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.

Huh?

You start the meeting, the manager joins - hopefully quite quickly. It’s bad form to just wait for someone else to start the meeting.

He was doing something else whereas you werent! if he was still in his last meeting he physically couldn't start a new one with you, whereas you could. This way he can jump straight in knowing you are ready without faffing around waiting.

You shouldnt need a manager to tell you that you should be on time for meetings!

You’re the junior. You’ve been told what time to log into the meeting. So that’s what you do. And then you wait for him to join. Stop arguing.

Well he's your boss and you are (presumably) trying to impress him?

As a new employee I would be ready and 'joined' at the alloted time regardless of what anyone else is doing or not doing.

Never heard of someone starting the meeting. Everyone just joins at the same time. Weird to wait for someone to start it (both of you).

You log into the meeting at the start time, not 3 minutes late. Especially as a junior, and especially if you don't have lots of meetings to squeeze in.

It's just the norm. If people have lots of meetings back to back then maybe they will join a couple minutes late, but that doesn't mean you wait for them to start it. You join the call at the meeting start time.

Is this your first job working on Teams? It is highly unlikely that your manager expects you to start all meetings. He wants you to be in the meeting from the start time. He is hardly sitting around waiting for the meeting start notification. I would be royally peeved if I joined a meeting with an inductee and they weren't there.

You haven't been a manager OP... often meetings overlap or you're running between things. You wait until the next meeting is started by someone else to move on from your current activity.
And yes, the more junior, less busy person will be expected to wait on the call until they become available.

I wouldn’t expect my team to second guess my diary, join the meeting at the allotted time.

However, I equally have no rules about who starts first. Sometimes it is me, sometimes it is them.

The one that does get me is when my boss starts the meeting 5-10 minutes early, everyone else panics and joins and then it looks like I am late when I am on time.

I'd start the call on time. But I think he's being weird if what he's saying is that he won't join until you've started the call.

Which is exactly what he did? Sat there waiting for me to start the meeting.

Or is it just bad form for me?

That’s what he’s saying.

I apologised and said the reason for why I didn’t start it, as he had a meeting before (more succinctly than that) and he said no YOU always start the meetings.

That’s fine if he doesn’t want me to wait, I’ll just start it - I have no issue with that. My issue is that he will only join if I start it

Exactly this

You start it at the start time, not wait for someone else to start it. It shows you're not forward thinking that would do my head in if someone was doing that.

I just don't really understand why it's an issue. There are so many things to get stressed about at work and this isn't one. In fact, it's an easy win with your boss.

He was back to back and running late - the OP just wasn’t joining

From your OP

My manager is always in back to back meetings

Quite often meetings can run over slightly, seeing you start your catch up is his cue to wind up the last one or make his excuses and dip out

Oh right. Yes he can / should just as easily start the meeting as you. So I do think thats odd. But now you know that’s what he expects then just make sure you start the meeting on time. He’s your manager so I guess he can say what he wants to do in a small thing like this.

Which again is exactly what he’s doing.

If forward thinking is someone clicking a teams button then that’s worrying.

Why is this confusing?
He was already in a meeting.
He couldn't start your meeting if he was already in one.
Whereas you could start the meeting because you werent in one.
If you had a valid reason for joining late, he knew he could carry on with the first meeting until you were ready. However if you joined your meeting at the right start time he would get a notification that you were waiting and could wrap up the first meeting if it was overrunning.
Otherwise he thinks "oh x hasn't started the meeting she can't be ready yet so I'll carry on." (Or go for a quick loo break)= your meeting starting late for no reason, which had a knock on effect on all his other meetings that day.

Simply put, he is the manager, his time is considered more important than junior staff (particularly new starters without any actual work on yet), it makes more sense for you to hang around waiting for a few minutes for him than vice versa.

Pretty much everyone on this thread has told you it's common practice, at the end of the day it doesn't matter whether you think its stupid or unfair - that's what your manager wants, you presumably don't want to piss them off for something so minor, so just do it!

I don’t see you lasting long in this job. You’re not exactly great at communicating if this thread is anything to go by, you’re very aggressive and rude. And you’re arguing back against your senior instead of just doing what you’ve been told.

Oh dear. Good luck in your new job if this is your attitude.

Ok person who knows nothing about me, I’m deeply wounded by your comments.