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.

It’s already been made clear throughout the the thread why. What aren’t you understanding?

Yes, because every time they have a teams meeting, she is late to it (for no reason other than she's gormlessly waiting for him to start it).

The norm is to start the meeting at the appointed time and wait until everyone joins. It's not taking her away from anything to be on teams on time.

I think it's become a matter of hierarchy because she's repeatedly not ready when expected.

But you are not in meetings that.over run?

This is amazing. I've never heard before of someone only waiting for others to join before they will join a meeting. Hope there aren't too many external calls!!

OP - Your manager has asked you to turn up on time for meetings, and has clarified that you can do that by opening the meeting invitation at the correct time. You don't need to waste energy with all this angst about junior, power play, fretting about what your manager is doing each minute etc; you're paid to be at your job and one of the ways in which you can you demonstrate that you're doing your job is by turning up to meetings on time.

I think this thread epitomizes the difficulties in managing people. Some people just don’t like being told what to do. They don’t see why someone else gets ‘power’ over them just because of a job title.

so they rebel against it. This lady doesn’t see any difference between her and her boss. What should she do as he asks unless she agrees with his logic. Why should she wait for him - she is already annoyed about having to read training documents. So she is doing that - he can dance to her tune!

I suspect this lady will fight against every line manager she has - rebel against every company rule. She will be branded as difficult and people won’t want to work with her. But she will always believe she is right.

I just join at the start time and wait for others to join. I think you’re both being weird waiting on each other. Just join at the right time.

It’s not ego pandering. It’s recognition that the senior person is the most likely to be justifiably late as they are waylaid every 5 minutes with issues above your pay grade, and the meeting should be ready to go when they get there. It’s never ever bothered me starting a meeting and waiting for them, you just put on mute and keep working, or have desultory chat with the others on the call.

Stop playing imaginary ‘who blinks first’ games with your manager. Join meetings on time so that you look like a punctual professional employee. In your new job. Your manager is probably going from meeting to meeting to meeting all day long. Be the person who makes his or her life easier. For your own sake or you will be out on your ear.

What do you mean by irrelevant? There is plenty of training in financial services that every employee has to do, may not feel like it affects you but it risks the banks licence to not be able to demonstrate an effective training system where every employee has covered these required topics. Which makes it very relevant.

Mayve OP is just new to Teams and how it works and has got hung up on joining meetings as if it's some formal thing. They way she describes sitting there waiting for it to "start" is an unusual perspective once you use Teams regularly.

When you use it regularly the "sitting waiting to start* is what you do after joining the meeting. Everyone tries to join the meeting as close to the time as possible. Then you start when everyone's there. It's not like phoning someone.

I suspect OP has just misunderstood and then got confused when the boss said you always join on time, you don't wait for others to go in first.

It's different with a 1:1 isn't it though? Or it is where I work.

I wouldn't start a 1:1 if I can see my manager is in a call, nor vice versa. There's a degree of 'oi I'm waiting' in starting a Teams call. Or again, there is in my particular workplace's culture. Fair enough if it's another group call that they do actually need to turn up to in that slot. 1:1s just aren't that important, it's not hard to get two people together and we often end up doing them later in the day or on a different day, pretty much anything that might be running over trumps a 1:1.

I don't know why some people are addressing you like you're an incompetent diva. I get your logic.

There is also a logic to do it the other way (and generally I would just start to meeting and get on with something else while waiting), and it would make sense to do that now he's said he expects it of you.

But I think the way he expressed it may have been a bit over the top. He could have just said 'I know I often run late but please do start the meeting on time without me and I'll join you as soon as I can'. Presenting it as sone kind of rule seems daft to me.

I don't know why some people are addressing you like you're an incompetent diva.
It's probably because hundreds of millions of people use MS Teams every day, and every company expects people to dial in on time rather than wait to be called upon as though they are the star of the show in their dressing room.

I get your logic.
There is also a logic to do it the other way
If a person wants someone to wait to be called, that would be achieved by a direct voice call not a set meeting room.
If business practice was to have a certain group wait, that would be at out in business policies. It isn't, because it is not logical.

(and generally I would just start to meeting and get on with something else while waiting), and it would make sense to do that now he's said he expects it of you.
Yes.

But I think the way he expressed it may have been a bit over the top. He could have just said 'I know I often run late but please do start the meeting on time without me and I'll join you as soon as I can'. Presenting it as sone kind of rule seems daft to me.
He was seemingly polite and clear about OP making weird decisions, he just told her to turn up to meetings on time regardless of what he's doing. OP is the one who made up all this stuff about being junior, power plays etc, because she didn't like being given a basic instruction.

If a person wants someone to wait to be called, that would be achieved by a direct voice call not a set meeting room.
Most people just set up a recurring meeting in the calendar for 1:1s and it automatically puts a teams call on it. Some might indeed direct voice call when they're ready for the meeting to start.

Most people set up a recurring MS Teams invite expecting the other person to actually dial in! Anyone can remove an MS Teams invite if they don't want the person to dial in, they would just flick the tab off. Adding an invitarion is not writing some obscure code, it's a direct instruction "join here"!

• If it says "Meeting room 1", would you wait at your desk or go there on time?
• If your friend invites you over for coffee at 11, would you wait for her to knock at your house or go to her house?
• If you're invited to a party, do you expect them to call to tell you it's started before you set off?
• If an event starts at 9am, do you expect them to email you to confirm the doors are open?

If I have a 1:1 in meeting room 1, we would wait till both parties are ready and go there together, probably via the coffee station. Thereby getting more time to chat as we're walking together.

And there's still a teams call set up if we are meeting in person, because that's how outlook automatically sets up meetings.
I think you have to recognise that different companies have different cultures around how they use these tools. That's what's thrown OP, coming from a more relaxed culture into a more rigid one.

Er hers sounds more rigid with all this about waiting

Just turn up at the meeting time and put Mike on silent carry on with other work until someone else does . It's honestly so easy to do.

She's not wrong though.

Just turn up at the meeting time and put Mike on silent carry on with other work until someone else does . It's honestly so easy to do.

It's not the way my company do it, not for 1:1s, that's all. I have sometimes accidentally dialled in before the other person's free if I didn't notice, then they usually feel obliged to message to say they're in a call and they'll call you when they're free. So I've interrupted them in the middle of doing something more important, and I end up dialling out and waiting to be called anyway.

I think it’s quite normal if you’re going to be late to send someone a message to let them know, doesn’t seem like that big of a deal.

but that’s fine if that’s how your company does it. Most wouldn’t and the op’s manager doesn’t like that approach so let her know which is fair enough

You dialled in and they said they would be late. That's a normal reaction. How did you conclude from that, that you should not have dialled in? Who has thanked you for not joining meetings they scheduled?

Who's thanked you for interrupting their call with the CEO to let them know you're ready for your oh so vital 1:1?

I expect my team to turn up to meetings on time and not pre-judge what they think I might do, meaning that I would need to wait for them. I'm perfectly able to select the running late standard message while speaking, but would usually have told them if I wasn't coming. As you get more senior, you will start to understand that everyone tries to stick to their calendar, otherwise some things simply never happen. Board members will have a next meeting to get to as well!! Just wait on your own briefly to allow for a switch-over, read the news if you really can't entertain yourself with work for 2 minutes.

As I said earlier, I have never to my knowledge come across this behaviour in a professional work environment, it's really bizarre.

Well you tell your team what you expect, I tell my junior colleagues what I expect, my senior colleagues tell me what they expect. We treat 1:1s on teams the same way we treat 1:1s in person. When you see both people are ready, you go to the meeting.