I HATE Lunch Time Meetings 20

[casseopeia]

I guess this isn't really a question but more of a rant.

Lunch meetings should be rare, only if completely necessary and at most once a month. I now have several per WEEK, sometimes every day. They think they are being nice by bringing in sandwiches or pizza. Sometimes it's just cookies.

But I just want to eat my chicken salad with celery and have my Mandarin orange while watching YouTube cat videos.

And sometimes I’d like to go to the bank or drug store during lunch, or make a private phone call to my broker or tax accountant which requires leaving the office to truly be private.

My lunch hour should be mine to do as I please. I am really tired of noontime meetings.

OK I feel a little better now. Thanks


If you are offended by the things I say, imagine the stuff I hold back.

 

[JedClampett]

I don't think so.
I've worked two places and neither paid that way. You were still salaried (I think it has to do with some shady interpretation of labor law), but you billed hours to projects and filled out timesheets. Your hours were then billed to the clients. And you get paid for them (or comp time).
So there's an incentive to the company to have you bill hours even if they're above 40 hours a week. As a matter of fact, those hours are more profitable because the rent and fixed cpsts are already covered. And the way to guarantee that is going to happen is to pay you for all your hours. Basically my company is selling my time. Now if I worked for a company that sold kilowatts, automobiles, or widgets, it might be different.

 

[EdStainless]

I have always worked in manufacturing and that is how it is.
I am to the point now that I have an extreme amount of flexibility.
I work out of a home office, plan all of my own travel (about 60% of my time is on the road), and generally keep up technologies that no one else in our company even knows about. This makes up for the hours and other BS.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
P.E. Metallurgy, Plymouth Tube

 

[cvg]

Salaried mean fixed pay rate, no overtime, no bonus plan, period. That is the reality for nearly all of us.
I have never worked less than 45 hour weeks, and 50-55 is far more typical.

I've been salaried for years. comp time disappeared circa 1994. Bonuses are not guaranteed and are not based on amount of time worked, they are based on amount of profit made and distributed to the employees. Profitable employees who work longer hours are the least likely to be laid off in the downturns, hows that for a bonus?

 

[controlnovice]

https://despair.com/products/effort

______________________________________________________________________________
This is normally the space where people post something insightful.

 

[monkeydog]

controlnovice - And your point is?

 

[moltenmetal]

Everybody has to make up their own mind about what makes sense for them in a professional context.

That said, if you want to volunteer, please don't do it for a for-profit company! There are so many places that can make better use of your effort to make the world a better place. Donating your time for the sole benefit of a bunch of shareholders (other than you!) is just nuts.

Work should be compensated for. Sure, to make up some time for some learning you had to do on the job, or a screw-up you feel bad about and want to fix, or occasionally to help meet a deadline- a little extra is NORMAL for a salaried employee and you can't be stingy with that. |But so is taking a morning off for an appointment etc. without expecting to see it docked from your pay. If it's always one way, i.e. give but never take, you're not a salaried employee- you're a wage slave.

If consistent extra time is required, it had better be an investment with a return greater than the thought of buying goodwill from your current boss. They might be promoted away before you can reap any reward from it. All the extra effort you put in will be accepted. It may not be compensated, or acknowledged, or even NOTICED, but it will certainly be accepted! It's your responsibility to make sure that it's compensated for in some way or you shouldn't be doing it. Doesn't matter how- time in lieu that you can actually take, shares, options, a bonus- you name it, but it had better be SOMETHING of real value, or else you're not only de-valuing your own services- you're de-valuing the services of everyone else who does the same work.

I learned this lesson EARLY in my career by getting ripped off, and thank goodness I learned from it!

 

[Rabbit12]

I always say this: I'm a for profit entity and the for profit company has much much deeper pockets than me. That being said I'm not going to work for free. My company has a policy that if they buy you lunch for a work meeting that is considered compensation and the time shouldn't be billed. I find it insulting they think they can trade a $10 sandwich for an hour of my time. When I'm put in that situation I bring my own lunch.

 

[CheckerHater]

If I am allowed to play Devil's Advocate, some exceptions should be acceptable, like meeting with supplier who brings pizza.

Other then that, my time is my time.

"For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert"
Arthur C. Clarke Profiles of the future

 

[IRstuff]

Sadly, that pizza would need to be less than $5 value, otherwise we violate our ethics rules about accepting gifts

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[BrianPetersen]

How about time spent stuck in an airport waiting for a delayed flight, like I'm doing right now thanks to bad weather?

I've finished the job that I set out to do. I've submitted my expense sheet. I've answered all my emails. I think I've almost reached the end of the internet!

Can't exactly bill for this time. Can't do the job that I'm expected to do tomorrow while I'm stuck here.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Can't exactly bill for this time.

That's an issue with your billing system, then. While you may not be charging a client for direct work, you are still being "inconvenienced" by being away from your home... meals cost more, beds costs more, and you're unable to work on anything that requires your physical presence in the meantime. That time should either be billed back to the client or eaten by your employer as an unavoidable expense.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[bridgebuster]

Ron - my sentiments exactly. Coming back to the original post, we have monthly lunchtime senior manager meetings; they're torturous!Not only is it the senior managers from the department it's also senior managers from other departments with the business line.

We start with the company mandated health/safety/wellness discussion, go through business development, new wins, new projects, then it concludes with everyone saying what they're working on. Of course, nobody ever takes a cue from me - make it 10 to 15 second report. Some people just babble on and on, as if anyone knows what they're talking about.

 

[casseopeia]

The person that we accommodated by moving a 9 am meeting to a noon meeting is leaving the company, but no one has proposed putting the meeting back at 9 am, which is a tad early for some. I think I'm going to propose going back to the old time because I need the middle of my day to go to client mandated lunch meetings.

If you are offended by the things I say, imagine the stuff I hold back.

 

[jari001]

@casseopeia
Do it and don't look back! If it's so early for some that they'd fuss over it, maybe you lose this battle, but you could also find out that this meeting is completely cancelable...?