Anonymous Lawyer

I've had it with one of my associates, and after today I'm making sure I never work with him again. We had a conference call scheduled for 7:00, and I told him to come by my office and we'll do it from here. So at 6:56, he knocks on the door. I didn't know who it was, I said "come in," and there he was. At 6:56. I looked at my watch. I asked him what he wanted. He said he was there for the conference call. I told him the conference call was at 7:00, he was 4 minutes early, and I didn't want to see him until 7:00. I don't have 4 extra minutes to entertain an associate. My time is valuable and if the call isn't until 7:00, I don't want to see him until 7:00 on the dot. Not a second before. He looked at me and said, "what do you want me to do for 4 minutes?" I told him I didn't care. Walk around the hall. Go to the bathroom. Or, better yet, get some damn work done. It's not just 4 billable minutes for me, but it's 4 billable minutes for him too. Ridiculous. And by then it was 6:57, and I told him to shut the door on the way out. 7:00 comes and he's not back, I start the call myself, and it wasn't until 7:02 -- practically 7:03 -- when he waltzed back in like nothing was wrong. I put my phone on mute, looked at my watch, told him he was late, he stood there like an idiot, and I told him to get out and I'd find another associate to help me. Crazy. He can't even read a clock. How can I expect him to be able to do good work if he can't even tell time. We don't ask that much of these people. All we ask is they show up on time, prepared and ready to work. And he couldn't even do that. I've lost all patience with people like him.