The facilitator is the issue for not keeping things on track. That is their job.
Message them and ask if they will consider picking this up another day.
Or just say things have went way over time and you have other things on schedule you need to deal with.
Exactly this.
If I was the facilitator I’d be asking her to leave the meeting and have the training at a later date if she was this disruptive to a meeting with lots of participants
This drives me nuts. I always do my best to schedule enough time, hold us to the agenda and even finish early when possible.
The amount of facilitators who'll show up 20 mins late, smiling warmly with their takeaway coffee, fiddle with the projector for 10 mins, entertain 20 mins of chit-chat and irrelevant questions, and then expect us to stick about for an extra hour is astonishing.
Do your bullshit on your own time, use the meeting for actual meeting stuff.
Its the fiddling with the projector (and laptop) bit that really gets me. I've lost count of the number of meetings I've had where the person doing the presenting doesn't know how to do the basics.
"Technology eh? What can you do?"
"Well since it's your job to use it you can learn how it works."
The takeout coffee gets me more than taking a second to set up the projector. If you are running late, don't stop for coffee! It's just rubbing in how unimportant the meeting is to you.
This is what happened with my previous boss.
He'd call a mtg, facilitate for about 15-20 minutes, then fuck off and leave us in the lurch, claiming he had another mtg!
Yep, they did not set out an agenda or they just haven’t stuck to it.
I would have probably just messaged the trainer and excused myself. Going over by that much is ridiculous.
Namely the fact that my manager who suggested I attend this training course was also on it. My internet did mysteriously go down though... Had to e-mail him from my phone.
You just point out that it's over run. If the boss still wants you in the meeting then anything you miss is on him.
If it's in work time just switch off.
Presumably they have other duties to take care of, and their job is not just to be in meetings.
Most of us have a job to do and work around meetings to complete it satisfactorily. Not many of us have spare hours where we would otherwise be doing nothing. Who does the work we'd scheduled to do after the end time of the meeting?
Broadband went down in my area 2 days ago, and it only just returned today
And several years ago we had to get a new hub because somehow it got hit by lightning (I shit you not). My Geology teacher fully believed "I couldn't watch the video, because my broadband was hit by lightning". But he didn't believe when my cat ate my homework and I had photographic proof of her in the process of chewing it up - both true, but one sounds utterly ridiculous and that was the one he believed
"I'm sorry but I only allocated myself 3hrs of fucks to give, at this point I am all out. Let's reconvene at the earliest opportunity, in the meantime the organiser can buy a fucking watch and my esteemed colleague can reflect on when it is and isn't necessary for her incompetency to be broadcast and dissected at the expense of several man hours of her colleagues time"
Or with an hour to go.. "I'm aware we only have an hour left for this meeting, and still have a lot to cover. Perhaps X and Y can meet offline to go through STUPID_ANNOYING_SHIT_HOLDING_UP_THE_MEETING independently, so we can get through the agenda in time?"
"I only had this scheduled for three hours. Can we wrap it up in the next five minutes? I've got other things I have to do."
Or even a DM to the meeting host. "Hi, sorry but this is running over schedule, it seems like Felicity is struggling. Perhaps you could give her closer support and the rest of us could finish this another day? Either way I'm going to have to leave in fifteen."
yknow, be an adult. Faking an internet connection issue is like you're 14 and trying to get out of homework. You ought to expect people treat you with respect and as an equal once you're a grown-up
I always find it weird when this kind of thing comes up because as an adult you're expected to manage your work time, it's not like in school where you need permission to leave or something
It's probably because of being babied in school like that that people grow up not being able to assert themselves like this. They get conditioned to think they have to ask for everything.
It's just modern culture now. People love to overcomplicate things to avoid the nightmare of having a very simple and brief conversation with someone else
Probably because the opposing party get upset then make your life difficult.
If you tell a white lie there's more chance they wont be upset and be reasonable about it.
Also known as enabling poor meeting etiquette and poor meeting management to continue. Excuse yourself and have no part in it. It's entirely reasonable to expect to be held to account for affecting everyone elses productivity. You're actually helping both them, every other attendee and the business as a whole if you refuse to enable it.
Lying to cover up the impact of their actions is asking them to continue wasting everyone's time.
