Meeting invite for 8am meeting sent at 9pm the night before

[Anonymous]

I used to work at a law firm years ago. Partner insisted on an 8 am conference call with us in his office . Had a long commute. I wake up super early come in early and the partner didn’t even show up

[Anonymous]

You should have some basic awareness of what is happening so you are prepared to deal with emergencies OP. It's part of being a good worker.

Now, if this happens all the time, it's different. But there are things that pop up on deadline and you should be responsible about dealing with them.

[Anonymous]

Is your calendar open at that time? Is 8am within your working hours as set on Outlook and will appear "open" to someone checking for availability?

I work on a global team, and I could see this happening (though rarely), with the expectation that people can attend if the time shows as open. For this reason, I check my emails very early.

Now, if someone set the meeting for 7am, on such short notice, which it outside my availability on Outlook, I would not accept or attend.

OP, if you are on a global team and rarely log on before 8:30 am, then you should make sure Outlook reflects that.

Otherwise, yeah, this kind of thing is annoying, but not some terrible violation of acceptable behavior - given your salary and that you're on a global team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should have some basic awareness of what is happening so you are prepared to deal with emergencies OP. It's part of being a good worker.

Now, if this happens all the time, it's different. But there are things that pop up on deadline and you should be responsible about dealing with them.

A good worker needs to be checking email after 9pm for an 8am meeting the next day? This deadline didn’t pop up. It was known for a month. The meeting us what popped up last minute.

[Anonymous]

Oh my goodness. If this is outside of the norm for him, give it a rest and move on already.

You should be glancing at your emails in the morning to see if anything crazy has popped up.

[Anonymous]

I normally start work around 730 am. A month or so ago I missed a 7am conference call the spring up at the last moment . I joined it when I started at 730.

[Anonymous]

I would have missed the meeting and not even felt bad about it. I have personal obligations until 8:45. They don’t go away because someone in Singapore scheduled a last minute meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where I work, I would get or send a quick text "Sorry for the late notice but can you meet at 8:00 to talk about time-sensitive widgets?"

Right. There was nothing. Just an email invite that you’d only see if you were checking email after 9pm or before 8am.

It's objectively unreasonable, IMO. Whether your boss will hold you not attending against you is another matter, and it's beyond your control. Was everyone else in the meeting?

[Anonymous]

+1 on not feeling bad if I missed it. Someone in Singapore scheduled a meeting at an odd hour without checking availability

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of you saying "unacceptable" clearly have not worked in global teams.

Just because technology allows up to be online 24/7 doesn't mean you should. There are companies/industries that have been global for a long time and before tech allowed you to be online all the time everyone had to take time differences into account. Workers need to and should hold the line - you aren't getting more compensation for being 24/7 connected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where I work, I would get or send a quick text "Sorry for the late notice but can you meet at 8:00 to talk about time-sensitive widgets?"

Right. There was nothing. Just an email invite that you’d only see if you were checking email after 9pm or before 8am.

It's objectively unreasonable, IMO. Whether your boss will hold you not attending against you is another matter, and it's beyond your control. Was everyone else in the meeting?

No, most of the team missed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I start work at 8:30, and I don't check my work phone after hours, so no, to me it's not reasonable. I'm doing domestic tasks at 8.

Are you an hourly or an exempt staff? I don't know many of the latter that "work to the rule" and stop checking email after they "punch out" at 5:00.

What are the norms and expectations of your office?

I check my email (via phone) a few times in the evening up until I go to sleep around 11. That is my choice, not a rule, but something that I do. I also check it first thing when I get up, as my alarm [clock] is on my phone. (I am in a regular job, not big law/finance/tech btw).

[Anonymous]

Doesn't this also reflect the overuse of meetings and not limiting attendees to those that need to be there? If you weren't needed for an emergency meeting then why send the invitation to you? Or change certain attendees to optional so they know the meeting occurred but don't feel obligated to attend. The boss or manager of the account should be able to attend and disseminate the necessary information to everyone else who couldn't make it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's frustrating, OP.

I've learned that while I'm pouring my morning cup of coffee to quickly check my work calendar to see what meetings I have that day. Doing that at 6am means I can see if anything popped up after I got offline the night before. My boss is one who often works at 10pm so this could totally happen to me.

I can’t just adjust last minute though, since I have to drop off my daughter. If I had known even during the day yesterday, I could have made arrangements.

I hear you but at least you could have declined the meeting rather than not knowing about it at all.

Fair enough. I guess I now need to be one of those people who is checking email at all hours. So much for work-life balance!

Yes, thought it's give and take OP.

Do you take 5 min. here or there out of your work day to check on something that is not essential to your job? (e.g., make a dr appt., take a quick call from spouse, friend, bring in a package from the front door). Think of checking your work email on your own time as that 5 min. kind of trade-off, if you are thinking work-life balance. I am not suggesting get on email and do assignments that arrive post work hours, but just a scan to catch something late, or maybe a colleague just needs a quick response to something they are in the midst of where you can add quick value. Just a thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much do you make?

Not enough to deal with this. $160K plus a $4-5K bonus.

That’s in what I consider all-hours email checking salary range. I thought you were going to say sub 6 figures.

+1 Feels like a 8 hrs/day + check email a few times type level

My sibling makes $38k,is overtime eligible with approval, and does not check email or teams after hours or weekends.
Now that seems reasonable.