285
Could be harmless, could be bad. It's clearly significant: Written invitation and HR presence means it's something official where HR makes sure that all laws and procedures are followed. Most likely a formal change to your work arrangements.
How to prepare:
Keep your eyes and ears open. Are there any financial troubles, reorganizations, layoffs, ...
257
My suggestion would be to 'grab a coffee' with them, but drink something you DO like, be it water or a soft drink. When someone says 'grab a coffee', it's not an explicit requirement to drink a latte/cappuccino/americano/espresso/etc...
Business meeting. If he asks if I want coffee, can I decline? Should I
accept anyway and just let the cup sit full? ...
221
Isn't the real problem here that they are asking to have work meetings, outside of work hours? We have daily scrums slightly after the day starts so that people can get drinks/etc. and then do the meeting and focus on their day. I would argue that, given the meetings are for work, they should arrange them at the start of the work day and not before.
Also ...
205
What do you advice me to do?
Grin and bear it. Pay attention in spite of your boredom. Take notes.
Not everything can be within your control. Not everything can be exactly the way you'd prefer.
Remember this when you are eventually in the position where you can lead meetings. Create and follow a tight agenda. Make sure only those who need to be there are ...
204
2-4
A four hour meeting is unacceptable for any human. Forget about her specific use case. In the broadest sense, meetings do not help with productivity and serve more as inhibitors rather than amplifiers.
Some suggestions:
Keep meetings short.
Keep them focused
When a meeting starts, establish an end time and stick to it
Establish a goal for the meeting (...
196
The reason for planning to arrive 15 minutes early is so you can have 15 minutes of delay and still be on time. It's so you can take a quick detour into a coffee shop to use the bathroom if you're struck by a sudden urge. It's so you have time, outside the building or in the lobby if it's large and anonymous, to set aside the "getting to the interview on ...
192
That's totally normal and appropriate and shouldn't freak you out. Good managers frequently have weekly one-on-one's with all their direct reports. It's a way of ensuring that you have time with the manager every week to talk about what you're doing, get advice, bring up any issues that the manager can help with, etc. Everyone has things they could be ...
172
"Grab a beer" and "Grab a coffee" are colloquialisms. They are not meant to be taken literally. They mean "Let's get together informally and chat."
If you don't drink beer or coffee then drink soda, tea, water, or whatever you prefer, or nothing. The point is to get together in a more relaxed setting.
If you're offered coffee or beer in a more formal ...
160
Start asking questions early on in the fluff talk. If a person is a few minutes into a jargon-filled rant, and you have no idea what he is saying yet, politely cut him off and say something like:
"Excuse me, I'm sorry, I'm not following. What exactly do you need us to do?"
"I see...so how exactly can we help you accomplish this?"
"Synergy, yes, I totally ...
155
What is in your contract?
If there is no written contract, no problem. You just say thank you but no, thank you, that's not the deal we had, and walk away. Stress the part about meetings and completion date changes certainly not being what you agreed to. You have no obligation to respect deal you didn't make.
If the contract you signed does not say a thing ...
141
You've been introduced and with a short explanatory note, which isn't false. It's just the same as they'd said "here's ereOn, he's our X developer". Since you are an expert on X, there's nothing special about this statement and there's nothing you need to be seen to be "reacting" to.
Say hello or something, shake someone's hand maybe, and don't overthink ...
120
Start off with declaring that you've already booked this room.
I'm sorry, I thought we booked this room, maybe there's something wrong with the booking system, was it working for you?
This clearly communicates (in a mildly passive-aggressive way) that there's a process to be followed here and allows him to tell you that he didn't bother booking, or that ...
120
Bring a pad and write, write down anything.
It will keep you from looking like a zombie and if the person says something useful, you'll already have pen and paper in hand.
I have a hard time sitting still, so this works for me, I need to get that energy out of me. If you're restless as well, this may help.
108
This depends a bit on the company culture and how "accepted" the room booking system is.
In my company, everybody uses the system and expects the room to be available when you book it. In this case the correct answer is "sorry, but we have the room now" and the expected behavior is for the squatter to vacate the premises immediately, even if it's the CEO. ...
