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Chief
Block the time in your calendar if you don’t want people to schedule meetings. You can also *gasp* propose a new time.
I am in a different time zone than most of the folks I chat with so I don’t know when your lunch time is.
I have “LUNCH” from 12 to 12:30 with “NYC” as the location, specifically for the time zone issue, because apparently an entire week of “LUNCH” on my calendar isn’t clear enough for some people.
When I have an unintelligent or sadistic person ignore my calendar and schedule a meeting for noon anyway, yes, I propose a new time. (You should see a doc for that asthma BTW). When I have to bounce a meeting back, I form my opinion on that person.
When I book meetings with other time zones, I acknowledge basic norms. For the same reason, I won’t schedule a call to Los Angeles at 9 am, because I’m considerate enough to know that it’s 6 am over there.
Pro
My favorite is the “hang out over lunch” which prevents me from eating lunch. And makes my kids wait for lunch.
Chief
Put a meeting on your calendar to block off lunch
The advertising industry is on par with law re: clients and hours. I’m not nuts; if a client truly insists on a noon meeting, I’ll do it. But clients like that are usually difficult clients anyway, and I’ll be judging them every time I have to sit in a meeting with a growling stomach. I usually have support from my account team to manage client expectations. I always try to be an advocate for my creative team, so they won’t get overly punished by clients who don’t have reasonable expectations.
What if your team is spread across the country? No meetings from 12-3et??
I am in eastern time. I regularly work with clients and vendors in central time and Pacific time. I don’t have meetings scheduled during their lunches because I take the 3 seconds to consider that they might need a half hour to eat lunch.
If you really must, you can still schedule on the half hour. So if it shows up as a 12:30 start in their time zone, it is doable and is fine. But a 12 noon start is a middle finger.
If you're not sure why OP has an issue or what the big deal is, then you can simply just move on and not comment 👍🏻
Chief
Agreed - no reason to disrupt a perfectly fine echo chamber.
Enthusiast
Or C) in a different time zone and inconsiderate
Enthusiast
Agree this is a big issue. Also not liking people that ping you right at 5/530
Enthusiast
I mean at this point I’ve accepted the fact that lunch time is around 2 or 2:30 now since that’s when I finally get my first break.
Chief
What value did your calling it out add?
Maybe you eat lunch before or after the meeting? Not sure what the issue is.
Watch mad men. Don draper’s job.
Community Builder
Both
Conversation Starter
Disagreed. You can eat lunch whenever. Especially when working from home.
If you have small children, just reject the meeting, but generally no one assumes anyone has small children
One day on my calendar looks like a Jenga stack. The little meeting I made for myself called “lunch” is the time I need to get up, make it, and then shovel it into my mouth.
Chief
Just block your calendar off if it’s an issue...
Chief
OP, that’s an issue that needs to be addressed in your agency if people are consistently ignoring blocks. Once a week, I get team members who schedule over my “Lunch” block. But most people ask before doing it or try to find another time.
Our agency sent guidelines for meetings early on the COVID WFH mandate to reduce meetings, avoid scheduling over blocks on calendars, etc. Especially now, your team needs to be respectful of your time. A 30-min block for food is not what it is in the office, where you can grab and go.
Have you talked to the people who keep doing it? Have you raised the issue with anyone trusted in the agency who can consider the overall impact on burnout while WFH?
Ok kids, I gotta go and prep for my 11 o’clock, and then have my lunch afterwards.
Savor your lunch breaks today!