I try to join about 5 minutes before because I’m terrified of being the first person or the last.
On the dot if I can.
Ha. Bold of you to assume I have some sort of control over these things.
If I join at all, i join whenever the stars align and it occurs to me as something needing to happen.That being said, I usually intend to join just a couple minutes early.
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.
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.
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.
between on the dot and a few minutes afterwards depending on whos hosting. If i know they’re gonna waste time jibber-jabbering at the start I give it a few minutes for that to play out. I don’t care about what you did last weekend Janet.
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
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.
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 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.
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.
I like joining 5+ mins early so I can just sit in silence and work while waiting for the meeting to start rather than stressing about needing to lock at the clock (j have adhd and tend to hyperfocus). plus I dont mind a little small talk, but even so no one else on my team seems to want to smalltalk so even if someone else joins early it’s pretty quiet
I’ve got so many meetings that I just join whenever it’s started by someone and go about my work until the meeting starts. If I’m not the target audience I’ll go off camera and listen if needed.
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.
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.
