I try to join about 5 minutes before because I’m terrified of being the first person or the last.
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.
On the dot if I can.
It depends.
I’m one of the few people still teaching on Zoom. Turns out it’s a good delivery method for some students at community colleges (like if you have young children at home, etc.)
If I’m teaching, I show up 15 minutes early.
If I’m just a participant, I show up pretty much right on time, then I quietly judge whoever is running the meeting because most calls are run poorly.
When I served in the military, my first supervisor taught me a valuable lesson: “15 minutes early, or you’re late.” I actually got in trouble with her if I was less than 15 minutes early to any meeting, appointment, or event.
Or even arriving to work. We worked in an IT field, so our office had a large row of server racks along one wall. Her desk sat facing the door, but next to the GPS server that kept accurate time for all our computers on the military base. It had a giant digital clock on the front of the server. Every day when I walked into work, she would look up at me, then turn and look at that clock. If I was even 10 seconds late (to the 15-minute rule), I got in trouble with her. I was never late to work though, because she ensured I was always there earlier than my official shift start time.
Being 15 minutes early to everything has changed my life. If I’m running behind, I have a quarter hour window to get myself back on track. If I arrive 15 minutes early, I have plenty of time to get myself set up and situated. Or just time to sit and clear out some other pending tasks while I wait for a thing to start (check phone notifications, clear out emails, etc.).
When it comes to virtual meetings, I like to join 15 minutes early, then mute myself and turn off my camera. Then I can sit at my computer and knock out some other tasks while I’m waiting for the meeting to start. That buffer gives me time to mentally switch into meeting mode while also giving me time to be productive beforehand. And no one is waiting for me to show up, so if the meeting is ever running late, it’s never my fault.
I hope your workplace doesn’t use Teams. Everyone in that meeting will get a notification that you already started that meeting 15 minutes early.
For everything else other than arriving 15 min early at work, I agree. Your boss has no right to ask you to come earlier than your agreed time. If I had a boss like that I would make sure to leave 15 minutes earlier, since obviously I should be home 15 minutes earlier too!
We set up Teams during the pandemic (because Zoom was being a bitch about the govt not paying to use their full suite). We already used a bunch of other Microsoft products, so it was easy to get a contract for Teams integration too. I don’t remember Teams giving people a notification when you joined though, just the meeting host. But I’ve also been retired for nearly 3 years now, so I have no idea how Teams has changed recently.
Your boss has no right to ask you to come earlier than your agreed time.
In the military, they have every right.
You see, when you join the military, you sign a contract for 4-6 years of service. The day that contract begins, you start your first shift and it doesn’t technically end until your contract expires, several years later. You’re on shift 24/7/365 until your contract is up. So your boss can demand you work any shift or come in at any time, day or night, and you just have to do it. Even if it’s outside of your normally scheduled work hours.
There are regulations that outline “regular passes,” which is time off granted daily because you’re human and can’t literally work 24/7. A regular pass allows you to go home, eat, sleep, and be refreshed for the next day. I don’t know if the federal regs have changed in the last handful of years, but the last time I looked them up, you couldn’t work more than 17 hours straight before you were required to take a minimum 8 hours off to rest. Most shifts are typically 8-12 hours long, so hopefully you don’t get stuck working a 17-hour shift anytime soon.
The whole point of this is that military people need to be ready to respond to war, no matter when it strikes. You don’t work a regular day shift, then argue about extra hours or overtime pay when shit hits the fan. You just grab your bugout bag and go. And yes, we don’t get overtime pay because again - we’re always on shift.
We do get lots of time off, though. From the day you join, you start earning 2.5 days off for every month you serve, which adds up to 30 days off per year. You can carry over something like 60 days off every year too. It was pretty nice. In my early service days, I would save up a whole month of time off and then take it all at once to go hang out with my friends and family back home.
Next time you’re in a Teams meeting, take a screenshot of a colleague. Then set that as your own meeting background. Then join early, stay out of camera range, and watch the fun.
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?
I join exactly at start time, down to the second. Once everyone has been counted or noticed and the droning idiot starts presenting I bug right TF out. Nothing will happen that matters because its a freakin’ meeting - if something important was going on it would be an email.
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.
One on one meetings, right on time or when the other person joins if they are a couple minutrs early.
Small team meetings, right on time unless I am hosting and need to set up screen sharing.
Large meetings hosted by others, whenever the host starts it but I work on other stuff if they are a few minutes early.
In all cases I start muted and camera off and only unmute and turn the camera on if necessary.
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.
Usually at least an hour early to get a good seat.
Five minutes earlier? God damn bro. That’s coffee making time.
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
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 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.
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.
