Assume you are the supervisor of social workers at a hospital. One of your coworkers, a nursing supervisor, asks you to meet with him in his office to discuss a mutual problem. When you arrive at the agreed-upon time, he says, “I’ll be right back as soon as I deliver these instructions to one of the nurses and grab a cup of coffee.” After you get started 10 minutes later, the supervisor takes several phone calls, interrupting the meeting for 5 minutes at a time. “Sorry,” he says after each call, “but that call was important.” An hour into the meeting, you have not made much progress toward solving your problem.

a. How would you feel in a situation like this? How does your coworker’s behavior affect your performance? How does it affect his performance?

b. How could you react in this situation to improve your use of time?