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Need your advice: Cofounder misses meetings without notice, what should I do?
Hi,
I have a cofounder, he is an excellent engineer, and a good person, our values are almost 100% aligned, and he is putting work into the project.
However, he has this habit of not responding to his phone, WhatsApp, or anything else, misses meetings without any notice, and could go for a good couple of days without replying to me.
Before working together, I was very clear that communication is vital to me, and we agreed on this.
However, during the past 2 months, I remember that this happened at least 4 times, 3 out of 4 he had very good reasons to not be present, but, no reason for not giving notice.
I don’t have a problem if he misses the meeting since he does work on the project, However, I feel very disrespected when that happens. I really don’t like that, and I have politely mentioned that this behavior affects my productivity and makes me quite unhappy and not willing to work at all.
I don’t think that he doesn’t care about the way I think about this problem, but I think that he does underestimate how much it does affect me. It affects me to an extent that I don’t want to work with him anymore, maybe this feeling is wrong and this is why I am seeking advice.
I hope you share your thoughts on how to tackle this issue, and if I am exaggerating in my response.
- prirun 4y agoHow many times a day are you calling him? Maybe it's too much. While you may need a lot of communication, he may feel it's unnecessary and you are "bugging him", causing him to lose focus on his work, checking up on him (don't trust him), etc. Were these missed meetings important? What was the effect of not having them? If nothing, then they were not important. If you have scheduled "standing" meetings that occur on a regular basis, I would stop that. It's something large corporations do that wastes a shitload of time. Did you both agree to these meetings, or are you the one who always schedules them? If so, I'd suggest trying to have fewer of them, only for important issues. In general, I've found that people younger than 40 are pretty terrible about responding to phone calls and texts. For my generation, this is rude as hell, but I grew up in an era where no one would ever ignore a ringing telephone. Today it seems like it's no big deal to ignore people. Kind of a shame. Definitely makes people feel disrespected. Not giving notice of missing a meeting, assuming he could have given notice, is also rude as hell. But like I said, seems like rudeness is more common these days. > this behavior affects my productivity and makes me quite unhappy and not willing to work at all That sounds like your issue you need to work on.
- Belalmostafa 4y agoThanks a lot for your reply. Basically, I never call unless it is urgent, or if he is over 5mins late. I don't call to check on anything at all. The meetings are basically working meetings, we do meet in person to work on our project for 2 hours a day, it was his suggestions at the first place, and I did like the idea as hell and opted in. The issue is that we found that we do miss deadlines that we set for ourselves, and this meeting to work together made it less likely that we miss a day without working. when that happens, it affects my productivity because I get the feeling that it is only me who cares about the project, it kills the motivation, do u get my point? I would really appreciate your thoughts on how you think I should work on myself on this issue