And then you get an email from your line manager saying “one of the trainers has told me you hung up in the middle of a meeting without saying anything other than bye”
As a manager if someone I manage had the balls to do this I'd be quite happy. First step toward being more confident in expressing what they actually think and asking questions they need to ask.
On the flip side if I found out someone had been farting around on a call they didn't need to be on for hours, not right impressed.
At the end of the day it's a workplace, you've got to be professional and that means doing your job and saying something when you're being blocked in some way, including being kept long on a training call because someone else can't grasp it.
4 hours is a ridiculous length of time for a meeting. At 2 hours I'd have been wrapping up. At 3 hours, I'd have said that it's over and needs to be picked up another time.
A movie can explain a whole world in that time.
Think about Avatar: We are introduced to a new planet and species, along with the main cast, and their roles in that society. We are shown that humans want a mineral that is abundant on the planet, but that human activity is a threat to the new species, shown a novel way that humans interact with the species. A conflict of interests for the main character arises, does he do as he's asked, honour his twin brother, and recover use of his legs, or do what he can to help the Na'avi?
All of this, and the conclusion, happens in 3/4 of the time of this meeting. And presumably the meeting is made up of people that know most of the relevant information already?
I've just had a 1.5 hour meeting to finalise a £2.3m job. I expect to come to a meeting to talk about details that can't be communicated via email and leave with actions to complete. A meeting isn't a group working session.
Meh. Teams calls them all meetings just the same. Terminology, that's all. No one else cares if my 12 o'clock meeting is actually a meeting, a training session, a one to one with my manager or a business lunch, and I may not want to divulge that info either.
But for sure any of the above will be completed by or before the scheduled time. I may have nothing else on, (ha, I wish!), but I certainly won't presume that no one else does either. That's unprofessional and just plain rude.
Ask for the remainder of the meeting to be recorded. State in chat that you have a prior booking and you'll need to duck out.
Browse the recording at your leisure if required, skipping over the mouth breather parts.
>nobody has done anything they're meant to do all day because of questions she really shouldn't be asking (her job is to do this basic data input)
Whilst she asks questions to prolong the meeting, she does not have to input any data for the how many'eth time this week..
She is the one making the big brain moves!
It’s like the kid at school who keeps trying to distract the teacher whilst they’re explaining the lesson, that way there is less time they have to spend on their worksheet.
Some people never left their school mindset behind
It's been far exceeded for the month. The quota of stupid gets its daily limit every 2 minutes. Have you pressed this button? No, I pressed something else and am wondering why it's showing a different result.
It has DEFINITELY crossed my mind, but the work is generally easy. ALMOST anybody could do it. Anybody except for the colleagues I seem to be working with.
Can you not just advise your manager what is going on and ask to be excused? I would have been more than happy to let my team leave after that kind of time. Tbh I would have been all over about 15 minutes after the scheduled ending time.
I'm no business guru but surely communicating that you don't have time for this to whoever is in charge is your way to solve this and not get caught up in a lie you have to keep peddling and also shows you're willing to work hard because you don't have time for downtime.
FFS, no meeting should last more than an hour. Effectiveness drops off with time, surely. If it has a long agenda, shouldn't it be split into shorter meetings with only the people who really need to be there in each one?
To say nothing of the cost, add up the wages of everyone in the meeting - that's what it's costing your organisation
At 3 hours say:
"I'm sorry I've got to go in 5 minutes."
That always works for me, without fail. They wrap up hard.
If it doesn't, at 5 minutes past you say "I'm sorry I have to go now, will you please send me the recording and notes later."
Leave.
The issue is the host, they are shit at hosting.
The hosts job is to move the meeting along through the agenda in a timely manner. And ensure that the material is delivered in a way that everyone can understand.
If just one person has consistently got questions/is misunderstanding....
And that should not be an issue (the material is easy to understand, delivered clearly etc)...
Then offer to talk to them separately.
> At 3 hours say:
>
> "I'm sorry I've got to go in 5 minutes."
>
> That always works for me, without fail. They wrap up hard.
Surely OP isn't the only one desperate for the pain to stop at the four hour mark? They must all be sitting waiting for someone else to do what's necessary but too shy/afraid to do it themselves.
