Expected to start teams meetings?

[surrpundedby]

I’ve started a new job and my diary for now is very empty with few meetings and there’s quite a lot of training material that I have to go through.

My manager is always in back to back meetings and he’s put two 30 minute catchups in with me for the first month. 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 - or he might need a loo break or get a drink.

Today it got to 5 past our meeting and he messaged me to say “are you joining”. So I started the call and he said that I am expected to always start the meetings.

Obviously once I’m more busy I won’t even give it a second thought as to who starts a meeting, but this seems such a weird rule to me.

Also no one in charge / ‘flat’ hierarchies often mean no decisions are made and lots of time is wasted.

it’s fair and logical to respect and be cognisant of the fact that some people have more experience than others. Otherwise how can anyone learn from anyone else? ‘Oh no, don’t tell me how you’d do this, that’s a power play’ etc etc

Can you imagine when her manager asks her to do something difficult if this is the reaction to joining a teams call on time.

As a manager I find this entitled and belligerent. If you are new into work drop the attitude and try to impress by being proactive and positive. If you aren’t where have you been especially all,through covid where teams was the norm?

You are the junior person and until you run the company if your manager asks you to do something within reason in your role do it. Or don’t and honestly fail your probation. Your attitude would be a major red flag for me not the actual task of starting the meeting.

It’s not about seniority though. It’s about someone new having started who doesn’t take the initiative to dial in to meetings. That’s pretty basic stuff and creates concerns about her capabilities and as a result means that she is asked to do something that comes across as a bit unnecessary and demeaning.
what the op was doing (sitting back waiting for someone else to start the meeting before she did) was not on and she needed to be told.

But we’re all mean girls for criticising OP! I mean if OP is a millennial and this is how they all are I do despair a bit. She can’t take criticism at all and thinks she knows it all. Hopefully OP gets rid of the attitude issue she has.

Most millennials are 30 to 42 ish. We are not the young/ junior ones in the office anymore

So who comes below millennials in age range or is that Gen Z?

I'm sometimes busy with back to back meetings and sometimes too busy to have emails open (meaning I don't get primoted about a meeting) so I encourage my team to start the meetings instead of waiting for me (as they have less meetings and less deadlines)

This thread is hilarious! OP you sound like a belligerent teenager who doesn't understand how Teams works 🤣

Silent Generation > Baby Boomers > Gen X > Millennials > Gen Z > Gen Alpha

Don't mean to derail but I'm 47 and no idea what I would be? I find it confusing

Gen X, same as me.

@AGoingConcern Er, I think I'll just agree to disagree, and leave it at that.
You've projected way more into this situation than I ever thought possible.

If you want to distinguish between "these particular meetings", "all meetings", time-sensitive tasks, punctuality, initiative, micromanagement, juniors starting all meetings, knocking on office doors for face-to-face meetings with your old manager when you were an associate and whatever else you feel is relevant or important to the discussion, that's your prerogative.

I'm still bemused that you've brought all of this up in reply to me, though, when I've not mentioned any of those things, or even alluded to them.

Yes, it is a discussion but perhaps make your points generally - or at least with the people who mentioned some of the things, like "juniors", that you refer to.

It’s by birth date, although the boundaries are slightly up for debate so if you’re on the edge you could arguably fall in one or the other. But born in 1977 makes you Gen X.

what is it that you find confusing?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X?wprov=sfti1

Silent Generation 1928-45
Baby Boomers 1946-64
Gen X 1965-80
Millenials/Gen Y 1981-96
Zoomers/Gen Z 1997-2012
Gen Alpha 2013-2020s

I didn't really need that image but well done!

@VivX we're both posting on a public discussion thread. I was responding to your comment in the context of the larger thread, but didn't demand anything of you. Replies on an active thread usually aren't attempts to have a 1-1 conversation, and it's fine to just ignore a reply or address one part and move on.

Yeah I would assume that as the junior you start the meeting and wait, that means less waiting for your boss.

but I am Gen Xer - soooooo old fashioned.

Responses on here are mental.

I work primarily on Teams. Meetings over run all the time so it’s common to start a minute or two late.

It’s a very strange request from your manager but I would just suck it up & start the call on time where possible.

I took it as the manager saying he wants to be able to jump straight into the next meeting.

If op is waiting for him to start it, how long is she waiting for if he is having to go and fetch her to come to the teams meeting.

It does piss me off at work when I have a scheduled meeting with someone that they then don't turn up to without explanation and I have to go and find them. It's a waste of everyone's time.

so who would you expect to start the meeting then?
the person sitting there with no real work to do or the manager already in a meeting?
If there were 5 different people scheduled to attend a meeting at 2pm, and the manager's meeting overrun, it's not unreasonable for the manager to get into the next meeting at 2:03 and expect the other people (presuming they haven't also been in their own meetings that have overrun) to be there waiting to go. Of course the manager doesn't want to instead be messaging all 5 people saying 'um where are you?'

Omg just join the meeting at the scheduled start time like a normal person. I feel I’ve dropped 40 IQ points reading this thread.

The physical equivalent of this is Boss has a meeting in Meeting room 1 from 3pm-3.30pm. He wants to have a meeting with you in Meeting Room 2 from 3.30pm to 4pm. You therefore turn up in Meeting Room 2 at the correct start time and wait for him to wrap up his meeting next door and then come to you. He can see you are in there ready for him. Completely normal scenario.

You however think that you should just stay at your desk and have your Boss actively come to you and collect you to say “right we can start the meeting now”.

All you have to do is just join the meeting at the start time and wait for your boss to turn up. He asked “are you going to join?” which implies he had started and was in the meeting waiting for you to join. It’s not a good impression. Your boss probably thought you had forgotten about the meeting altogether!

You sound like an entitled nightmare. You’re expected to start the meetings because he’s back to back in others and you starting it shows him that you’re there and ready for him to join, is that not obvious to you? If you don’t have a meeting prior, then unlike him you have no reason not to start the meeting yourself beyond this weird attitude problem

He’s busier than you and more important than you.

His time is more valuable than yours, both in the sense that he costs the company more and in the sense he adds more value than you.

Suck it up and join calls on time. He doesn't need to power play, he's already the manager.