Honor Thine Meeting

Outlook is kind of sacred. If you create an Outlook meeting intend on sticking to it. For a while I was working closely with a guy who had terrible Outlook etiquette. He would double book meetings and then blow off one of them at the last minute. He would schedule meetings and then disappear when it was time for the meeting, show up 30-90 minutes later and pretend that there was no meeting ever scheduled. He would schedule meetings, ask to postpone them, and then go play video games in one of our break rooms or hang out and chat with people near me. In short, he drove me crazy!

As a result, I now try to be especially cognizant of the fact that other people plan their days around meetings when I schedule them, and I also try to respect other people's meetings- being punctual, being prepared, and understanding the agenda ahead of time. These actions establish mutual respect and appreciation.

The fact of the matter is that when you have one or more meetings in a day, you prioritize your workload, shuffle around to-do tasks, plan lunch, etc. based on that meeting or those meetings. That's why when someone ignores the commitment that you have made to that meeting it feels so rude.

What meeting scheduling annoyances and pet peeves do you have? Share your bad experiences!