My Boss Sees Nothing Wrong With What She Does to Our Meetings Every Week. But I Do.

Good Job At first, I gave her a pass. Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Khosrork/Getty Images Plus. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Good Job is Slate’s advice column on work. Have a workplace problem big or small? Send it to Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir here. (It’s anonymous!) Dear Good Job, I have a new first-time manager. She has a really annoying habit with our team meetings. Every time she meets with me, she’ll schedule a meeting for early in the morning, and then she’ll push it to midday, and then she’ll push it back to the end of the day. Without fail, the meeting always goes over its allotted time. We end up on this call past work hours. This happens at least once a week, every single week. And she has a tendency to do this with other team meetings as well. She’s very nice otherwise, and I understand this is her first time managing and want to give her grace, but it’s been two months of this, and I’m already growing tired of it. Is there something I can do? —Off the Clock at 5 p.m. Dear Off the Clock at 5 p.m., You’re generous to sympathize with a new boss who is struggling to manage her schedule. But meeting with direct reports is one of the most important parts of a manager’s job. It’s possible she was shoved into a management role without proper vetting or training, and nobody ever told her this basic fact of management, so let me try once more with emphasis: Meeting with direct reports is one of the most important parts of a manager’s job! Emergencies will disrupt a manager’s schedule occasionally, sure, but habitually pushing off meetings is disrespectful, inefficient, and a lousy way to lead. For the immediate problem of last-minute meetings that go long, prepare some simple messages: “It’s a little too late to start a meeting today, but I’m free tomorrow morning.” “Should we start with the first and third items on the agenda since they’re urgent, and save the rest for when we have more time?” “We could have a quick meeting now, but why don’t we reserve time tomorrow for a full catch-up?” Tell her at the beginning of the late-starting meeting you have a “hard stop” (corporate-speak for you have to leave) at 5 p.m., without specifying why, and remind her of that fact a few minutes before the hour so you can wrap up. If your boss hasn’t yet set up a running agenda for your meetings, offer to start one in a shared document where you can both add discussion items. You might be able to sort out some of these items over email, which will save time when you do meet. Add an item to the agenda called “scheduling,” and when you get to it, tell her you know she must have a lot of demands on her time, but it would help you work more efficiently if you can stick to your meeting appointment times. —Laura More Advice From Slate My sister “Vivian” announced her engagement to her boyfriend “Justin” at Thanksgiving. Everyone congratulated them and “ooohed” and “aaahed” over the headlight of a diamond in her engagement ring. Later in the evening, our 1-year-old nephew had a diaper blowout, and Vivian took off her engagement ring and had me hang on to it for her while she went to give our sister-in-law a hand. I work in the jewelry industry as a gemstone buyer and took the opportunity to inspect the VERY large diamond in the ring… Never miss new Slate Advice columns Get the latest from Prudie and our columnists in your inbox each weekday, plus special bonus letters on Saturdays. Advice Workplace Jobs