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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Joining a Teams meeting for 8 hours - AIBU to think they're bunking off work?

32 replies

66y6dd · 03/04/2023 10:09

Every Monday morning we have a company-wide meeting. I began to notice a few weeks ago that in the Teams chat for the meeting it will often say that the meeting ended after 7-8ish hours. The meeting is only 30 minutes. Since I first noticed it one of my Monday highlights is seeing if it happens again (my job is boring so this is fun for me), and every Monday without fail the meeting will end at around 5:30-6pm-ish aka the end of the working day. We don't have rooms booked for the meeting so it's not a room booking causing this.

AIBU to think someone joins this company meeting on a Monday morning and stays on it all day so that they always show as 'in a meeting' on Teams whilst they go about their day?

OP posts:
Nimbostratus100 · 03/04/2023 10:11

people restart and reenter meetings all the time for all sorts of reasons, why does it bother you?

midgemadgemodge · 03/04/2023 10:11

The chat will stay open long after the meeting has finished?
We do this so people can chat / raise points at a convenient time

Neededanewuserhandle · 03/04/2023 10:12

Our teams doesn't work like that - you don't show as in the meeting after it ends. If this is how yours is working there is a fault somewhere.

Idontgiveagriffindamn · 03/04/2023 10:12

If they don’t have any other teams meetings someone may have forgotten to leave the meeting until they shut their laptop down. I’ve done it before. Only for 30 mins or
so as I’ve usually got loads of meetings

1idea · 03/04/2023 10:13

I’d agree with you. Is there an attendance register for the meeting? You could who spends how much time there if you’re really bored!

Allywill · 03/04/2023 10:14

I’m in back to back meetings pretty much all day every day. Sometimes I forget to “leave” one. Never thought someone might be drawing an inference from it.

onthefence23 · 03/04/2023 10:22

Yep we have one or two Less 'tech savvy' members on our team who don't always manage to leave the meeting and just minimise the window Grin from their output I don't think they're skiving just an easy mistake

QuertyGirl · 03/04/2023 10:23

Why does it bother you?

loononastick · 03/04/2023 10:36

I would be very tempted to 'accidentally' forget to come off the call yourself and see who else is still on there.

Many moons ago I pulled together a monthly report. There was one bloke who was consistently late with his reporting despite continual chasing. I thought he was just incredibly busy until I sat near him and realised that he was sitting motionless in front of an open web page for literally hours.

In another company, a bloke told me he didn't do any work whatsoever for a month to see if anyone noticed. Nobody said anything apparently. I was like WTF?!!!

Some people do take the piss and it's sometimes the ones you are least likely to suspect.

loononastick · 03/04/2023 10:38

Oh, and these were both middle aged blokes in professional jobs in decent companies.

Shutte · 03/04/2023 10:39

Sounds like someone forgets to leave, I know a few people who do this. If they were savvy enough to try and make it look like they were in a meeting, they’d just set a new one up, rather than stay on the call as you can easily see if the call is still going and who is there. If it really bothers you (not sure why it would?), then just stay on the call and remind the person it’s finished. Are you the office manager?

Disgustipated · 03/04/2023 10:40

At my work a teams meeting hit 4.5 hours, people in and out. HR related- and I was minuting. It was insane, rapid fire circular conversations. I lost my rag eventually and took over the chair. So far no complaints…

Original poster
66y6dd · 03/04/2023 10:42

It doesn't bother me, I'm just nosey. On our Teams chats it will show when the meeting ended e.g. 'Meeting ended after 8 hours, 16 minutes'. We all work hybrid/remotely so I doubt it's someone forgetting to leave the meeting.

On a similar note in that same company-wide meeting someone had dialled in from their phone and accidentally put their camera and mic on, which showed that they were walking around a shopping centre. 250 colleagues including the CEO saw haha

OP posts:
QuertyGirl · 03/04/2023 10:43

66y6dd · 03/04/2023 10:42

It doesn't bother me, I'm just nosey. On our Teams chats it will show when the meeting ended e.g. 'Meeting ended after 8 hours, 16 minutes'. We all work hybrid/remotely so I doubt it's someone forgetting to leave the meeting.

On a similar note in that same company-wide meeting someone had dialled in from their phone and accidentally put their camera and mic on, which showed that they were walking around a shopping centre. 250 colleagues including the CEO saw haha

Aren't you just a peach!

