I regularly get meeting invites for non-emergency, non-pitch internal work meetings for well outside office hours. 7AM. 8PM. I have three of these this week, all for run of the mill internal meetings.
None of them came with any apology or explanation. No, “I’m sorry but ... [fill in good reason]”. Just an invite. And none came with an agenda even, but that’s another vent. 🤯

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Block your calendar at those times. It’s insane that it’s come to that, but I’ve had to do it so I can do crazy things like make breakfast for my kids or get them to bed. Now people who schedule over your blocked calendar, that’s another thread altogether.

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This! So true, triple booking, which meeting is one supposed to choose?!

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As SVP you do have the responsibility to help manage it and say “WTF, can’t we have this during regular hours?” Or just decline the meeting and ask them to reschedule during a time you can attend or ask someone to catch you up and ditch the meeting. I think some places have taken advance of Working At Home to ridiculous extremes. And it is a function of those agencies that would rather overload their staff than hire appropriately. That is usually because they value profit over people. Or don’t have the courage to staff correctly. These places also are “yes” people to their largest client whose departure could close the place. Those are signs you should be looking elsewhere.

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You can still advocate for your coworkers. Go to your boss and call out this BS. They should then talk to their Account counterpart. There is no need for this unless you are on a launch. And even if you are on a launch people need to be respectful.

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As an SVP, do you not have any say in stopping those meetings from happening at those times?

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Increasingly common. I agree. And meeting invites with vague descriptions that tell you nothing of what will be discussion and often contain giant blindsides. I honestly believe this is being caused by tee we o factors. 1. The pandemic has made some people feel it is okay to work around the clock. 2. Many fewer senior people in the industry so the mid and junior people have not been taught how to act properly and basic good business etiquette

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If your team doesn’t have bandwidth to accomplish things during normal business hours, hire more people or make a rule that all meetings have to be 30 min or less. This is a leadership failure.

likesmart

Also - I’ve found this is usually the result of one team member (usually a high up person) having a very packed schedule and yet demanding to review everything, so the whole team has to suffer by having meetings when that person is free outside of normal hours. As an svp, maybe you could stand up to that person on behalf of the team? Or.... if that person is you, maybe offer to review things over email instead of in a meeting?

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Have a conversation with people initiating these meeting. If there is no good business reason (eg. Global, pitch, emergency client fires) for these extraneous meetings it’s just bad leadership and will lead to team burnout and should not be normalized. As an SVP you have accountability to nip bad behaviors in the bud.

likehelpful

Solution: hire more people, get more done during normal business hours. 😁

likefunny

I feel like as a senior person you actually have some responsibility to tell the people scheduling these meetings to cut it out. If it’s the CEO that’s one thing, otherwise you just say, “this is the time when I eat dinner with my family, I am not available for routine meetings at 8pm.” and leave it at that.

likehelpful

Can u additionally block out slots on your calendar, (so you can work and think not just be trapped in meetings)? As a producer I’d be invited to certain critical meetings but eventually needed to choose, & monthly Finance was more important than whatever the Strategy team had to say. Otherwise I was starting my work at 6 pm!

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Just decline the meeting. If it's important that you be in it, the organizer will reschedule. If its not, then you don't need to worry about missing it.

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Just don’t show up.

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I decline meetings all the time and ask people to reschedule. I work a lot outside business hours, but scheduled meetings are a hard no for me unless it’s absolutely necessary. There are exceptions during launches or pitches. I prioritize my family outside business hours and I do not apologize for it. Also, I don’t feel that it’s ever hurt my career by doing so.

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“Sorry, I can’t make that time,” over and over as many times as it takes. It’s insane that it’s come to this, but that’s what I do.

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Block your calendar so the calendar app does not show those times as options for everyone on the list. I have an exec who does this and if I need him to join a meeting before 8am or after 5:30 I need to ask to book the time. If someone wants to book your tome outside of hours they should ask.

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“no ❤️”

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Control your own calendar. Don’t let others control it for you. Go for it! You’ll be glad you did!

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Just dont show up lol

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Block your calendar so they are not able to invite you in early mornings.

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DECLINE.

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As an SVP you should have the ability to push back on this. The agility methodology says that every meeting has an agenda - full stop. The host should also be able to justify why you've been included in the meeting and why it's at that time.

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Decline. Expect to be treated better by your colleagues and company. The reason this keeps happening is because...it keeps happening. I’m hired to do a certain job within expected hours and this shitshow of a pandemic is even more reason to adhere to home/life/work boundaries.

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