I recently scheduled a meeting, but the attendees phoning in hopped on a different conference line than the one I sent out.

So I was waiting on the one I sent while they were waiting on some other line. One of the attendees emailed me about five minutes into the meeting time to ask if I was joining the meeting, because they were waiting.

She added that, “My boss’s time is precious!”

That’s one of those situations where none of the responses you’d like to send are really good options…

“If you’re boss’s time was so precious, perhaps he should take the time to dial in to the correct number.”

“Why did it take you five minutes in to the meeting to tell me that? Think of all of your boss’s time you just wasted.”

“My apologies. My time is obviously not precious, so I thought I’d waste it sitting around on the correct dial in waiting for you and your boss to attend.”

Of course, cooler heads prevailed, and I said nothing.

But it was discouraging to know that there are people out there who don’t realize everyone’s time is precious – especially to them. It’s good manners to be as respectful as you can of everyone’s time – whether they are the boss or the guy helping you with your luggage.