284
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? ...
222
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 ...
205
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 (...
197
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 ...
154
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 ...
136
While it is possible that you drew more attention to your mistake ( the manager may not have been aware that you missed the meeting ), your communication to the manager is the most professional thing that you could have done. Any good manager should be glad to have an employee who will own up to their mistakes and make the necessary adjustments to prevent ...
121
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.
109
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. ...
105
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 ...
104
Sometimes it's a cultural thing.
Some people think it is rude to contradict people, even when they disagree. So they prefix their disagreement with supportive statements of agreement because that's the appropriate approach in regards to their cultural context.
Stephen Fry has a piece contrasting US and British dinner parties. If someone at a British dinner ...
103
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 ...
98
Talk to your boss before the next meeting and ask what you should do in the case that your coworker cannot make it to the meeting for whatever reason. There is no need to mention that your coworker is frequently missing meetings. Follow the boss's instructions if the situation happens again.
Normally I would simply tell the customer that it looks like X ...
95
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 ...
91
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 ...
88
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 ...
85
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 ...
80
As the meeting organizer, it would certainly be within your scope to mute the offending party, and you should send them a private message notifying them of that so that they don't attempt to speak and are thus excluded from the meeting. It's not great etiquette, but the meeting must continue without disruption.
The technique we use in our company is to pause ...
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
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 ...
75
How do I ask my manager to make camera mandatory in video meetings
without making it look like a complaint?
Don't. Some/Many people aren't comfortable being on camera. This is their personal space. Don't invade it. I don't mean that their home is their personal space (even though it is), I mean that making the choice to be on video or not is a personal ...
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 ...
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