Finding a time to have a meeting that works for everyone is the worst

Hi, my name is Shir and I actually love coordinating and scheduling stuff because it brings some sense of order into this chaotic universe. But even I have some red lines.

So my rule says that if I tried to offer some dates and time slots twice (usually with a doodle, bless this tool), it's now the other side's responsibility to come up with alternative dates. In the scenario where it's somehow still my role to continue chasing the elusive meeting window, I will separate and conquer with individual "kill them with kindness" emails to each reluctant participant with the bottom line of "everyone else can at X, Y, T, you can't, if it's OK we'll have the meeting and send you the notes".

97% of the time, this works and the accept one of the dates.

(Thank you for coming to my TED talk.)

I just want everyone at work to use their calendar in Outlook. I would like to open Outlook, use the scheduling assistant, and find a time! About half the people use their calendar, a quarter do not and get upset when you don't individually remember that it is their clinical day or ask them individually, and a quarter who have secretaries that get mad if you don't call them and discuss the best time. Usually, if I have a meeting to set up with a person with a secretary, I try to get that secretary to do it instead of me!

I definitely try to get an assistant to handle scheduling at work! Unfortunately, this is a non-work meeting. Come to find out, there is no day of the week except Friday that would work for everyone. Unless I skip my yoga class, which I just offered to do. Ugh! They asked about "mornings," and I was like, hard no. I'm barely functional when I get to the office at 8:30, I'm not having a meeting before that!

Yeah, if someone at work schedules a meeting before normal working hours, my body might show up but I guarantee my participation in the meeting will not be productive.

That is the thing I find most unrealistic about The LWord. All these people having breakfast with their friends before work??? Please. (Though a writer at Autostraddle tried to get her friends to do it in honor of the show, for a week, and it sounded pretty rad. But nobody I know is about chill breakfast hangs. Brunch yes. Breakfast on a weekday???)

Big no on morning meetings from here too.

Say, board people. Does anyone here plan go to ConFusion this week? Two good friends will be there, and I'm all for awesome people to get to know one another.

That is the thing I find most unrealistic about The LWord. All these people having breakfast with their friends before work??? Please.

Ha! Maybe they have 10am kinds of jobs?

I mean, definitely some people I knew in DC went to work late (it seems less common here in Seattle for time zone reasons but I believe it for LA) but mostly those folks were even less about pre-work morning time than early folks! I'm def more of a morning person than I used to be, in that my natural wake up time has gotten a little earlier, but I still don't rush to DO things in the morning....I'm also not a morning workout person.

I get looks of awe and amazement when other people in my building see me doing my laundry in the morning before work.

We have Outlook and calendars ... but, somehow, in my office we have multiple calendars and it's hard to find one that everyone uses. I have to keep two open - one for the main office and one for me, personally - since the notices of changes to meetings and the attached materials only go to my personal calendar. But the main office calendar has information on when the office is closed, when people are out and so on. This has been going on for YEARS and it's never been resolved. We also have a bunch of calendars that were set up years ago that don't seem to be in use, but that no one seems able to clear off the system.

Isn't technology wonderful?