I try to join about 5 minutes before because I’m terrified of being the first person or the last.
if im invited then right on time if I host then one minute early, maybe 2. usually. sometimes I have meetings that end 3mins to the next or go over which impact my ability to get to the meeting on time.
Depends on the context.
- My meeting? Right on time.
- Team meeting? On time.
- A meeting I knew about, was on my calendar, and requires my expertise? Right on time, but a lower priority.
- Something is broken and we’re grouping up? Right on time.
- A meeting on my calendar that I don’t really need to be in? 2-3 minutes after, I’ll finish what I’m currently engaged in or get to a stopping point.
- A meeting I’ve been invited to with no additional context? 2-5 minutes late.
- A meeting I was invited to with no communication/context that is before/after my normal working hours? If I remember and I’m bored.
- A meeting I was inviting a to outside of my working hours and will start before I come online? Forget about it.
I work for a global corpo, so the last two happen quite a bit. Time is money friend.
One to two minutes late to most meetings. I don’t have time or energy for the BS of “How are you” etc. Let’s get down to business.
Caveat is that if it’s with a VIP I’ll be exactly on time.
Usually exactly on time, but if I’m doing something that requires concentration and there’s a chance I might lose track of time I might join 5 min earlier so that I don’t miss the meeting.
Aren’t you always the first 5 min before? I know that the times I joined even a minute or two early I’ve always been the first.
A minute or two before. Just enough time to ensure my setup is working.
If I’m hosting a presentation, I usually start 15 minutes early so people can connect while I’m semi-afk, with the first slide saying “Presentation will begin shortly. Pour yourself a coffee in the mean time.”
Previous presentation I had multiple slides, three I think, each with an example of activities they could probably manage to do before starting.
Exact
I join at the exact time it starts. If I join earlier, I may get pulled into unnecessary small-talk platitudes that are like nails on a chalkboard to my depressed-as-shit self.
I join anywhere from a few minutes before to a few minutes after, and if I don’t want to chit chat I hit the little “coffee break” status and stay on mute.
FWIW I do virtual meetings daily due to 100% remote work.
Five minutes earlier? God damn bro. That’s coffee making time.
Whenever I remember there is a meeting on. Have to keep those damned outlook 15min reminders on screen or I will forget
Sometimes people don’t include the reminder in their outlook invite. They have no right to expect me to show up at all if they do that. At the very least, they need to apologize when they send me the stupid “Are you attending my meeting?” Slack message.
I never cared about your meeting, Derek. No one cared about it. We only show up to meetings when Outlook tells us it’s time. Our calendars are just endless strings of soul-sucking meetings no one wants to be on, and I will never check mine pre-emptively. I accept everything I’m invited to, Derek. Everything. We all do. Remember the fucking reminder, Derek.
I join at exactly the designated time. If you wanted me there five minutes earlier, then schedule the meeting five minutes earlier. Don’t jerk me around with some expectation that I’m going to do anything other than what you asked for. Also, most of the folks I work with tend to be booked with lots of back to back meetings; so, no one is showing up early anyway. We all show up at the designated time and anyone late can catch up when they show up.
The “early is on time” mentality makes some sense for physical meetings and appointments. For virtual meetings, it just demonstrates that the person has no understanding of how technology works.
If I’m running the meeting, 5 minutes. If it’s large group meeting, 2 mins early. If it’s 1:1, right on time.
This is the way
Exactly on point, because there’s always people early or late. This way I neither have to start it nor be embarresed to be the last.
Also:
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to
I join when the meeting reminder pops up and I click “join”, right on time. I don’t like small talk, no point in being early.
Plus it’s not like there’s anything happening in the first couple minutes. The more people who are in the meeting the more likely someone will be late anyway.
I feel like people who join really early are basically saying “Tell me you have nothing to do without telling me you have nothing to do.”
Not quite. I join on time because I’m busy and if I don’t join now I will completely forget. I just keep working until everyone else gets there and the I’ll turn on my camera and mic.
Probably people who were raised by military parents. My instinct is to join early as fuck, like 10 minutes. I blame my father forcing me to show up early for everything.
If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late.
I had a job like that some years ago, where you were expected to arrive at 540-45 to pregame the day but not clock in until 6. Kind of unspoken, but you knew it was frowned upon if you showed up right at 6 by the death glares (they knew they couldn’t mandate being early because laws, but it was just a soft expectation). Someone must have said something, because they don’t do that anymore, I’m sure that went over super well for whoever said something.
Sometimes I join really early BECAUSE I have stuff to do. I lose track of time, so I’ll open the reminder and keep the room running in the background while I accomplish something else, once I hear someone talking, I’ll switch tabs and focus on the meeting.
This is me, too
I teach over teams. I plan bullshit for the first 5 - 10 minutes, because there will always be late people.
My first meeting working in a fully-remote job, I joined a Teams meeting with the whole team (~8 people) 5 minutes early. I wasn’t the host, of course.
People were (invisibly) giving me the side eye.
I soon learned that starting the meeting makes a popup appear on everyone’s screen saying that the meeting started…and also that a lot of people regularly have back-to-back meetings and can’t leave early. (This was mid-pandemic, shortly before it became the norm to end meetings before the hour)
After that, I started joining all virtual meetings either second (by clicking the pop-up that someone else started it), or before XX:01 (or before 1 minute after the meeting time).
In-person, I’ll still show up to the meeting room 5 minutes early, or 15 if it’s a slow day. But do that too often and people think you’re useless, lol
I like arriving early for small talk, instead of having the rushed small talk when the meeting is “supposed” to begin.
