Honestly--I prefer people just send invitations and I accept or decline. I kind of hate 1200 emails going back and forth with trying to find dates.
Just be honest and accept/decline as needed.
I think this method only works if you aren’t in a lot of meetings. If people just blindly send me an invite, there’s a 85% chance my calendar is already booked. If I had to just decline and have them pick a new time that would be more work than figuring out a good time in the first place.
I have a ton of meetings. I decline and send a message with the decline with 2-3 times that do work.
Post by amberlyrose on Dec 14, 2021 15:32:56 GMT -5
If you are both using Outlook, see if you have access to the "FindTime" extension. I use it for external calls with large groups and as soon as everyone responds, it sets the calendar invite to auto populate based off the responses.
And you are justified in your annoyance. I hate when people just "grab time" off my calendar now with WFH. I've missed calls because they'll put it on 5 min before or at a ridiculous hour while I'm doing something else like taking a walk around the block or making lunch.
I have a client or two like this, and it also irks me. But I work under the assumption that the invitation is basically a substitute availability request email, so I have no problem declining when I'm not available or when it's not otherwise convenient for me. (Of course, depending on the circumstances of the meeting, I might sometimes try harder to make myself available than others.)
I’ve started making it a standard practice that if someone doesn’t check my availability first, or if they just send an invite with no agenda and no heads up on what the call is about, I decline it. My time is just as valuable as someone else’s and I’m not going to rearrange my day for a call where you never asked my availability first, nor am I going to blindly get on a call about a topic on which I have not been briefed first. Working remotely has really shown people’s lack of respect for others’ time, and I’m not having it anymore. Reach out to me first, or you get declined. The end.
5-10% of revenue and 85% of stress definitely seems par for the course for certain clients. (I work in client services for an ad/marketing agency.)
In my job, scheduling a meeting 2-5 days out would seem very reasonable, but I will ask an external party their availability. If there are a lot of people involved on my end, I'll hold a few times on our calendars and ask the other person if either/any of those times work for them. With some clients, I have standing weekly/bi-weekly/monthly meetings as well.
Thank you all for the suggestions. I will look into calendly. That could work. I agree that a million scheduling emails is drain for everyone involved and I don't want to devolve to that. I'm just at a point in my career and my obligations to other clients that I cannot be having a single client blindly putting meetings on my calendar. In the meantime, I can just decline as needed, and I think I should be more assertive in doing so.
Have you considered each new person does this bc the previous person tells them, “This is how we do this.” It seems odd that your so annoyed by something you haven’t tried to correct. Maybe a simple email that says, “Going forward, please offer multiple options for meeting days/times”
I’ve started making it a standard practice that if someone doesn’t check my availability first, or if they just send an invite with no agenda and no heads up on what the call is about, I decline it. My time is just as valuable as someone else’s and I’m not going to rearrange my day for a call where you never asked my availability first, nor am I going to blindly get on a call about a topic on which I have not been briefed first. Working remotely has really shown people’s lack of respect for others’ time, and I’m not having it anymore. Reach out to me first, or you get declined. The end.
Do you tell them why you decline it, and ask for what you want?
Of course…I tell them I’m not available and offer alternate times, or I tell them that I prefer to be briefed prior to a call being scheduled (because sometimes I can just advise on the topic during the brief and avoid a call with 5 other people altogether) and if they can advise as to the background I’d be happy to join because I don’t like joining calls unprepared. Still doesn’t stop everyone from doing it repeatedly. Some people just don’t care.
Post by missladytay on Dec 15, 2021 10:33:20 GMT -5
Here to say I am your client (not literally!) and I’m sorry but I truly don’t have time to change. I am glad you posted, it reminds me to try to be more thoughtful. I’m an in house litigator and I schedule a lot of calls (probably 25+ a week) with both my clients/the business (whose calendars I can see) and our outside counsel. I have 75+ cases and for the vast majority of calls I simply don’t have time to email every single outside counsel and ask if they are free. I already get hundreds of substantive emails a day. I try to include both the partner and associate(s) so hopefully one can attend. If it’s a really important or long meeting I try to email first to ask for windows, but sometimes/most of the time I have to hope outside counsel will make it work or let me know in the decline that it doesn’t with times that do so I can try to find a new time. I get lucky on the first try often enough that I don’t plan to change the way I do it. If outside counsel really had a problem with it or were too busy for me I wouldn’t hire them anymore. I have other options.