Our senior leaders have days like this. They only allow meetings to run for 25 or 50 minutes so there’s always a break at the end built in. They also schedule “desk time” for an hour in the middle of the day.

Anonymous wrote:I don't feel bad for anyone who has an EA. Try being the staffers in those meetings you hold. Meeting after meeting after meeting with no break to actually do the work each "VP of whatever" decides they want you to do is even worse than your job...just bring a sandwich!

Op - a. I was this person for 20 years and b. As discussed I still am.

I actually had many more breaks at that time than I do now

Anonymous wrote:TROLL.

Why?

Anonymous wrote:Just block of 12-1 and 3-3:30 in your calendar for lunch and a break. Its not that hard.

Op - she will book over it

Anonymous wrote:You have a terrible EA.

This. EA here and yours is doing it wrong.

I don't feel bad for anyone who has an EA. Try being the staffers in those meetings you hold. Meeting after meeting after meeting with no break to actually do the work each "VP of whatever" decides they want you to do is even worse than your job...just bring a sandwich!

TROLL.

Yes. Thank goodness dh brings me my lunch to me during my calls. I work with people all over the world including people on the west coast.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I tell my EA that each meeting is a minimum 90 minutes, whether or not we use that time fully. It gives me time to process the meeting, send out to-dos, prep for the next meeting, grab a coffee, yoga stretches, use the bathroom, whatever. I also put in my lunch order ahead of time and he has it ready

But the recipients won’t have all that info and it’ll block their calendars for unused time

I double book meetings - so my public meeting time and my 90 minute meeting time. It doesn't affect other people's calendars

Put blocks on your own calendar. It's not that hard.

I came in to say I’m doing this today, but it’s a rare thing! It’s not unreasonable to need breaks—don’t be a martyr. Schedule yourself some non-meeting time!

Block lunch on your calendar or make all meetings longer like the PP.

This is your executive assistant? Then you have to MANAGE her! She's not in charge of your priorities, you are. So you tell her, "I need a one hour lunch break every day between noon and 2pm, and a 30 min break between 3:30 and 5. It is your job to ensure that I have those breaks." Then, for a week or two, glance at your weekly calendar each morning and correct her as needed. "Larla, you've got me scheduled from 2pm - 6pm straight on Thursday. I need a half an hour break in there, you need to call back one of these folks, tell them you made an error, and get one of those meetings moved."

I am a good, flexible, understanding supervisor but if my executive assistant (!!) gave me lip about taking too many breaks, we'd have a problem.

You are lucky if you have someone doing your calendar. Assts have been gone from my company for years except for top 3-4 people

Anonymous wrote:I tell my EA that each meeting is a minimum 90 minutes, whether or not we use that time fully. It gives me time to process the meeting, send out to-dos, prep for the next meeting, grab a coffee, yoga stretches, use the bathroom, whatever. I also put in my lunch order ahead of time and he has it ready

But the recipients won’t have all that info and it’ll block their calendars for unused time