How rude: a partner accepted a meeting and never showed up

Question

I contacted a partner of A.T. Kearney in Dubai through e-mail since his contact details where in the alumni group. I kindly asked for a 15 minutes chat to discuss a couple of points. He accepted it. He made her assistant organize a video call. The day and time came and he never showed up. I expected at least an e-mail saying something like ''sorry I could not make it'' -but I never received itt. I understand they are busy people but then he should have never accepted it in first place -how rude!!

I did not write him any longer... did I do it right?

Answer 1

Hi Anonymous,

a gentle advice for your general professional life: stop feeling entitled! These things happen. Accept it and move on. Make a choice whether you still believe investing time into trying to talk to this person is worth it or not. And then act accordingly. But don't wast energy being angry or disappointed.

Cheers, Sidi

Answer 2

Hi,

Nope, he is a partner and his time is expensive. Moreover - it is his assistant who is managing his time. So he may not even realize that he missed a call with you. Just write his assistant again to schedule another meeting.

Best

Answer 3

Completely agree with Sidi: don't be entitled (he was trying to help), and get used to it because this will happen again over the course of your career. Vlad is also right btw, partner may not even have realized he was missing your call.

Even at my level, I am frequently double or triple booked; I have heard colleagues with 15 or 20 meetings booked in a single day, each an hour or two. The scheduling situation for a partner is exponentially more complex.

Next step for you: (1) calm down & take it in stride; (2) circle back with EA and politely ask if there's a way to reschedule. More than likely, they will do their utmost to reschedule.

Answer 4

Agree with others. You should be grateful he ever agreed in the first place. He is not being rude, but quite simply when you have 100 things going on, replying to someone you were meant to have a call with about something unrelated to your work is the last thing on your mind. This sort of stuff (very last minute cancellations) happens even within their actual case teams - e.g. an emergency on another client. Plus, partner calendars, if you have ever seen one, are often back to back from 8 am to 7-8pm with meetings.

As Vlad said, you can try reach out to his assistant to get another time to call.