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I HATE Lunch Time Meetings 20

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casseopeia

casseopeia

Structural
Jan 4, 2005
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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.
 
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Know that you are not alone in this. I personally don't care (but I do use it as license to leave a little early on Fridays), but one of my colleagues is so vocally against lunchtime meetings to the point that they don't come to some of them.
 
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jari001,

I am close to this. I've been coming up with various excuses that I fantasize about using.

"I'm sorry, I have to meet with my forensic accountant to find out where my ex hid $1 million."
"I'm sorry. I have to meet my broker to strategize how to reinvest my Bitcoin millions."
"I'm sorry. I have a meeting with my Oscar Party planning committee."
"I'm sorry. I have an appointment in a Chinatown alley to get my Adderal."
"I'm sorry. I have an emergency blowout at the Aveda Salon."
"I'm sorry. I'm having lunch with my ex boss."



If you are offended by the things I say, imagine the stuff I hold back.
 
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I know several folks who block off their calendars with private appointments during lunchtime as well as before/after "normal" office hours. None do particularly well for themselves

Personally I do whatever's asked of me until I feel taken advantage of, then I find another employer. I have months where I travel and/or work 60/week then others where its closer to 30. Not that I've ever kept "normal" hours but I've never heard of a lunch hour outside of the government, 30 minutes being the norm.
 
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Yeah, I think the mistake being made here is not taking an actual lunch, despite what the noontime meeting is called. So the client wants to meet at noon, and they bring sandwiches/cookies... fine, have the meeting, and nothing says you have to eat what's provided. But take an hour out of your day AFTER the meeting (or before, if you prefer, like me) to sit back and enjoy your own meal.

CWB1 said:
I know several folks who block off their calendars with private appointments during lunchtime as well as before/after "normal" office hours. None do particularly well for themselves

Personally I do whatever's asked of me until I feel taken advantage of, then I find another employer.
Click to expand...
I block off those hours... mainly after the realization is made I am being taken advantage of. Some people just push and push until they hit your limit, but they can't seem to understand the concept of reasonable limits until you specify them. If your solution to an inability to place limits is finding another employer, perhaps it's not any better than those who place the limits right from the get-go...

Dan - Owner
URL]
 
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I'm a salaried employee. When I'm on the company premises, I'm working. I take breaks in the quantity and of the quality that I choose. I'm always net positive on the number of hours I work relative to the number expected of me on a yearly basis. That includes time taken for medical appointments and other non-work related professional obligations.

When a lunchtime meeting is suggested, and lunch is provided, I'm grateful for the "free lunch", remembering of course that there is no such thing as a "free lunch".

Any lunchtime meeting held without lunch being provided is not something I'm going to attend personally nor to expect anyone else to attend.

When I call a lunchtime meeting, I have a reasonable expectation that the the time hasn't already been booked for other meetings which can then be used as a dodge by some people who actually need to attend.

Lunchtime meetings are reserved for training or other items of MUTUAL benefit. If it's ordinary company business, the meeting is held during core working hours. We used to hold scheduling meeting over lunch and provide lunch, but some staff didn't like it so we stopped doing that.
 
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Most of these lunchtime meetings are in-house planning or management meetings. I don’t mind the OCCASIONAL lunch meeting, but they have stacked on so many that I have one every single day of the week. There are something’s I would like to go to that only occur at lunch hour, like a regular Al Anon meeting. There is one 1/2 block from the office in a cathedral and going once a week on my own time should not be a big deal, but it is. A $13 dollar sandwich is no compensation.

If you are offended by the things I say, imagine the stuff I hold back.
 
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At an absolute minimum, you should mount a silent protest by getting yourself a pair of the socks that say "This meeting is BULLS$%T". Lunchtime meetings are ok, once in a while, perhaps once a month at most, as long as they are productive. Anything more than that can be accomplished during work hours.
 
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Canuck65 said:
you should mount a silent protest by getting yourself a pair of the socks that say "This meeting is BULLS$%T"
Click to expand...

...and put your feet up on the table during the meeting

though, really, not everyone can make every meeting. If you have a weekly meeting I'd say, "I can't do Tuesdays," and then go to three out of four al-anon meetings. I also support the idea of billing the time and taking your lunch or phone calls afterward.

The time should be recorded accurately, in my opinion, because any good company would want a real accounting of how much time it takes to manage their operations. Of course, nobody would try to hide management hours to make the profitability look better.
 
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Lunches are delivered from Specialties. Usually it’s a half sandwich, cup of soup and a cookie or a whole sandwich, piece of fruit and a cookie. It’s $13/each. I’ve seen the ticket.

If you are offended by the things I say, imagine the stuff I hold back.
 
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Luckily lunch meetings are rare around here. There are invites probably twice a month or so for such meetings but they certainly aren't mandatory.

When lunch is interrupted, I typically extended my lunch for the length of the interruption. I also put my phone on DND (or at least that's what I tell people who ask why I didn't pick up) during lunch. Most everything can wait until I'm done with whatever I am doing at the time.

If they decide to change things and pay me for that time, I'll gladly skip lunch, or work through it. This isn't a hobby though, so I don't do it for free.

Andrew H.
 
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If your solution to an inability to place limits is finding another employer, perhaps it's not any better than those who place the limits right from the get-go...
Click to expand...

Common sense applies to limits like everything else. When you accept a salary you're exempt from having set hours by definition, you're paid to get the job done. If that means you need to eat early, late, or suck down some crappy catering a couple times every week to attend a necessary meeting then do it or go somewhere else. OTOH, if a distant colleague invites you to be the extra set of optional eyes on a DFMEA review for a project you're not working on then by all means, decline and enjoy lunch.

A lazy, entitled attitude might fly at smaller companies but doesn't do well in corporate industry where the bottom line is the most important and engineering support often makes/breaks million+ dollar deals. I've been in roles that regularly involved hand carrying prototype parts to third world countries to get a customer back up and running on only a few hours notice, and have been rewarded handsomely for the effort through both bonuses and promotions. JME but having been a hard working employee leaving on good terms, employers want me back badly enough that I retain open offers. The folks that play games as mentioned above tend to get put at the top of the list for layoffs and blacklisted, so yes, its FAR better to be considered a "good" employee.
 
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Lunchtime is a legitimate personal rest period or break that ultimately helps you contribute a higher quality of work. That food is involved should be irrelevant. It's being taken advantage of if it's too often, if it's on your dime.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.
 
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