Because I work on AI, people sometimes email/DM me and ask for a meeting to discuss their ideas about a paper/project. I already have a lot on my plate so collaborating with them is not an option. Still, I often read their messages and agree to chat, despite having a tight schedule. Sometimes the conversation goes like this:
At this point, they’ve already shown their disrespect for my time: 2pm would work for them but they prioritized their convenience over mine. But it gets worse: these people typically then ask me to send them a calendar invite or Zoom link!
I’m like, WTF? 🤯 So now I must do some extra work just because you want to meet me?
You want to meet me, not the other way around. You should be doing the work!
This request is already the second strike, and since I’m a nice person I tell them something like:
But you know what? Sometimes they go ahead and begrudgingly send the freaking link, only for me to realize they used the wrong time zone!
This is the third strike because it shows complete lack of respect for the other person. If you want to meet with someone, don’t assume that they’re talking in your time zone. I should already ignore this person and move on, but I’m too nice to do that so I try to correct them by saying something along the lines of:
And their response is:
Again, they’re talking in their time zone! So let me get this straight: You want to meet me, but you expect me to look you up to see where you live, then caldulate the time zone difference, then create a Zoom/Calendar link and share it with you?
Too many red flags; I ignore them while asking myself “Why did I even open their first message?”