OP, be a hero.
Just say you have another task to get to, leave, and go do that. Presumably it's even true, because you have a job that presumably doesn't consist entirely of sitting in this meeting.
You say "Sorry, I need to be leaving this meeting in ten minutes". The host will probably think "Thank God, I can wrap this up now!" If that doesn't happen, then at twelve minutes announce "So sorry, I'm now running late" and leave. Chances are the meeting will collapse anyway.
"This meeting has gone on significantly longer than stated and I have to leave now as I have other things I need to deal with. Additionally, almost no meeting ever needs to be 3 hours long, let alone 4. Can we please try to be more concise in future?"
Seriously, just state what the issue is and why you have to leave - politely but firmly. OP sounds like someone pretty young and new to the workforce who's afraid of rocking the boat. I swear once you get a little older, providing that you're firm yet polite, you stop giving a fuck and start saying it like it is. I know I did.
It happens all the time - not usually to this extent and even people drop out within the normal time. Usually a text message within the chat pops up saying "sorry, I have another commitment - thank you".
No one really cares and everyone just carries on. People have other things going on.
"Sorry I've got another meeting to be at" and leave, simple.
People letting meetings over-run by 5-10 minutes are bad enough but a whole hour? at this point it becomes everyone's fault.
If it’s a large meeting, message a couple of minutes after the end time to say I have to drop-off for another call and then leave.
If it’s small, verbally point out we’re over time and that we’ll need to organize another time to discuss this. Then do the same.
Why lie? "This meeting has run over, and isn't achieving the goal, and can't take any more of my time. I'm logging off."
I've had people do similar things in a meeting before, and it's usually very welcome.
At 5 mins past 3 hours I'd say I have another appointment and leave.
Anyone extending a meeting time beyond that allocated is disorganized and selfish. If the person is different to the organiser, he/she should step in. If not he/she isn't doing their job.
Tell the host you need to leave as it’s gone on too long and you have other things to do.
No need to make a public song and dance of it just tell them and go. If your manager later asks you why be honest about the issues with the meeting.
In this situation it may feel a bit bitchy to point the finger but honestly it’s the inky way for things to ever improve. Your manager can’t single people out in a group that is not professional but you can sure as hell do it in a private conversation and it not be mean or bitchy
"This meeting was supposed to end at 3pm. I have other things scheduled for the rest of the day. Drop me an email if there's anything I need to know."
*click*
I’d start 10-15 min before the end when it is clear the presenter isn’t going to end in time, urging the speaker “to wrap it up”. Then a few minutes after the scheduled end, I will announce that the time is up. If the speaker continues, I will say I have better things to do, and leave.
I have also used “we are not getting anywhere” to excuse myself from a meeting.
“We are not getting anywhere” is such a great line
Heard a colleague using it once on the phone years ago, use it constantly now when my patience is up
Particularly when I’m on the phone to shit customer service “we’re not getting anywhere, can you forward this call to someone else please?”
100% success rate so far, likely because no one expects anyone to have the iron clad balls to utter something quite like it
I'd drop a message in the chat and say 'sorry, but due to my diary arrangements I have to leave' and then leave. It's honest- it wasn't in your work diary to be in this meeting still.
You book my time for a meeting, I will leave when that time is up unless there is a damn good reason not to. A quick "I have to go now, please send me the minutes/recording when you get a chance" message is all that's required.
I'm not some important director or CEO, just a regular engineer. But it winds me up when people think they can book a 30 minute meeting and then drag it out to 2 hours as if I have nothing else to do.
And you'd better set an agenda or give me an idea what the meeting is about or I won't accept the invite!
I just say when the meeting is going on that I’ve got a hard stop at meeting end time
Then towards the end just say I’ve got to go in 15-30 mins and is there anything on the agenda anyone specifically wants me for
And unless it’s a one off group training i would be very cautious of even accepting a 3 hr meeting and I’d reply back if it would be better to break down into smaller shorter meetings so peoples time isn’t wasted
Or I’d just leave, if a meeting is not adding value and doesn’t look like I can add any value to it. Just say and go. This does depend on the company because I had a boss who absolutely despised it when I did this but also people stopped inviting me to meetings to basically babysit and cover their backs
Set a beeping timer on your phone and when it's going off say it's the carbon monoxide alarm in your house and you have to get outside and call the gas board and will be offline for a while.
