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What is the junior account person doing in the meeting? While I’m scheduling the follow up meeting, confirming the creative team will be ready for the next review and I’ve got a designer booked AND taking notes they expect to be sent out within 30 min of the end of the meeting, the junior person is doing absolutely nothing. I don’t get it.
This feels classic for PMs. Are you also a woman and/or BIPOC? Both of these groups get stuck in the ‘note taking’ duty more often.
Do you have a junior PM person who is able to help? I say that knowing my time is strapped… I’m the only PM on my account, and I’ve heard rumblings of wanting to find a junior hybrid am/pm role for these kind of things. It’s difficult to be your role and all the roles below you at the time time. Hang in there.
SP1 yes, unfortunately that’s what’s become as the norm. Back in the day, before there were PMs junior account people were responsible for sending out conference reports which included a recap of the meeting and next steps. Once PM became a thing that task, conference reports, was given to PMs. What should have happened is the junior account person should remain being responsible for the conference report while the next steps portion is owned by the PM.
Your frustration is completely valid and understandable. A team functions best when all members contribute to their capacity and responsibilities. It appears there's a mismatch in understanding about role responsibilities and work allocation.
Typically, the meeting host or the owner has the authority to assign tasks like facilitation, timekeeping, or note-taking. In many organizations with robust project management, this owner is often the PM. It's also generally the PM's job to ensure the agenda is shared in advance, everyone is prepared, and the follow-up actions post-meeting are clear. Hence, PMs often refer to the meeting notes more frequently to help coordinate next steps, which is perhaps why the responsibility tends to fall on them.
That said, it doesn't mean the PM always has to take notes. Technology has provided us with alternatives. Tools like Zoom can record meetings, and other AI platforms like Gong and Otter.ai can create transcripts and highlights. PMs can leverage these technologies to focus on more strategic aspects of the meeting.
Regarding the junior account person, if they're present in the meeting, they should contribute. However, this requires clear communication about roles and expectations. It may be beneficial to revisit team roles and responsibilities to create a shared understanding and efficient workflow.
In my view, the most crucial part of a meeting is what comes after — ensuring progress based on the discussed points. This is definitely a PM's responsibility, but how it's achieved should be flexible and adaptable, ensuring all team members contribute to the overall productivity and success.
Bowl Leader
I see this as a failure of agency leadership not to provide clarity in this common area of confusion. You and the account person have been taken advantage of.
A week later, I found out the account person went to my boss letting him know he didn’t like my attitude no I refused to carry out my duties as a PM. I have been a PM for almost 20 years, she’s been an account person for 7 and I am 2 levels above her. I am beyond livid at this point.
I probably pay more attention to what is going on in these meetings than anyone else, but I can’t appropriately multi task when I’m responsible for ensuring the notes captured are complete and accurate. Why not have a person who is in the room with no other responsibilities besides sitting in the room.
To answer other questions - yes, I am a POC female. Also, I tried recording meetings, that got shut down because people didn’t like the idea of being recorded.
This will continue
Unbelievable, smells like a terrible company culture. Time to exit especially if your manager did not have your back.
I 100% agree, I would go toe to toe on that as well. Account’s responsibility when it comes to content.
The junior person needs to take notes. When the PM is owning the meeting someone else needs to help document what’s discussed. When it comes to content edits, I push more and more for markups of the items so the feedback is written by the staleholders. That has its own challenges of course but works for some.