Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[Davkaus]

Would you get hassle for declining?

I decline anything that doesn't have a clear topic for discussion, with an idea of what we need to get out of the meeting, as well as anything that doesn't make it clear that there's anything for me to add in the meeting.

After a few weeks my calendar was only slightly more empty, but people got the message and the meetings in my diary at least had a clear purpose.

The second point is a key one, once people have the idea to have a meeting they love to tag in as many people as possible and you end up with 2 people having a discussion while 10 people listen in. I've got a very low threshold for dropping off with a "Not sure there's anything for me to contribute here, message me if you need me to drop back on" if I get tricked into joining and it descends into one of those meetings, and very rarely end up having to rejoin.

[Davkaus]

I have occasionally considered simply sticking a screenshot of https://www.omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/meeting-cost in the meeting chat for ones that feel like a complete waste of time, but that's a bit too passive aggressive even for me  

[Seat68]

41 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

I've probably put this in here before, but when people put a meeting in your calendar at work but don't give you any idea of what it's about. Especially when they then ask you for something in the meeting.

Just had one, the meeting was called "SC Review" (SC is supply chain) absolutely no other words or description

First thing they asked for was a supplier map for an upcoming program. Which is my responsibility and wouldn't take long, but I haven't done it yet because I don't need to. And they seemed surprised I hadn't.

If you'd just put even one sentence in the meeting invite I'd have been able to do it before the meeting. Now we have to have ANOTHER meeting to go through it when we could have done it today.

 

**** morons everywhere

Worse than that is randomly pulled into a teams call you weren't invited to and have no context and then being asked for info you would need to look into it. I tell them dead I am coming into this cold and if you needed information I would be better armed if I was on the original invite. 

[Genie]

58 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Yeah I really don't understand this at all. I could maybe accept it for keepers given how rare keepers coming on are.

But even that is a stretch.

The ref won’t play on without a GK so it also supports the fact it’s fine for them to not be fully kitted up.

If your CB goes off injured at an important time then the team is in a mess whilst the sub changes out of his pyjamas and into his football kit.

Check out this gem, substitute delayed because the player forgot to put one of his socks on

 

[limpid]

58 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

I've probably put this in here before, but when people put a meeting in your calendar at work but don't give you any idea of what it's about. Especially when they then ask you for something in the meeting.

I always decline these. Even with senior management (because it's their PA anyway).

[chrisp65]

My boss has a habit of calling meetings at almost no notice with no clue as to what they will be about. He thinks of something, and will call a meeting for 15 minutes time and the title will be ‘meeting in 15’.

I have developed a reaction of attending the meeting, and absolutely regardless of what it is about, I’ll tell the meeting I need to go away and get the info which I could have prepped had I known what the meeting was about.

The meeting could be that he needs to know the spelling of my first name, and my answer will be I need to go away and do some prep I could have done had there been a clue in the title of the meeting. 

It hasn’t stopped his habit, but its stopped me fretting and trying to prep on absolutely every subject under the sun.

 

[Anthony]

"Here is the agenda."

"What's that for? We've never needed one before." 

"Yes you have. You just haven't used one." 

[BOF]

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

I've probably put this in here before, but when people put a meeting in your calendar at work but don't give you any idea of what it's about. Especially when they then ask you for something in the meeting.

Just had one, the meeting was called "SC Review" (SC is supply chain) absolutely no other words or description

First thing they asked for was a supplier map for an upcoming program. Which is my responsibility and wouldn't take long, but I haven't done it yet because I don't need to. And they seemed surprised I hadn't.

If you'd just put even one sentence in the meeting invite I'd have been able to do it before the meeting. Now we have to have ANOTHER meeting to go through it when we could have done it today.

 

**** morons everywhere

More like inconsiderate words removed who expect you to be in their head because of their complete lack of conscientiousness.

Or ICWEYTBITHBOFTCLACs as I call them.

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

Would you get hassle for declining?

I decline anything that doesn't have a clear topic for discussion, with an idea of what we need to get out of the meeting, as well as anything that doesn't make it clear that there's anything for me to add in the meeting.

After a few weeks my calendar was only slightly more empty, but people got the message and the meetings in my diary at least had a clear purpose.

The second point is a key one, once people have the idea to have a meeting they love to tag in as many people as possible and you end up with 2 people having a discussion while 10 people listen in. I've got a very low threshold for dropping off with a "Not sure there's anything for me to contribute here, message me if you need me to drop back on" if I get tricked into joining and it descends into one of those meetings, and very rarely end up having to rejoin.

 

1 hour ago, Seat68 said:

Worse than that is randomly pulled into a teams call you weren't invited to and have no context and then being asked for info you would need to look into it. I tell them dead I am coming into this cold and if you needed information I would be better armed if I was on the original invite. 

If anyone expresses even a remote amount of annoyance that I haven't prepared what they thought I could magically predict they wanted then this is the approach I need.

"If you'd put an agenda in for this meeting then I'd have come prepared but I don't have a crystal ball I'm afraid" or something similar

 

If it's someone I like then I give them the benefit of the doubt and just moan about them to randomers on a message board

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

The second point is a key one, once people have the idea to have a meeting they love to tag in as many people as possible and you end up with 2 people having a discussion while 10 people listen in. I've got a very low threshold for dropping off with a "Not sure there's anything for me to contribute here, message me if you need me to drop back on" if I get tricked into joining and it descends into one of those meetings, and very rarely end up having to rejoin.

