I try to join about 5 minutes before because I’m terrified of being the first person or the last.
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
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.
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
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.
On time, even when presenting. Starting early makes other people feel obligated to join early, so I don’t do it. No reason to extend the meeting longer than the listed time.
On the dot if I can.
Same here.
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
Usually anywhere from 2 to 5min before because my stupid ass laptop has a 50% chance of just forgetting how audio devices work and I have to test them every time.
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.
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.
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.
Five minutes earlier? God damn bro. That’s coffee making time.
1-5 minutes late
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.
My god I need to emulate this. I’m doing it all wrong.
In real life meeting most of the value is in the informal side chats that you have just before or just after, in my experience. Unfortunately that basically doesn’t happen in virtual meetings, so I join dead on time, or a minute or two in for larger ones.
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.
