Paper short abstract:

In my fieldwork with the entrepreneurs from the construction business in the North of Italy, I have not only discovered so called 'capitalist' views of time but also seemingly contradictory views. Time and productivity cannot be easily measured and controlled.

Paper long abstract:

Time is important for my informants. But why is time so important for them? When do they think time is well spent? And how they put up with a time which seems to be employed differently during the period of economic crisis? My informants negotiate time in different ways and they seem to have two different conceptions of it.

On one side, they pay great attention to not wasting time, both theirs and mine. They are always moving from one place to another, and they sometimes seem not to have any time at all. They often start to work quite early in the morning and continue until late at night. Despite working for so long, they often describe their days as empty because they are apparently not productive and they feel frustrated because their time has been wasted.

On the other side, and in a seemingly contradictory way, they teach me that there is no time wasted. In fact, productivity cannot be rationally calculated, you never know when you will find the right information and the right contacts, you should always be around and time is only apparently wasted. Furthermore, they teach me that meetings often last more than the time necessary for the practical arrangements and this is because trusted relationships should be kept and cultivated slowly.

Businessmen constantly try to have control of their present, and sometimes future, time which they constantly organise and negotiate. However, their lives are punctuated by time in apparently contradictory ways.