AIBU to hate being called in for meetings when you don't know what it's about?

[Cliveybaby]

My immediate thought is always "Oh my God I'm in trouble"!
Then I panic imagining the work possible scenarios until the meeting happens/ they tell me what it's about.
It's like the work equivalent of "we need to talk"...

Fingers crossed yours also turns out to be nothing/good @divadee !

I used to work in a place where you had a schedule to adhere to. Think call centre.

If a lightbulb meeting popped up in your schedule the fear of fucking god descended to the pit of your stomach.

Total control thing. Left there quite quickly

And they never give you even a vague idea what’s it’s about gurrr

Yes these are the worst. I refuse to go to ambush meetings now, I always request to know what the meeting is about so that I can be prepared.

Why are you so paranoid that it's something bad? That wouldn't be my first thought.

I refuse to go to ambush meetings now, I always request to know what the meeting is about so that I can be prepared.

Same. I told my manager that I wanted an agenda for meetings. I was sick of being hauled in for stuff that was out of my control or bollockings for stuff. He’d ask questions that were impossible to answer and if you had to see him, he made you wait in the reception through which everyone passed on their way to the kitchen/loo.

I've noticed that the agenda-less meeting is always called by someone further up the hierarchy, so always an expression of power. Just bloody rude.

I don't go to meetings without knowing what it's about. When I do go, I make sure I have my diary and a pen to record what happens.

I'm the same, I know my boss thinks I'm good at my job, I know I get away with a lot more than others re missing evening meetings etc, yet I still panic when he asks to talk to me. But on the whole it is just general run of the mill stuff and never anything exciting.

Me too. I expect a bollocking.

@Oblomov18 to be honest I was asking why too - hoping posting on here would get me some answers, but I fear it's plain old imposter syndrome!

Oblomov you have obviously only worked for reasonable managers! My first thought is always that it’s some bollocks telling off, because it usually is.
The other annoying thing is that it doesn’t do the manager any good - if they want you to explain yourself over something you haven’t got the data/evidence so they would have to have another meeting. If they just told you, you could be prepared and they could get to the bottom of the problem.

Ooh me too! The place I used to work at was awful for this. It was all 'Can I just grab you for a quick catch-up,' and several hours (well, it sometimes felt like several hours ) you'd stagger our, head reeling with all the totally unprepared-for info you'd just had to summon from memory . An agenda would have made it sooo much easier...

On the plus side, it has made me thoroughly determined to succeed in self-employment... not that that was any guard against the dreaded 'catch-up' at that place. I will not readily forget the ambush of a hapless consultant (who hadn't delivered the moon on a stick as they'd offered to, so not without a degree of self-infliction, but still) who was absolutely shredded by my line manager and director while my equally junior colleague and I (who hadn't expected any of this) sat silently and prayed for the ground to swallow us up. It's no wonder I don't like impromptu meetings

Always feel the same, to the extent that when my new boss said the other day, "at the end of the day I'll grab you for a chat" I must've looked so terrified that she immediately went "a good chat!"

It was a good chat tho tbf.

I never say 'can I have a word' or call in any of my staff to meetings without them being told why (unless I really can't for an HR reason) because I think it might make them unnecessarily nervous.
I might say 'comes and find me for a chat later' or something like that. I don't get managers that rule by fear really...