The Greatest Sin of Management Is Wasting Everyone's Time

The article opens with the claim that the greatest sin of management is wasting everyone’s time, noting that managers often act in ways that conflict with the efficient use of their subordinates’ time.

Examples are given: a manager arrives late to a meeting because of an urgent call, interrupts the meeting for a client call, or holds meetings that serve only ceremonial purposes rather than achieving consensus.

It explains that genuine work meetings should only be convened when a problem requires collective input, and that regular status‑update meetings often become ritualistic, serving the manager’s need for security rather than facilitating real progress.

The piece discusses the issue of over‑staffing at the start of a project, describing how political pressures can lead to adding too many people early, which typically results in wasted effort and inefficient resource allocation.

Illustrations (figures) show how early over‑staffing can be a response to tight deadlines, but such practices often backfire, leading to wasted human capital and potential project delays.

The article then addresses time fragmentation, describing how multitasking and frequent context switches—such as juggling development, maintenance, pre‑sales, and support—break flow and waste time, especially when tasks require different work habits.

It emphasizes that fragmented work not only reduces individual productivity but can also undermine team cohesion, ultimately harming project outcomes.

Finally, the author reflects on the broader economic perspective, comparing the investment in knowledge workers to the cost of a modern wide‑body aircraft, arguing that letting such an investment idle is equivalent to throwing money down the drain.

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