this again today. I'm thinking of giving him some non-technical menial task that sucks up dozens of hours of my time every month and see if he can't get it done in 45 minutes. Not in a snarky way, but in a "you wanted to know what I do, here's a small sample" kind of way.

[anamax]

> Not in a snarky way, but in a "you wanted to know what I do, here's a small sample" kind of way.

I think that that is too abstract and too small and likely to be irrelevant to his concerns. (If he cared about whatever task you're thinking of, he'd have mentioned it.)

He's given you a specific case that he thinks is a big deal. Why won't you address it?

This isn't about you. It's about him.

BTW - If he thinks that something can be done better, it doesn't matter if said thing is technical and he's not. Again, stop questioning his competence.

[teaspoon]

I don't mean to be that guy who interjects quotations into HN discussions with plenty enough original insight, but Malcolm X makes a similar observation in his autobiography:

"I have less patience with someone who doesn't wear a watch than with anyone else, for this type is not time-conscious. In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure."