I’ve been writing about productivity and how to work smarter for the better part of a decade. To me, productivity isn’t just about getting things done — it’s about spending less time on the things you have to do so you can spend more time on the things you want to do.

But it was running headlong into someone who held me and my expertise in such low regard — for no other reason than his preconceptions about who I was — that forced me to reckon with the notion that so much popular productivity advice, including some that I’ve dispensed, is accessible only to people who have the option to use it in the first place.

An example: At a previous job, my new boss (he was new, I had been there for years) had been on the job for about two weeks before I met him. In that time, I learned, he had set up meetings with all of my peers to introduce himself. I didn’t get invited to any of those meetings.

It was at a conference, where my colleagues and I each gave a presentation on the teams we led, that I finally walked up to him to introduce myself. Before he gave me his attention, however, he went out of his way to speak to everyone else who passed his view. Politely watching this for about 15 minutes, I knew something was wrong. Eventually my opening came, we spoke for a few seconds, and he was off. That wasn’t the only red flag, but it was the first. I spoke to him once more in passing, and then a third time — until I left the company.