I try to join about 5 minutes before because I’m terrified of being the first person or the last.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
Usually as soon as Teams notifies me of the first person starting the meeting.
How can you not always be the first when youre 5min early, wtf xD
On the dot if I can.
Same here.
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 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.
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.
Join on time to virtual meetings. If you are hosting or setting up a room, then you can join a bit early. If it’s a large meeting like a company or division wide one maybe even join a minute late.
Waiting around on an empty zoom is a massive waste of time.
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.
1 min early, or right on time. Never late.
My workweeks are 25 to 50% meetings, the vast majority online. I try to be exactly on time as much as possible, can’t afford to be in advance, will notify if I will be more than 3 minutes late. I send a message to participants if they are not all here after a couple of minutes, not to put pressure, but I know it’s easy to be concentrating on something and miss the meeting, it happens to me as well.
If it’s a customer meeting I’ll join 30 seconds early. If it’s an all hands or has big wigs in it then I’ll join 10 seconds early. Smaller internal meetings I can be 10-300 seconds late.
I shut and lock my door ten minutes before a meeting. Hit the bathroom and then usually log in for a functions check, fix my blinds and pull up the relevant group chat that doesn’t have the boss in it.
Organize my notes on my desk, get a coffee or water in front of me. Someone will always be later. I’ll sometimes be the first. Let teams let them see that I’m starting it, whatever, everyone knows I’m getting my coffee.
Also, I like to give my colleague a fifteen minute heads up since he’ll sometimes forget.
If I’m hosting 5 minutes early. If I’m attending, 2 minutes early unless I’m the only one attending from my org, in which case exactly on time.
I just join whenever someone else joins or about a minute or two before it starts. Or whenever, doesn’t matter as long as I am not late. The main point for me is not being late, so that I respect other peoples time. If I am more than two minutes late, I apologize most of the time.
Small talk isn’t that hard. Might feel a bit unnatural until you get used to having it. But is that tiny awkwardness an actual issue, or something you just should ideally get used to?
How are you doing? What’s going on with x-project/your work? Looking forward to the weekend/had a good weekend? Watched any good shows lately? Have any pets?