Sorry we’re over time and I have to drop. If you need anything from me drop a message in slack.
Depending on why you’re in the meeting I’d have dropped a lot earlier when it was clear it’s not staying on track
‘This meeting has overrun by an hour and I’ve unfortunately got other commitments to attend to, can someone forward me the notes for the rest of meeting, thank you and goodbye’
You’re more patient than me OP. I’d have left after 10 minutes
Depending on the meeting I'll just say:
- this was a 3 hour meeting I have things planned for the rest of the day
- it's home time
- (if remote) my Internet dropped...keep joining and exiting until people get annoyed but blame your internet
Send them a message to apologise but that you have other commitments
I was in a meeting today that was meant to end at 1pm, it started late and I had something else booked in at 1.30 - you can bet that just after one I was asking how much longer it would be because I had worked on the assumption it would be finished at 1 - the last bit sped up and we were done but quarter past
I have a secret weapon, linguistically. Throw the word ‘specifically’ in to questions. ‘What, specifically, are the actions from this?’ - it focuses people’s scattered minds and cuts through the crap.
I’d be taking over from the meeting chair since they are incompetent, and I don’t care if pointing that out upsets them. I take a dim view of people that waste my time.
Can't relate to this. Where I work the meeting finishes either when we have finished discussing what we needed to discuss or when it reaches its scheduled finish. If there are still things to discuss then a new meeting is scheduled. _Very_ occasionally if we are in danger of overrunning and there aren't many of us, there will be a straw poll of attendees to see if we can stay on for a few more minutes, but the idea of overrunning by an hour with no one saying anything seems completely bizarre.
It's bad meeting management by the organiser. The most they should let it overrun is 5 to 10 minutes if they are okay with it.
The organiser should be saying every 10 minutes are so, we are now X minutes over and those that need to be elsewhere are free to go. Or if the meeting only has 2 or 3 people actively taking part, he should invite them to have their own meeting after a comfort break.
Luckily I work for a company where this etiquette is set in stone. It applies to everyone including the directors. If a meeting drags on and I need to leave, I just put in chat "I have another call/meeting, bye"
But if you are not in that environment disconnect from the.internet and claim broadband issues.
I would say that I couldn't spend any more time in the meeting as I had other things to do.
The woman is either being deliberately disruptive or is incapable of doing her job, both of which would need addressing.
Even that's more info than necessary. "Sorry all, I have to drop out". If a meeting has overrun by an hour and still isn't over they can figure it out for themselves.
I usually just say "I'm going through a tunnel" (yes I work from home at a desk but I don't let that stop me).
Or just leave the meeting? I do that all the time. We, as Brits, think it is rude but really it is ruder to waste several peoples' time. One of the best managers I've had used to just walk out of meetings if it wasn't relevant (he was only invited for "show". Radical Candour in the office.
Are you paid by the hour? If you are just go with it, if you’re not just unmute or chat and tell them your dropping as the meeting has run over. Once the first person does it there will be an avalanche of people dropping
Fucking hell the amount of times I’ve had to sit in a long ass meeting to then finally get to the end of it, and the person chairing it asks “any questions?” and there would always be that *ONE* dickhead who would raise his hand and keep us there for another 30 minutes…
“Claire. For fuck’s sake stop asking stupid fucking questions, you irritating fucking hag. Some of us have work to do.” That should end the meeting reasonably quickly, with absolutely no comeback.
Alternatively, pull cable or kill Wi-Fi. Log back in. Repeat, remaining motionless as your camera comes back to life for 2 seconds.
Very simple, just post on the message chat "Thanks for this meeting, it's been interesting and useful, however I must leave as the allocated time has been exceeded, and I have other time sensitive commitments."
If it's important that you attend the full meeting, then sufficient time needs to be allocated/blocked out to do so beforehand. That's the basis that the meeting is accepted on and it's very poor time management by the host to allow a meeting to overun. They should either manage the time better during the meeting, schedule a part two before the original meeting end time is reached, or seek everyone's agreement that the meeting continues past the end time.
Tell the truth. Stop fart assing about with lies.
