Starting Teams meetings 5-10 minutes early

[MagicStarrz]

Where I work, we have a lot of meetings on Teams, and certain people (not the meeting hosts or chairs, just attendees) will join the Teams meetings 5-10 minutes early which means everyone invited will get a notification that the meeting has started.

If you join early you just end up making pointless small talk with other attendees. I would understand this if it's people who want to have a social catch up but it's generally people who don't know each other so why to they join so early? Today it was 13:52 for a meeting scheduled to start at 2.

AIBU for just waiting until 13:59 or even 2 pm and then joining to avoid the pointless chat and also because I have other things to do?

lighthearted

I always wait until the start time.

Just join at the correct time.

We're a small team and I dont want to miss any news (wfh full time) so I do always join shortly after the 1st person, but I am never the first. It is a bit pointless going in 10 minutes before but I get an alert 15 minutes before so maybe people just open it and go back to what they're doing until the meeting starts.

Some people want a more informal start to a meeting. People can get a bit nervous about online meetings so they like to get settled early.

I don’t use Teams a lot and my nhs issue netbook seems to have a different issue every time I use it! Because of this I often check it’s all working 10 minutes before the beginning of a meeting and if it is, pop to the loo and get a cuppa knowing I’m all sorted. I turn my mic and camera off though.

I think it’s a cultural hangover from being punctual/early is on time, which really isn’t required when it’s online.

I Agree with you op, I also find it quite annoying.

I never want to join early but sometimes my teams can be quite slow so I will join early not knowing how long it will actually take to connect. That or I’ll want to grab a brew so I will join and then mute/turn my camera off. I’m with you on not wanting a pointless chat though

When I had to do teams meetings from home I'd sometimes join early because my work laptop was notoriously shite and it'd often take a few goes to actually join successfully. Then if I'd managed to join I'd just mute and go and get a brew.

I didn't realise there were actually people out there who thought "the meeting has started" notification was a summons. Just join when you want, you're grown with a job, you can make that choice without permission or validation from others surely?

Just wait until closer to the scheduled time to join, no need to join 10 mins before just because someone else has.

I normally join 1-2 mins before so that any meeting can start promply at the scheduled time.

I always start/join meetings early because it's pretty much guaranteed that if it's left until the actual start time, the internet will go down, five minutes is wasted in helping people to get their camera/mic on, somebody comes crashing into the office with an emergency which would have waited had they seen headphones on, urgent messages come through because you're not busy yet, teams has decided to uninstall itself or windows has taken it upon itself to update even though you've hit the 'later' button.

It's also handy to get the absences and informal apologies at least out of the way beforehand, rather than spend ten minutes of actual meeting time with 'I'll text her...she's going to log on in a bit/she's having problems...have you heard from him? I'll send the link again to her other email address...she's on the train so will drop out occasionally/his previous meeting is overrunning' - better to be able to say 'everybody ready? Let's start' and actually spend the meeting time having the meeting.

I agree with everything you said apart from the lighthearted bit. It buggers up recordings, it makes people think that they’re late when the notification pops up and just creates awkwardness.

Just stop it Steven! It also makes it look like you don’t have enough work to do.

If everyone joins at 2.00p.m. The meeting starts late by default. 2/3 minutes early is ideal.

It's to recreate the good old days, where everyone gathered around tables in uncomfortable chairs in a badly lit room.

People who don't have enough work on !!

At my work, chairs often join early to brief each other before other participants join, sometimes people join on mute/camera off so that if they’re working they don’t accidentally miss the start time as they hear the kick off and then can be present, sometimes people misread the advance warning and thing it’s a reminder of the start, sometimes I’m driving so I dial in at a convenient time shortly before the call starts so I’m not faffing to join while driving at a dangerous time.

Just join when works for you 🤷🏻‍♀️ but sometimes I rely on the pop up to remind me to join so it is a bit annoying when that pop up is way early!

I always join two minutes early. Particularly if I am chairing.

I manage a team where I have issues with people joining meetings late - like 15 - 20 minutes late. I have made a point that meetings have to start punctually and i will not repeat what people have missed. So I can’t now be a hypocrite and be late😩

Well, you clearly work in a highly efficient operation!

Public sector?

No, 2/3 minutes early is too early. The meeting doesn't start at 10:57, it starts at 11.00.

I would join early as my internet was a bit shaky [or so I used to say if I needed to leave something I'd blame it on that] so I'd join and then put myself on silent until I was ready/had made a cup of coffee.

I think this is a bit of a 'you do you' situation

A minute or two early is fine in my opinion, though understand people making allowances for poor tech.

In your case I would not be lighthearted about your latecomers, I would be looking to manage them out if it persists.

I join early - usually for rounds…

I don’t see the issue. Sometimes I chat and catch up with health staff (good to be on friendly terms) , sometimes there’s some info in a patient I herc to quickly pass on, sometimes we’re all muted (the early joiners) and doing other things whilst we wait

People working from home and volunteers who are at their own workplaces/travelling/at home, mostly.

I stay in the office because it's more reliable there (and it's easier to run things from a multiscreen desktop setup than a cheap laptop on the sofa). The most likely issue in the office is being disturbed.

What often seems to happen where I work is that the hosts or facilitators will join 5 - 10 mins early to load the slides, check any add-ins like polls are ready to go, and then because a join notification has gone out, other attendees will start joining early. Teams could do with a meeting organiser option of 'join privately' or 'mute joining notification' to stop this happening. It's annoying when you just want 5 mins to check all the tech is up and running. Even if you go into the meeting the day before to do this, you often get someone joining anyway because the 'meeting started' notification has popped up!

If I dont need to be on video I might do this sometimes cos im in the kitchen making tea and can still listen in as it starts. Especially where meetings run back to back and you leave 5 min early for a quick break