I do this all the time and nobody seems to mind. Sometimes I don't even send a message, I just drop off. Nobody even notices.

People just have a habit of panicking and inviting everyone to a meeting, without thinking about who actually needs to go.

 

I'm pretty militant with my team that whatever review it is, we rarely need two of the team on it. 

[Stevo985]

59 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

My boss has a habit of calling meetings at almost no notice with no clue as to what they will be about. He thinks of something, and will call a meeting for 15 minutes time and the title will be ‘meeting in 15’.

I have developed a reaction of attending the meeting, and absolutely regardless of what it is about, I’ll tell the meeting I need to go away and get the info which I could have prepped had I known what the meeting was about.

The meeting could be that he needs to know the spelling of my first name, and my answer will be I need to go away and do some prep I could have done had there been a clue in the title of the meeting. 

It hasn’t stopped his habit, but its stopped me fretting and trying to prep on absolutely every subject under the sun.

 

Yeah I'll admit I've done this before too out of principle

[mjmooney]

And anybody an ounce of sense will block out Friday afternoon as 'unavailable'. That's the only bit that I do miss. 

[BOF]

1 hour ago, chrisp65 said:

My boss has a habit of calling meetings at almost no notice with no clue as to what they will be about. He thinks of something, and will call a meeting for 15 minutes time and the title will be ‘meeting in 15’.

I have developed a reaction of attending the meeting, and absolutely regardless of what it is about, I’ll tell the meeting I need to go away and get the info which I could have prepped had I known what the meeting was about.

The meeting could be that he needs to know the spelling of my first name, and my answer will be I need to go away and do some prep I could have done had there been a clue in the title of the meeting. 

It hasn’t stopped his habit, but its stopped me fretting and trying to prep on absolutely every subject under the sun.

 

These I don't mind, because they tend to be about something that has just come up, and doesn't need any prep, but may need to be discussed asap. It's no different to receiving a phone call, except it probably needs more than 2 people. To me they're a different beast to the meeting that has no description and is for a time further in the future.

[Stevo985]

2 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

I've probably put this in here before, but when people put a meeting in your calendar at work but don't give you any idea of what it's about. Especially when they then ask you for something in the meeting.

Just had one, the meeting was called "SC Review" (SC is supply chain) absolutely no other words or description

First thing they asked for was a supplier map for an upcoming program. Which is my responsibility and wouldn't take long, but I haven't done it yet because I don't need to. And they seemed surprised I hadn't.

If you'd just put even one sentence in the meeting invite I'd have been able to do it before the meeting. Now we have to have ANOTHER meeting to go through it when we could have done it today.

 

**** morons everywhere

I'm looking forward to my "Material Burden" meeting at midday  

[Tegis]

2 hours ago, Davkaus said:

 https://www.omnicalculator.com/everyday-life/meeting-cost 

Bookmarked, and will be used

[lapal_fan]

I bought my wife a narrow profile piano thing online for Xmas, but had it delivered to my retired parents house.

The delivery man left it propped up against the door, in plain view of the street and open to the elements (it was windy and a bit drizzly, so I got lucky). 

My dad was in at the time and there was a car on the drive. 

£350 just left outside a door.

Unbelievable. 

[Stevo985]

3 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

I bought my wife a narrow profile piano thing online for Xmas, but had it delivered to my retired parents house.

The delivery man left it propped up against the door, in plain view of the street and open to the elements (it was windy and a bit drizzly, so I got lucky). 

My dad was in at the time and there was a car on the drive. 

£350 just left outside a door.

Unbelievable. 

Happens all the time now.

I'd say 90% of our delivery drivers just leave our stuff in the porch now. Which is fine when we're not there, we leave it open for that reason. But they don't even ring the bell.

We're getting £300 worth of shelves delivered today and I can guarantee they'll be left in the porch without even asking 

[lapal_fan]

3 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Happens all the time now.

I'd say 90% of our delivery drivers just leave our stuff in the porch now. Which is fine when we're not there, we leave it open for that reason. But they don't even ring the bell.

We're getting £300 worth of shelves delivered today and I can guarantee they'll be left in the porch without even asking 

I wish it was left in the porch 

[brommy]

Yesterday Amazon delivered a box just slightly too big for the letterbox. I saw the Amazon van pull up outside my house so I began moving from my living room to my hallway. Before reaching my hallway, I heard the Amazon delivery driver open my front door, chuck the box on the hallway floor and close the door. The van had driven off by the time I'd picked up the box and fully understood what had just happened.

At best I found it cheeky, at worst - isn't that trespass or entering private property without authorisation?

[bickster]

5 minutes ago, brommy said:

Yesterday Amazon delivered a box just slightly too big for the letterbox. I saw the Amazon van pull up outside my house so I began moving from my living room to my hallway. Before reaching my hallway, I heard the Amazon delivery driver open my front door, chuck the box on the hallway floor and close the door. The van had driven off by the time I'd picked up the box and fully understood what had just happened.

At best I found it cheeky, at worst - isn't that trespass or entering private property without authorisation?

trespass isn't generally a criminal offence