Why do you enter Teams/Zoom meetings early?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: This is an interesting thread. I feel something close to hatred for the person who starts the meeting more than five minutes before it’s meant to start. It’s like they are being over competitive, or overprepared, it stresses me out to see that they are sitting there waiting for me when the meeting isn’t supposed to have started. Those of you joining meetings 10 minutes early, know that some of us loathe you. By the way I am not talking about very large meetings of 50+ people where it may make sense to join early, and people may be socializing. I’m Talking about all the other meetings

wow, hatred? you have some serious issues.

[Anonymous]

I log on usually five minutes early when I get the second notification so that no one stops by and assumes that I have a minute talk. I continue with what I was doing until the meeting gets started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I am sharing a presentation or uploading documents I will go in early to test, setup polls, or create folders/upload the documents. If I am just attending then I may go a minute or two early. Especially if I have to be on video.

Same. I like to be prepared. I just keep my camera off and stay on mute. I'm not expecting other people to show up early.

[Anonymous]

I join a few minutes early — on mute, no video — because when I have joined meetings on time, I almost invariably, have some sort of technical problem, and end up joining late.

[Anonymous]

I find it really annoying to enter a meeting on time (or a minute ahead of time), want to start the meeting with the actual content, and have people already in the depths of another conversation (sometimes chit chat, sometimes work-related but not on the meeting topic), and not be able to find a good point to interrupt and actually start the meeting. This happens to me all the time, probably 70% of meetings. People will join early and go, "oh, while we have a minute, I wanted to ask you about XYZ" which then ends up taking 10 minutes and the meeting cannot start on time. Of course, I could interrupt and say that's not the topic of this meeting, but they are work related conversations and it comes across as quite rude over zoom/teams, especially with folks who are talkers and don't have natural pauses. It's different than real life as your "side conversation" takes the whole "room."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Got the time wrong
Want to double check my tech
General anxiety disorder
Want to be there to host any important early birds
Planning to chat with cohosts before we start the event

THIS

[Anonymous]

My alarm goes off 10 minutes before the meeting so I just join and keep doing whatever I'm doing until the meeting starts. Otherwise, I find that I end up being late.... I'm in zoom meetings at least 4 times/day so it works for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the big deal about starting meetings early? You can just mute yourself and work until everyone shows up.

Shows you don’t have much work to do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the big deal about starting meetings early? You can just mute yourself and work until everyone shows up.

Shows you don’t have much work to do

DP. No, it actually doesn't. At all. What an interesting idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: This is an interesting thread. I feel something close to hatred for the person who starts the meeting more than five minutes before it’s meant to start. It’s like they are being over competitive, or overprepared, it stresses me out to see that they are sitting there waiting for me when the meeting isn’t supposed to have started. Those of you joining meetings 10 minutes early, know that some of us loathe you. By the way I am not talking about very large meetings of 50+ people where it may make sense to join early, and people may be socializing. I’m Talking about all the other meetings

This is such a hilarious self-own that you're blissfully unaware of.

[Anonymous]

I am confused because on zoom you can’t tell if the host has started the meeting unless you’re in the meeting. A host gets notifications people are trying to join though. As a meeting host if I get these I just ignore and leave them in the waiting room and start on time. What’s the big deal?

My zoom pet peeve is people who host big meetings and don’t mute the chime that plays when people enter. Just mute the chime what is wrong with you???

[Anonymous]

I think some people do this because the notification pops up 15 minutes before the start time and they just click join without thinking about it.

To PPs who join early and just put themselves on mute: what if everyone did this? Wouldn’t it be awkward?
Just join 1-2 minutes before the start time.

[Anonymous]

If I don't log on early, I'll get sidetracked and forget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some people do this because the notification pops up 15 minutes before the start time and they just click join without thinking about it.

To PPs who join early and just put themselves on mute: what if everyone did this? Wouldn’t it be awkward?
Just join 1-2 minutes before the start time.

Why would it be awkward? A bunch of people on mute while they do other things isn't awkward.

Imagine arriving at the store when it opens and another person is already parked there, reading in their car. They aren't trying to be first in, or to chat with you. It's just what worked for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I subscribe to the “if you’re early you’re on time, if you’re on time you’re late” train of thought. I’m early in person too. No more than 5 minutes early for online meetings and 10 for in person.

I'm the opposite. I'm usually so swamped with things that I don't watch the clock and end up late to many things (in person). However, Outlook pops up a 5 minute warning for me. When that happens I sign into the meeting with the camera off and mic muted. Then I minimize the window and go back about my work. When the meeting organizer gives the meeting intro, then I open up the meeting window and I'm there.