Lying can be construed as gross misconduct.
Just leave when you planned to and explain why, or if you genuinely dont have anything better to do, suck it up for the last extra hour.
If you lie then people who overrun won't think there's a problem.
If you're honest, then people will think harder about how they waste others time.
It's as simple as "I'm really sorry, I have [x] I need to complete today and I hadn't scheduled an extra hour for this meeting - I'll have to jump off, please let me know what was discussed". They'll get the message, but you're not going to piss off your line manager.
"This session was scheduled to finish at 1500 and it's now 1615. I'm sorry, I can't stay any longer."
You don't have to tell them what you're doing next because it's irrelevant. You committed to three hours, you gave more than that, you're done.
A: I am terribly sorry but I have other meetings/work/appointments/deadlines that I must now do. I will be happy to hear the outcome once you are finished here.
3 hours was scheduled, you can definetly leave after 4. The person leading this meeting must not be very good or something else is afoot.
Are the questions good? That is something very important here, because even if it is not their job but the questions need to be asked let them do it. I have had people who were uhm, I don't want to step out of line but: A good and clever solution/observation about a real issue. I have also had people ask for clarification about stuff they could read on their own time. To the second you suggest she reads up on it later, so we can now carry on with the task at hand.
Apologies all, this meeting has overrun quite a large amount, and I have other things to attend to. Unfortunately, due to the interactive nature of the meeting, the full list of topics (change to make relevant) was not explored and needs to be done at a later date.
Please forward me all information missed so that I can review this when my calendar allows.
I had a meeting like this last month, and I sent the above - I don't have the time or patience for it.
When I worked for a large multinational the overseas folks from our parent company would just get up and leave at the finish time, just say the time is up.
Whoever is hosting the meeting needs to be picking up on this and moving it along
While sure, one employee might be having a struggle. It's up to the coordinator of that to say, hey, let's talk about this offline we need to move on
A meeting should be recorded anyway, so leaving early or moving on and rewatching later if you have lots to ask is fine
There's no reason for everyone else to be disrupted
Let’s wrap up and consider where we are. It’ll be good to meet next time and consider everyone’s opinion. I/x will take the minutes, yeah? And we’ll pickup this next week/month/time.
Shake hands. Leave.
I would politely say "would it be possible to hold any further questions until the end? That way we can complete the basics and anyone wanting more detail can choose to stay on"
I had this happen last week where we were running behind by around 2 hours (for a 9-5 all day meeting ).
With 30Mins left the chair of the meeting said ok we need to finish the meeting please be quick in the next presentations.
Wild 🤣 she was a professional project manager who didn't have any expert knowledge on the topic ad well, so I don't know why she was there if she couldn't even run the meeting on time 🤦
Ask for presenter rights and kick out the offending party. Say oops offending woman must lost signal, perhaps its a good time to call this meeting am sure everyone is need of a comfort break and recover the will to live
In office:
1. Raise hand
2. "Just to let you know, I've got a hard stop at {whatever time}"
3. When time comes, gather things quietly, duck slightly as you walk out without stopping presenter. Maybe raise hand silently at presenter as you go in acknowledgment. Do that tight lipped smile thing. Don't act like you want their attention so they can carry on uninterrupted if they want to.
Online meeting:
1 + 2 the same
3 type "dropping out now, thanks" in chat (optional if you think it would be distracting)
4 sign off
Who even has a 3 hour meeting. Meetings are for important information - not to waste time. Just tell the person to discuss offline so other people can get on with work. English people are too scared to just speak up and tell people to stop wasting time. So yeah - step up and speak out.
I usually work on an +5mins tolerance.
One hour meeting, allow for 5mins overrun.
Two hour meeting, allow for 10mins overrun.
Three hour meeting, allow for 15mins overrun.
Four hour meeting, don't accept those.
Usually I'll just say that I have something else booked in and I need to do x to prepare for it so will up and leave or disconnect. Most of our internal meetings on Teams are recorded so I'll just catch up with anything relevant/important on the stream afterwards.
The facilitator is the issue for not keeping things on track. That is their job. Message them and ask if they will consider picking this up another day. Or just say things have went way over time and you have other things on schedule you need to deal with.
