Expected to start teams meetings?

A manager at a company is obviously going to be busier than a new starter who at this point is only doing self led training..

No one here is giving their opinion on generic manager positions, they are referring to OPs specific situation in which she is doing absolutely zero work yet. so it's not really about arse licking at this point.. it's about learning the ropes at a new job and following what is expected of you when you have been given specific instructions to follow going forward.

Why she would think that he is sat there doing naff all waiting on her and assume it's a weird power play instead of assuming that he is busy or in another meeting? It says a lot about OPs logical thinking skills if you ask me, it is obviously skewed by some sort of inferiority complex.

"He's busier than you and more important than you."

"And you’re arguing back against your senior instead of just doing what you’ve been told."

God people really like to lick their bosses' arseholes don't they. Hope I never become that cowed and sycophantic.

I used the term boss OP. I'm probably not much older than you but I work in an environment where the person above me isn't a manager and would never be referred to as such. I was just using boss informally as a general catch-all term. There wasn't much more too it than that.

Yes, but she didn’t like the main thrust of your post. 🤣

If so many people are missing your point, perhaps it was poorly made?

Great attitude to start a new job with OP 😂
This thread has given me a good giggle.

We don't have any kind of status about who is the starter of meetings - however my direct manager is a right blooming scatterbrain (she'll admit it and she's fab) so the huge "X HAS STARTED THE MEETING" popup often jolts her back into action!

No, it’s saying ‘start the meeting, so I can hop on immediately, as soon as I’m ready.’ It’s your manager telling you how they want meetings to be run. It’s interesting that you take being given instructions - by the person whose job it is to instruct you - as a ‘power move’ or demeaning in some way.

Additionally, starting the meeting wouldn’t stop you from continuing to read whatever you were reading, so I’m not sure what the issue is. You start the meeting, then crack on with what you’re doing until your manager turns up. Why is this such an issue for you?

I’ve been using teams pretty much all day every day since Covid. I manage a senior team with multiple layers. I don’t expect people to wait for me to join the meeting, I expect them to join at the allocated time. If it’s a group meeting they can get started, if not I’ll join when I can. I’m rarely more than 2mins late.

conversely I have a manger. There is no way I would ever be late to a meeting with him (especially not because I was undertaking self guided training) without letting him know in advance. Not would I ever create a situation where he had to do any part of my job, which includes starting the meeting on time.

Its not weird at all.

You acknowledge that your boss is in back to back meetings. They are probably swamped and need an excuse to move onto the next thing- 'My next meeting has started, sorry I have to go' or even they are just too busy to keep an eye on the time every time, and are waiting to be prompted. They will probably only expect to only go into a meeting that is ready for them.

I feel a bit sorry for them as they have made clear you are expected to be there ready, especially if you don't have a previous meeting and you seem to have the hump at this minor courtesy. Hope you don't mean to go on like this. Teams work because everyone pulls their weight and lets minor peccadillos, ie things that don't matter, slide.

Probably so he’s not joining before you are there so as not to waste his time. It’s also easier to join when you get that prompt to say x has started the meeting. I also wouldn’t rely on teams to know when someone is free, you can set it to whatever you want that may have no bearing on your actual status.

its like teams chicken is being played!

In old-school parlance, it sounds like you expect to sit at your desk waiting for a summons to your manager's office when it suits them; whereas they expect you to enter a designated meeting room on time and wait for them to arrive.

However, now you know what their expectation is, I don't understand what the ongoing problem is. You have joined their company and team, so you adapt and follow their customs. Preferably without starting a MN thread criticising your boss and showing yourself in an unfavourable light!

Are you unsure how to start the call, so feel anxious and wrong-footed? I've never used Teams, but I'd ask a colleague or look it up online.

We don't have a 'convention' in our office. Somebody just starts the meeting and people join, no particular order expected.

For preference, I'd rather join a minute afterwards so that I don't have to join in the waffle/chat which always starts any meeting we have.

Are you jealous of your manager? You sound resentful.

You are the junior, you do as your manager asks.
Thats how employment is.

Do you question everything you are asked to do by your manager?

Imagine it an old fashioned face to face meeting in an actual room with actual people.

If the meeting starts at 2pm, then you arrive at 2pm or a couple of minutes beforehand.

Same applies to virtual meetings.

I don't understand the big deal - you're only reading training materials, so start the meeting on time like any normal person.

Also ‘from experience’? This is a new job? And they only have two meetings a month?

This thread is hilarious. You've been asked to start the meetings so start them. It doesn't matter if you think it's wrong/odd. Your boss has asked you to do it and it's easy to do.

Wow OP why don't you just take over the company....you clearly have a much better idea of how everything should be run than the actual managerial staff who have worked there for years...their training is irrelevant, you don't agree with their practices and your manager is arrogant enough to expect you to join a meeting on time unless you have a good excuse....is it really the best fit for you?

@surrpundedby I don’t understand this bit - “From experience meetings tend to overrun so I’ve waited for him to be ready for our call and then I’ll hop on as I’m just reading”.

How do you know when he’s ready for your meeting? Surely if you log on at 3 (or whenever) and carry on reading your training stuff while he’s not there yet, then when he joins you at 5 past, that’s when you know he’s ready?

And during the working day 😆

OP I’ve a feeling you won’t need to be worrying about all the training you have to do for very much longer.

What happened to @OneMoreCornettoPls posts? I was trying to reply to the one where they started arguing that "always in back to back meetings" apparently meant "the op made it clear that the manager was not in a meeting" which ironically insulted my reading comprehension - were they equally rude to everyone else so MN did a mass deletion?

I don’t think it is right that it should be the most junior person starting meetings or be one persons job to start it.

But you took the approach or waiting for him to always start it and I think he noticed that, didn’t like it and is now pushing it back to you in response. Once you start showing that you know how to join meetings on time, then he will probably relax.

yes everyone is late to meetings sometimes, but that is normally due to previous meetings overrunning. If you don’t have other meetings prior to it, then there isn’t an excuse for being late.

Pretty much every job anyone does when they have someone report to is required to do things that they deem to be nonsensical. If it's the status quo, it'll be effecting everyone, not just you. Consider it from that perspective and go along with it, why should it be one rule for you and another for your peers?