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.

Good luck with yours too.

Join at the start time, shows you are punctual, and gives your manager or others an excuse to leave the overrunning meeting.

And if you have several people and one is late, start without them. None of this 'give it a couple of minutes'.

I host a meeting, it starts on time, and almost no-one is late because they know it will start on time.

As others have said it doesn't matter what the other attendees do if you're free to log on at the start time then you log on.

Your manager can do what he likes, he's THE MANAGER. You've been directed to join the meeting at the start time, so that's what you do. To be honest it's what most people would logically do anyway but as he's had to spell it out to you I'd just do it, unless you have a genuine reason not to e.g. previous meeting overrunning.

OP just take a deep breath and do as you're asked?

Someone has to start a meeting and he's decided it's you.

It's really no big deal.

But he wasn't "just sat there" was he? Wasn't he in another meeting?

In my organisation you join at the hour specified unless you are in another meeting that is overrunning. If you are first to join, you sit in the meeting with your camera off doing other tasks (like your training materials) while you wait for the back to back overrunning person to join.

It's not about who's more junior, it's about who is coming from another meeting (possibly not in control of their schedule, can be a few mins late) and who is breaking off their work to join the meeting (in control of their schedule, should be punctual).

It’s not that deep.

Turn up to the meeting on time. If you’re first, start the meeting. If you’re a couple of minutes late, apologise.

If it’s the culture in that place that the most junior person starts the meeting then just go with it. You are junior to your boss, and that’s the way they do things where you now work.

Agree or not, it is fairly widespread in lots of offices and industries that the more junior you are, the less your time is worth. So what he means is “why would I waste my time starting the meeting when I don’t know you’re ready yet - I could end up waiting for you - please start meeting as soon as you can so I will know to join”.
You, however, cannot say the same back. So what you need to do is join the meeting on time and wait for him to arrive.

you seem to be put out that there is a double standard. It may not be fair but it is pretty common so either adapt or find a company with a very flat hierarchy.

Thankfully I’ve never had a manager before that pulls power moves and see anyone below them as the little people.

You think because someone is (gasp) a manager that it entitles them to sit staring at a screen and refusing a start a meeting because they deem themselves as too senior?

Hes more senior than you, if he wants to join late he can. You sound absolutely daft and arrogant and no wonder he called you out on it.

Join at the start time. No need for anyone to sit staring at a screen or twiddling their thumbs. Join the meeting and if you are first continue with the training materials or sending an email or proofreading something or whatever it is you are up to. When the other participant(s) arrives, the meeting starts! Seems simple to me. If you had started the meeting on time and your boss was in fact busy (which he may have been, just because he didn't have a meeting in his diary doesn't mean he wasn't on the phone for example or speaking to someone in the office) then you continue work and he joins once he is free.

You sound like a 'difficult to manage ' type.

Are you always this pedantic and nit picky?

It's not a power move. It's because the more senior you are, the more critical stuff you have on your plate and you need juniors to pull their weight where they can, like making themselves available for the meeting when it's due to start.

Waiting for your manager to start shows you value your time too much and his too little.

Now you know he wants you to start and he'll join when he can. So, just do that from now on. It's not that big a deal.

Sure, he could do it instead, but he's your manager and he wants you to do it.

You sound like you have a huge chip on your shoulder.

I don't think it matter who starts the meeting, but I would expect people to be there on time, so it's all ready to go when Mr Important manages to join.

Not necessarily a power move — probably just what he’s used to.

You sound very hard work. Try to fit in and run along with the general culture or you won’t last very long.

The majority of posters on this board are over 60, so don’t be surprised by the outdated responses on this post.

What? 😂

You sound like hard work OP. He sounds frantic so the best thing for you to do is make sure you’re available for the slot. He will know you’re not busy with meetings and you can manage the training material flexibly. Hopefully you just said ‘ok. Will do’. Rather than pushing back?

It's just not a big deal - you can start the meeting and carry on with your work until he joins.

why so angry?

You are being so weird about this. For a start, yes, in many heirachical organisations it would be considered perfectly normal that if anyone is goign to wait, it's the junior person.

But either way, in a situation like this, surely it makes sense for you to start th emeeting - he's already rnning late, struggling to get everything done, so now having to wait for you to join the meeting adds another layer of delay to his day. and yes, as your manager, that's even worse.

He's not asking you to sit staring at the screen. He's asking you to be "in the room" when the meeting is scheduled to start. You can carry on with whatever else you need to do until he gets there.

Occasionally someone runs late for a meeting, everyone's even later if they all have to login after that person.

You sound like a real pain.

Just join the meeting at the allocated time. No need to make a big deal out of it. Doesn't matter what your boss is or isn't doing.