104
You'v e already answered your own question in comments. If it "goes against your security training", then don't do it. Your CEO would also know your security training and wouldn't make you break it. (If it's some kind of test, then you definitely shouldn't attend)
This has several of the characteristics of a spoof email. The use of only the first name, the ...
102
If you're not being paid for these "off hours" meetings, that needs to stop immediately.
Unless your support team is supporting things that are literally life-and-death situations (in which case, these "off hours" meetings wouldn't be happening because you'd have to be staffed 24/7), the organization can sustain an hour every few weeks for an all-hands ...
96
Now, my first reaction is to have a quite serious conversation with the colleague asserting that this behavior is unacceptable. Are there any better options? If the best solution is to discuss it, how should I frame it?
Yes, I would say that a one-on-one conversation is in place here, where you explain to your subordinate that improvising or deviating from ...
94
You need to forge a new mission statement which establishes brevity as a core value for your organization. Then hold meetings to find stakeholders who will buy in to the innovative paradigm. Be sure to mark down action items for everyone, and track them so that they follow through with their new commitments, so that everyone is on the same page.
92
No.
If your boss invited you to the meeting, then your boss wants you there. Maybe because your boss doesn't want you to use the "but I wasn't at that meeting about what I was responsible for" excuse. Maybe your boss wants the team to work better as a team. Maybe your boss wants everyone to know so that people that perhaps turned a blind eye to the bad work ...
87
No matter how knowledgeable you are, there is no way you could know everything.
Some stuff is really complicated and cannot be actually prepared for. It is going to happen quite regularly, and there is no shame in admitting that you don't know. Actually, it's better to say you don't know than babbling nonsense to save face, that's unprofessional.
I believe ...
86
What is a polite way to ask people to 'go talk somewhere else'?
"Please, can you take this conversation to a conference room?" will usually get the job done.
The best solution in truth is to use noise canceling headphones. I like it quiet when I work, and will avoid appearing like the bad guy as best I can.
If they are talking at a volume above what ...
78
Meetings are work. Therefore they happen within working hours. They may not happen during the time you are providing support, but they are your working hours.
If you have to provide support from nine to five, monday to friday, 40 hours a week, then your company is right that you can't have meetings from nine to five. However, you can have your meeting from ...
76
Maybe you're missing what they're after
I'm a programmer and I'm 95% sure I'd agree with you if we were colleagues. However, in the interest of fairness, I want to suggest an alternate perspective.
start telling us about leveraging our core competancies to find
synergies in our every day work, or some nonesense like that...
... what they really
...
75
In most cases, let it slide entirely in that it never needs to be brought up.
If the presentation is being given to peers, but is likely going to go 'up the ladder', make notes and give them (with other constructive feedback) after the presentation. Obviously, balance the urgency of that feedback with the expected presentation to higher management.
You ...
75
While probably not what you want to hear, when one has a unique aversive objection to something that is a widespread social norm within an industry and cannot realistically be argued to be harmful, the best solution may be trying to mitigate the sensitivity, rather than to change other's behavior.
Of course what is considered a norm and what is offensive is ...
74
Am I required to do so?
Maybe not by law, but definitely by company culture, since the boss asked you to.
How can I approach my boss with this issue?
No need to make this complicated. Go to your boss, tell him that have been thinking about his request to "participate more" and wanted to clarify something. The thing you wanted to clarify is what you ...
71
The first thing to remember is to focus on behaviours, not people. The problem is not that the other team's manager is attending your meeting - but their behaviour when they are there.
With that in mind, if a meeting is being disrupted by someone, it is equally the fault of the person chairing the meeting. The chair should politely but firmly keep the ...
69
Is your company a union company?
If so, check if you have a right to bring a union representative the same way that your boss has someone from HR. Most likely, you do.
Because the one thing you want to avoid is being in a 2 vs. 1 situation that could turn into a "he said / she said" conflict.
Announce this before, and treat it as a perfectly normal thing. ...
67
Be direct, but blame only yourself
Try wording it like this:
Hi, I'm having a hard time concentrating. Would you mind talking somewhere else?
I actually do this several times a day. We have QA folks, management, junior programmers, and none of them realize the value of a distraction-free work environment for deep thinking tasks such as refactoring or ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
