Ask Lemmy

In teams you can see how many are already in.

If in hiding in try to be the first though, but not too early because people get a notification that the meeting has started. And might go on earlier than required

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.

Zero minutes early to one minute late (for work ones). I hate the virtual meetings, and the software is robust enough I trust it. If it's something else where I have to use my phone (doctor appointment or similar) then more than 5 minutes ahead to make sure I have time to reach out if it isn't working.

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.

5 min early. If you're not 5 min early, you're late.

Honestly, usually it's 4-5 min early: I'll pop in and noodle about prepping whatever, documenting something or just staring out the window a sec to clear my head. I'm usually very satisfied I'm not late by normie standards because being on-time shows a modicum of respect to others. If it's a shit meeting, that's an exception. I have one where I'm noticeably barely-on-time, and everyone points it out.

I'd encourage meetings to lock at the start time if I could, so late joiners wait in the lobby until someone opens the door, and then we'll know whom to heckle.

1 min early, or right on time. Never late.

Three minutes before. No more. No less.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Usually at least an hour early to get a good seat.

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.

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.

Exact

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.

Whenever I remember there is a meeting on. Have to keep those damned outlook 15min reminders on screen or I will forget

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.

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.

Exactly on point, because there's always people early or late. This way I neither have to start it nor be embarresed to be the last.

Also:

A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to

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.

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.

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.

Maybe ten seconds before of after the start time. Depends if I was working on something or forgot about it. If the meeting starts at 8am, then whenever I get to the office a few minutes after 8am (don’t schedule meetings first thing if you want me to be there when they start). If it was on one of my wfh days, that’d be different.

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.

“A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to”