Team meeting - rotating chair

[KimGa]

I am part-time (only 16 hours a week). I do admin to fit around school hours. I am the lowest paid, most part-time member of a team of about 35, local government.

We have a regular team meeting which happens to fall at a time I work. I’m of course happy to attend. However, they rotate who chairs the meeting and who minute takes every time, so everyone apparently has to have a turn regardless of seniority.

AIBU to think this is unfair? I don’t object to the minute taking because admin is what I’m paid to do but as I absolutely hate presenting/public speaking of any kind having to chair when it’s my turn causes me so much stress and anxiety.

Surely this is a senior leadership team task and their pay reflects that kind of responsibility.

I would be happy to be included as a development opportunity, but can't you decline as you are not?

Seems fair enough. Stops someone doing the "wirework" and always taking the minutes.

How iften do you have these? I would assume team would be weekly so you do it approx 1x every 8 months? I think it's good development opportunity for fiture career moves up. It's actually good they do this tbh. But yes can be stressy if you are not used to it

I've been on teams that did this and I bloody hated it but it wasn't a hill I was prepared to die on so I just did it. I literally just made the agenda and read it out, passing it over to whoever had given the agenda item. I'd much rather just do minutes.

It's actually very fair. My team does the same. Plus with 35 people, you're only going to have to do it at most twice a year.

Just make a game of it being about trying to beat the record for the shortest meeting. No one wants to be in a meeting unless something worth talking about.

we do that and it's great to hear other voices and to see people rise to the challenge.

I hate chairing meetings too but there is one where the chair revolves and frankly I don’t mind that one as much! It’s the awkwardness of doing it every week which I don’t like.

Chairing a meeting isn't really presenting or public speaking particularly. It's just guiding the discussion through the points on the agenda and is a useful skill to have.I'd not say it's a senior leader role.

Rotating the chair means that more voices are heard over time and not just the same chair and the same few loud voices.

If you were the only one not allowed to chair because you’re part-time/in admin/not as well paid, you’d be complaining about that too.

We do that. It gives junior staff the opportunity to develop their skills chairing and no-one expects a Perfect Public Speaker. Just go for it!

It's the opposite of unfair! It's giving everyone a turn at responsibility.

It's a perfect development opportunity for more junior staff, a lot of people in private industry would love to be able to do this.
Depending on what you're studying, it could be really good practice for your new career. You will develop confidence and public speaking skills that are essential for a lot of roles.

No it really isn't in line with your job. You're not paid at that level.

I'm another who hates it, but agree it's a good learning experience. Even our apprentices chair our team meetings and to be perfectly honest it's great to see how their confidence has grown over the years doing this. Even they have said it's been good for them. Our team is around 18 so it's not very often either.

Edit: the exception being if this is a very formal team meeting.
Our weekly ones are informal but our quarterly department ones are always chaired by team leaders.

I worked somewhere that did that. I bloody loved it because when I chaired we finished on time. I was known for my absolute militancy when it came to time keeping and when the big boss asked if it could have another 5 minutes to pontificate for a further 20 I was very happy to say no.

I too was anxious the first time but ended up greatly enjoying the power!

Chairing a team meeting isn’t really a great responsibility though, is it?

It’s fairly standard practice here. We tend to encourage the less senior members of staff to do it more often, as they will need to chair bigger meetings at some point so it’s good practice.

How is chairing a meeting a 'senior leadership responsibility' that requires a higher level of pay?!

It’s very fair if everyone has to take their turn - precious few enjoy chairing meetings (I dread my turn and none of my colleagues look forward to theirs). But it gives you a safe space to take more of a senior role (which is usually just following an agenda and pulling the conversations back from the tangents). And something to bitch about over Teams with your colleagues lol. We all gotta do things we don’t enjoy at work unfortunately.

Am I the only one who clicked in expecting an annoying colleague swinging around in their seat 😂

No. I expect an amusing story 😆

Gosh I’d love this ! I’d do my agenda in my own style, mute the gobby ones, give the floor to the quieter ones, provide biscuits AND fruit, and most of all finish on time !

That's great for the apprentices' CVs.

I have been known to have certain people on a timer and literally cut them off if they go over!

(They do get fair warning)

Just to add though I would expect anyone with a disability such as anxiety to be given the opportunity to opt out discreetly.