Anonymous
Post 06/21/2021 10:36     Subject: When the calendar invite isn't sent
Surprised at the dichotomy in this thread. I think if you verbally agreed to a meeting time and didn't get a promised invite, it's on you to follow up. Yes, it's the organizer's mistake to have excluded you from the invite, but I think it was a mistake of OP to assume -- after all the back-and-forth about scheduling -- that they just cancelled the meeting without telling you. Although I handle my own calendar, I follow the practice of the secretary PP, where I write "HOLD for ________" once something is scheduled and I'm expecting a calendar invite.

I do agree with the PP who said that calendar invites are becoming more and more common. Even as recently as 5-6 years ago for me in biglaw, it was sort of "exotic" to receive a calendar invite, and unheard of to receive an invite without a separate email chain first scheduling the meeting. The separate email chain is still the most common IME, but it's becoming more and more common that someone will just send a calendar invite and you're expected to use "propose new time" liberally.
Anonymous
Post 06/21/2021 10:30     Subject: Re:When the calendar invite isn't sent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Okay, so I am an assistant to a very busy partner at a law firm. When I schedule meetings for him I ALWAYS block off any time I offered or someone else offered for a call in a bright color on his calendar marked "HOLD: call with so-and-so, TBD, or they will send conference info, or waiting to hear back to confirm and send our bridge/Zoom, etc.". That way when I look at his calendar for the next day or two, I know whether someone who was supposed to send an invite/bridge actually has or has not and also know not to offer that time slot to a different client - and follow-up if they haven't send a bridge or follow-up to confirm the time and send out the bridge on my end. I have his Outlook calendar color coded. LOL, sometimes I feel almost like I'm playing a video game...like Tetris or something with how often I schedule calls or move them around. Do you have an assistant or do you handle your own calendar?

For a busy person with lots of calls placeholders are super necessary for keeping track of the scheduling and not offering the same time slots to multiple people.

I also love worldtimebuddy.com, it makes scheduling calls between many people who are in multiple times zones much easier. Also, sending a Doodle to schedule call with a lot of people is very helpful to cut down on the email back and forth on availability.


This is me again - I also change all of my attorneys' calendar invites from other people to a "one-click" if they are not already in that format so they can just click on the link and not have to separately enter a code to enter the call. I also add any emails or documents to call invites that they may potentially need for the call to the invite (so they don't need to search their email for documents)


Wow. Ummm, are you looking to move firms? Because I'm awesome but have never had an admin approaching your level.
Anonymous
Post 06/21/2021 08:50     Subject: When the calendar invite isn't sent
Snark from coworker not necessary but yes, if you're expecting a meeting invite that doesn't show, there's some personal responsibility to follow up just beforehand.
Anonymous
Post 06/21/2021 05:17     Subject: Re:When the calendar invite isn't sent
Anonymous wrote:Reading through the responses, this feels like a litmus test for who takes their career seriously and who is just killing time for a paycheck.


LOL no. My organizational norm is (and has been well before the pandemic) that one person sets a meeting and sends an invite. It is not expected that everyone put it on their own calendar if it was a verbal agreement.

In 13 years I've gone from 36K to 180K comp. Trust me, I take my career plenty seriously.

I spend an average of 15-20 hoirs a week in meetings. There are rare ocassions (maybe 6 times a year) where I do note a verbal discussion about a meeting on my calendar because it was super important and I know the person is working through details still. I want to block my availability so I don't have to shuffle later. If those didn't pop on, I'd eventually check in with the person. But that is by far the exception.
Anonymous
Post 06/20/2021 14:41     Subject: Re:When the calendar invite isn't sent
Anonymous wrote:Reading through the responses, this feels like a litmus test for who takes their career seriously and who is just killing time for a paycheck.


x1000
Anonymous
Post 06/20/2021 09:21     Subject: Re:When the calendar invite isn't sent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Reading through the responses, this feels like a litmus test for who takes their career seriously and who is just killing time for a paycheck.


You mean who is friendly and collegial vs a striver?
If someone kept pestering me for an invite, I would not like that.


You would have a problem if someone emailed you an hour before a meeting that they didn’t get the dial-in?
Anonymous
Post 06/20/2021 08:56     Subject: Re:When the calendar invite isn't sent
Anonymous wrote:Reading through the responses, this feels like a litmus test for who takes their career seriously and who is just killing time for a paycheck.


You mean who is friendly and collegial vs a striver?
If someone kept pestering me for an invite, I would not like that.
Anonymous
Post 06/20/2021 07:27     Subject: Re:When the calendar invite isn't sent
Reading through the responses, this feels like a litmus test for who takes their career seriously and who is just killing time for a paycheck.
Anonymous
Post 06/20/2021 07:16     Subject: When the calendar invite isn't sent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I hate it when people don't send the calendar invite with the meeting links and then follow up the next day and imply that I missed the meeting. What am I supposed to respond to that other than (re)scheduling?


It is a little unclear what happened here. If you straight up did not get any notification of the exact time of the meeting or how to join, sure not on you at all. You can just reschedule.
If you received an email or phone notice of the meeting, as in "We'll gather at 10:00 on the usual conference line" then yeah, you should have put that on the calendar yourself...