Beantag · 03/04/2023 10:45

QuertyGirl · 03/04/2023 10:43

Aren't you just a peach!

Show quote history

Why? It is humorous that someone who thought they were being clever by dialling in on their phone so it would appear they were actually working rather than shopping didn't even do that properly.

AlisonDonut · 03/04/2023 10:49

I used to have all day team meetings on TEAMS, we used to work quite cloesly together so we'd dip in and out and because we were all there doing work it meant we could shout 'anyone there' and get some assistance when needing some input.

Doing it this way saved our sanity during the heavy workload in lockdown.

JKTrolling · 03/04/2023 10:59

You are way overthinking this.

Original poster
66y6dd · 03/04/2023 11:01

Sorry I thought this was just a light hearted post but I guess some people have gotten offended!

For context this is a company-wide 250+ meeting that someone routinely stays in for for over 7 hours at a time, so completely different to having an all-day meeting with your colleagues for work-related reasons.

OP posts:
Dreamstate · 03/04/2023 11:02

Beantag · 03/04/2023 10:45

Why? It is humorous that someone who thought they were being clever by dialling in on their phone so it would appear they were actually working rather than shopping didn't even do that properly.

Show quote history

We are encouraged to go for walks etc. if they are meetings where you don't need to be on camera and are just listening in, not presenting or talking. To encourage us to move more because there are too many meetings.

So I am often doing stretches, kettlebells or on a walk in a park when I have an hour long 'listening in only' meeting.

Moaning5 · 03/04/2023 11:03

This would amuse me too but it doesn’t matter if they are working or not, so long as you are that’s all that counts.

Re. The person in the shopping centre - maybe they work from a cafe ? Maybe they worked late the night before so were actually ‘clocked off’ but dialled in in case they missed something (nosey like me !)?

QuertyGirl · 03/04/2023 11:18

66y6dd · 03/04/2023 11:01

Sorry I thought this was just a light hearted post but I guess some people have gotten offended!

For context this is a company-wide 250+ meeting that someone routinely stays in for for over 7 hours at a time, so completely different to having an all-day meeting with your colleagues for work-related reasons.

What's light hearted about wanting to snoop on your colleagues so you can go "nrrr nrrr- caught you!" at them?

Teder · 03/04/2023 11:23

66y6dd · 03/04/2023 10:42

It doesn't bother me, I'm just nosey. On our Teams chats it will show when the meeting ended e.g. 'Meeting ended after 8 hours, 16 minutes'. We all work hybrid/remotely so I doubt it's someone forgetting to leave the meeting.

On a similar note in that same company-wide meeting someone had dialled in from their phone and accidentally put their camera and mic on, which showed that they were walking around a shopping centre. 250 colleagues including the CEO saw haha

To be fair, I’ve joined meetings on my day off because they’re important but I don’t want to work the entire day so I may be elsewhere. I don’t think that’s unreasonable and I’d be annoyed if someone judged me.

VeggieSalsa · 03/04/2023 11:29

QuertyGirl · 03/04/2023 11:18

What's light hearted about wanting to snoop on your colleagues so you can go "nrrr nrrr- caught you!" at them?

Show quote history

The fact that the intended outcome is to say “nrrrr nrrrr” implies the whole situation is light hearted…

But I know exactly what OP means, and I see it happen too. In one instance, it was always the same individual, not on camera, leaving the meeting up to an hour after everyone else dialled off and it was the first sign that he wasn’t actually at his desk when he was supposed to be.

For me, I have a bit of a chuckle that my colleagues are silly enough to be so blatant about skiving and then move on with my day. Sounds like OP has a similar attitude…

GoodChat · 03/04/2023 11:37

It's the skivers that are getting upset they've been found out Wink

Just rejoin after 20 minutes and see who's still there then you can open up a conversation with them, that you have no intention of actually using, to spy on them Grin

Teder · 03/04/2023 11:42

GoodChat · 03/04/2023 11:37

It's the skivers that are getting upset they've been found out Wink

Just rejoin after 20 minutes and see who's still there then you can open up a conversation with them, that you have no intention of actually using, to spy on them Grin

If you’re in a Teams meeting and aren’t actually there, your status will go to “away” so it’s really obvious.