What should I do about my lazy partner? • Hacker News Board

Re: What should I do about my lazy partner?

#11

Post by bphogan » Sat, Apr 23, 2011, 1:49 AM UTC

There are plenty of smart people. Some people are results-oriented, others are not. I had an employee who could never keep hours. My superiors wanted me to fire him because he never came in on time.

But he got stuff done. I mean, middle of the night, when a server went down, he fixed it. I couldn't argue with that. Some people just do things on their own time.

But it has to work for you. If you're not cool with that kind of person, deal with it now, before you sign papers.

And it has to be a two-way street. This guy who worked for me let me know that he couldn't keep regular hours - it just wouldn't work. He didn't just stop coming in - he told me about it. We worked out something that would work.

If your guy is just missing stuff and not telling you, that's a trust thing.

Partnerships are marriages. You have to trust the other person. You are one. And it's way way easier to break up with your girlfriend/boyfriend than it is to divorce your spouse or dissolve a business partnership.

If it bugs you that much, deal with it now.

Re: What should I do about my lazy partner?

#12

Post by gexla » Sat, Apr 23, 2011, 4:06 AM UTC

Dang, I probably wouldn't show up every day either. Do you really need to meet every day at 8 AM? Maybe he didn't have anything new to discuss.

The meetings are probably not so important in the grand scheme of things. How is everything else progressing? Meeting every day at 8 AM could be a big waste of time. Perhaps that time could be better spent actually building something rather than having discussions.

Personally, I keep quite busy with work, so if I were in this situation that meeting time might be the only time I would have to work on a side project. I'm a freelancer and I generally work in teams with other developers. We try to avoid meetings (chat or voice sessions) if at all possible. More effective is an email which the other person could read at any time. Meetings can turn into a serious time sink which can eat into the day.

Everyone has their own preferred way of working. Go ahead and try to find someone who is a closer match to your preferred way of working, but you will need to compromise as well, especially when you are looking at partnering with someone as opposed to hiring this person as an employee.

Re: What should I do about my lazy partner?

#13

Post by gs8 » Sat, Apr 23, 2011, 4:53 AM UTC

Do you need that many meetings? That seems like too much of a time commitment for simple discussion which can happen via IM or phone.

Also if you live in the same complex and you have no idea as to why your partner missed the meetings, than your communication needs some work.

If all you are doing is just meeting to prepare for a business proposal, than most likely your idea isn't going to go anywhere. Start working on implementing your business plan rather than putting your business plan together.

Re: What should I do about my lazy partner?

#14

Post by abbasmehdi » Sat, Apr 23, 2011, 8:40 AM UTC

You want him to wake up at 8:00 so he could keep you motivated. It was your idea, wasn't it? He is being too polite to tell you "motivate yourself!"

You don't need to be in touching distance to come up with an idea. When you do have a great vision, that will motivate you. It is kind of like trying to be motivated to fall in love before meeting the person you're going to be in love with.

Don't force it. On him or on yourself. When a great idea comes to you, no one will be able to keep you from getting there.

Re: What should I do about my lazy partner?

#15

Post by esw » Sat, Apr 23, 2011, 5:28 PM UTC

>Furthermore, he doesn't even acknowledge his absence.

Have you asked him about it, or are you just quietly seething about this? If you're sure that he knows about the meetings and is deliberately blowing them off, then it sounds like you're much more excited about the idea than he is. I've watched a lot of early stage startups fall apart like this - one person is legitimately motivated, and the other is casually interested enough to stay partially engaged, but they disappear when when substantial work is required.

Re: What should I do about my lazy partner?

#16

Post by snikolov » Sat, Apr 23, 2011, 11:22 PM UTC

I don't buy the argument that this is okay because some pepole don't work well according to schedules or because there is nothing new to discuss every day. This is a problem of communication and accountability. If you've agreed to something, you'd better be accountable for it. If you're not a morning person, or you don't think meeting every day is necessary, then say so! Avoiding confrontation/communication only delays the problem. Making mistakes is not the end of the world --- as long as there is accountability. The fact that he didn't even talk to you about the missed meetings is the biggest problem IMO. How can you trust this person to talk to you about more important things later on?