There's no usual conference line. We verbally agreed on a day and time, and the other person said they would send a calendar invite. I didn't receive it/it wasn't sent. The other person said I'm sorry you missed our meeting...


If you knew a meeting was set for a particular date and time and didn’t get the invite you should have checked in with that person prior to that date and time to see if the meeting was going forward. This is on you.
Anonymous
Post 06/20/2021 06:59     Subject: Re:When the calendar invite isn't sent
If OP never got the invite, I am not sure why so many people are dumping on her/him. OP, you might want to reach out to the organizer and ask if your name was left out on the invite. You can couch it as making sure you don’t miss important meetings in future.

Does this person belong to another org? Sometimes emails go missing or go to junk even if you got many emails from this person.

It is quite common at my place to discuss availability verbally but nothing is set in stone till an invite is sent. Also, if I were the organizer, I will make sure all important attendees actually accept the invite.
Anonymous
Post 06/19/2021 20:07     Subject: When the calendar invite isn't sent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I hate it when people don't send the calendar invite with the meeting links and then follow up the next day and imply that I missed the meeting. What am I supposed to respond to that other than (re)scheduling?


It is a little unclear what happened here. If you straight up did not get any notification of the exact time of the meeting or how to join, sure not on you at all. You can just reschedule.
If you received an email or phone notice of the meeting, as in "We'll gather at 10:00 on the usual conference line" then yeah, you should have put that on the calendar yourself...


There's no usual conference line. We verbally agreed on a day and time, and the other person said they would send a calendar invite. I didn't receive it/it wasn't sent. The other person said I'm sorry you missed our meeting...


Obviously something went awry on their end, but you have to own your part in this as well. You knew there was a date and time sent, and then blew it off anyway when you didn't get a calendar invite. You should have followed up before the meeting when you didn't get a calendar invite.


I completely agree. You need to apologize OP for missing the meeting.


WHAT? OP these people are wack. This must be something that varies org to org. At my company we discuss availability verbally all the time but it isn't set until the organizer sends an invite. Stuff changes all the time so it is not weird to say we're going to set a meeting for Wednesday, hear nothing for 5 days, and then it pops ok the calendar for 2 Fridays from now.
A
And if the person did organize it and forgot to invite you, then that would be on the organizer at my org, not the person left off the invitation list.


+1000

You want to have a meeting with me and say you’ll send an invite and you don’t, that’s on you. I’m not in the business of following up to make sure other people are doing their jobs.

No one at my company would ever blame the person who didn’t have a meeting invite or expect them to be following up to get one.
Anonymous
Post 06/19/2021 19:29     Subject: When the calendar invite isn't sent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t get people who can’t put stuff on their own calendars. Yes, a meeting notice is great, but take responsibility for yourself. I think you’re wrong, OP (though I’d never call someone out on missing a meeting in front of their boss).


OP here. Even if I did put it in my calendar, I would not have known how to attend the meeting


Then why didn't you reach out to your colleague? I think your colleague was right to call you out. You sound very passive aggressive and your colleague may be getting fed up with the behavior.
Anonymous
Post 06/19/2021 17:59     Subject: When the calendar invite isn't sent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t get people who can’t put stuff on their own calendars. Yes, a meeting notice is great, but take responsibility for yourself. I think you’re wrong, OP (though I’d never call someone out on missing a meeting in front of their boss).


OP here. Even if I did put it in my calendar, I would not have known how to attend the meeting


I don't understand this mentality. You knew who was supposed to have the meeting, and the time the meeting was supposed to take place. You screwed up when it was 30 minutes before the scheduled time and you didn't send an email to anyone in the group saying "hey, did i miss an email with the link for our meeting?"



+1


Eh, as others have said, a missed meeting is not a big deal amid a pandemic. Perspective!
Anonymous
Post 06/19/2021 17:25     Subject: When the calendar invite isn't sent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t get people who can’t put stuff on their own calendars. Yes, a meeting notice is great, but take responsibility for yourself. I think you’re wrong, OP (though I’d never call someone out on missing a meeting in front of their boss).


OP here. Even if I did put it in my calendar, I would not have known how to attend the meeting


I don't understand this mentality. You knew who was supposed to have the meeting, and the time the meeting was supposed to take place. You screwed up when it was 30 minutes before the scheduled time and you didn't send an email to anyone in the group saying "hey, did i miss an email with the link for our meeting?"



+1
Anonymous
Post 06/19/2021 17:06     Subject: When the calendar invite isn't sent
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t get people who can’t put stuff on their own calendars. Yes, a meeting notice is great, but take responsibility for yourself. I think you’re wrong, OP (though I’d never call someone out on missing a meeting in front of their boss).


OP here. Even if I did put it in my calendar, I would not have known how to attend the meeting


I don't understand this mentality. You knew who was supposed to have the meeting, and the time the meeting was supposed to take place. You screwed up when it was 30 minutes before the scheduled time and you didn't send an email to anyone in the group saying "hey, did i miss an email with the link for our meeting?"