Colleague keeps putting in calls at 4pm with me

[MichelleTalks]

I’m on a 35 hour a week contract and our employer very much champions a flexible working and ‘as long as you do your hours we don’t mind when’ sort of approach.

I typically work between 7-4, which allows flexibility with school runs etc. Other colleagues do similar - some will take a longer lunch to go to the gym, some will get admin done in the evenings. No issue - we are all adults.

Recently, a colleague keeps trying to book meetings in with me at 4pm. She tends to work 9-5 every day. I point out various free slots in both our calendars earlier in the day (4-5 is always blocked out in mine) and she does eventually re-schedule for one of them. But it has happened 4/5 times in the past month now.

She is as entitled to flexible working as the rest of us, but it feels like she resents my approach. Would you say something or just ignore?

Set your calendar so that it auto declines between that time?

I'd just email her and say I work 7-4 or just propose a new meeting time of 7am which I'm sure she ain't be available for!

Can you not block out 4pm + on your calendar as out of office? Then when she schedules a meeting she can see you're not available.

At the next invitation reply:

"Hi Jane, just to reiterate that my working hours are 0700-1600 hours daily. I am not available for meetings at 1600hrs. I tend to have availability for a chat around 1100hrs (or whatever).

Best

MichelleTalks".

And put your working hours in your signature if you haven't already. I'd also put them in your calendar so that you're blocked out as not available after 1600hrs.

She is doing it deliberately so you need to be assertive. And use the suggestions from pp. People like this are so petty.

She's just forgetting your working hours are different to hers. There's nothing wrong with declining the invitation every time and reminding her why you can't speak to her then.

Just decline and propose a new time.

She’ll learn eventually

Is your diary clear with your working hours? If so, just say 'Janice, you keep scheduling meetings for us at 4, but as you can see, I finish work then, so we need to find another mutually convenient time'.

If you've already specifically told her that you finish at 4 then just decline the meeting every time. Put the onus on finding an alternative slot on her.
At my work, whenever someone puts in a 4pm meeting they invariably apologise for it being so late in the day. 😁

I have microsoft outlook calendar at work, how do I block out my out of hours?

I like the idea of suggesting a 7am meeting instead. With outlook you can reject and propane a different time.

I agree with just keep hitting decline. If she asks why say ‘my diary is blocked at that time, it should have showed unavailable when you booked it?’

Keep declining the 4pm meetings or send with a new proposed time. She'll get the picture eventually.

I have flexible hours and block my calendar for my non working hours. So before 7am and after 3pm are completely blocked OOO.

Can you just message her on teams and say, Hey Sandra, we keep trying to schedule meetings but missing each other due to us both doing different hours. Shall we putt a weekly catch up in the diary at a time that works for both of us and we can always cancel it on weeks we don't need it.

Then work out a time that workd for both of you, put it in as a weekly meeting and cancel it on weeks you dont need it.

Maybe it’s tricky if everyone’s doing different hours.
Just be blunt and let her know your hours. Add to signature too.

Create a meeting at the time you want to block out and in the meeting you bave an option to show out of office.

I imagine she sees the free slot and books in so make it clear you’re not available.

In Outlook

File > Options > Calendar > Work hours and location > edit accordingly

Log off at 4pm and ignore her calls .. she'll soon get the message.

Snice she is not getting the hint from you asking nicely every time, suggesting other times, I would just decline them with no comment and let her find a new time.

Politely remind her of your hours

Block time out in your calendar

If that doesn't work, propose new time for every one for 7am

It says in the OP that the 4pm - 5pm slot is blocked out, so it's not that.

You can also set your working hours in Outlook

outlook - file - options - calendar

Suggest 7am instead?

If she then uses scheduling assistant to book the meeting it will show as outside working hours for you