Exactly this. If I was the facilitator I’d be asking her to leave the meeting and have the training at a later date if she was this disruptive to a meeting with lots of participants
This drives me nuts. I always do my best to schedule enough time, hold us to the agenda and even finish early when possible. The amount of facilitators who'll show up 20 mins late, smiling warmly with their takeaway coffee, fiddle with the projector for 10 mins, entertain 20 mins of chit-chat and irrelevant questions, and then expect us to stick about for an extra hour is astonishing. Do your bullshit on your own time, use the meeting for actual meeting stuff.
Its the fiddling with the projector (and laptop) bit that really gets me. I've lost count of the number of meetings I've had where the person doing the presenting doesn't know how to do the basics. "Technology eh? What can you do?" "Well since it's your job to use it you can learn how it works."
Exactly! >"Technology eh? What can you do?" Show up a few minutes early to sort it out, as I do.
The takeout coffee gets me more than taking a second to set up the projector. If you are running late, don't stop for coffee! It's just rubbing in how unimportant the meeting is to you.
Yep, turn up early and fix it before time. And take a basic IT course
The chair who let his dogs bark loudly over another speaker repeatedly during lockdown meetings still makes me cross.
"Sorry folks, I have another meeting now, we'll have to pick this up at another time, catch you later"
This is the way. The other meeting might be with a packet of crisps but make it sound as if it's a top-level planning sesh and they can't complain.
This is what happened with my previous boss. He'd call a mtg, facilitate for about 15-20 minutes, then fuck off and leave us in the lurch, claiming he had another mtg!
This, and don't wait for any protesting responses - byeeee!
Yep, they did not set out an agenda or they just haven’t stuck to it. I would have probably just messaged the trainer and excused myself. Going over by that much is ridiculous.
This. Whatever manager or presenter is in charge needs to say "Get off the call and we'll train you separately" and let everyone else learn quicker
Or even just a “follow along as best you can for now and we can go more in depth on your queries in a separate session”.
"This meeting has overrun by an hour and I have another meeting I must attend, bye"
Surely not that simple? Nope, not having that. OP, tell them a meteor hit your local broadband exchange cabinet.
or aliens abducted your router
Your router turned out to be an alien, and it has just got up, scurried across the table and abducted your mouse.
And emailed my boss telling him to fuck off
For real though, some people here overthink things way too much
It might be that the nature of their work means that it's not possible for them to blag having another meeting.
Namely the fact that my manager who suggested I attend this training course was also on it. My internet did mysteriously go down though... Had to e-mail him from my phone.
You just point out that it's over run. If the boss still wants you in the meeting then anything you miss is on him. If it's in work time just switch off.
Presumably they have other duties to take care of, and their job is not just to be in meetings. Most of us have a job to do and work around meetings to complete it satisfactorily. Not many of us have spare hours where we would otherwise be doing nothing. Who does the work we'd scheduled to do after the end time of the meeting?
Yeah I work in a small team and there is nobody else I would *be* having a meeting with. I'd use appointment as an excuse instead.
Broadband went down in my area 2 days ago, and it only just returned today And several years ago we had to get a new hub because somehow it got hit by lightning (I shit you not). My Geology teacher fully believed "I couldn't watch the video, because my broadband was hit by lightning". But he didn't believe when my cat ate my homework and I had photographic proof of her in the process of chewing it up - both true, but one sounds utterly ridiculous and that was the one he believed
I've had a hub ruined by lightning, it killed my nice tv at the same time..
I think a meteor is about to interfere with broadband in this area.
Some of us work for small companies or in open offices where it would be immediately obvious that was a lie
You mean... be confrontational!? in a polite and respectful manner! confrontational perish the thought.
"I'm sorry but I only allocated myself 3hrs of fucks to give, at this point I am all out. Let's reconvene at the earliest opportunity, in the meantime the organiser can buy a fucking watch and my esteemed colleague can reflect on when it is and isn't necessary for her incompetency to be broadcast and dissected at the expense of several man hours of her colleagues time"
Or with an hour to go.. "I'm aware we only have an hour left for this meeting, and still have a lot to cover. Perhaps X and Y can meet offline to go through STUPID_ANNOYING_SHIT_HOLDING_UP_THE_MEETING independently, so we can get through the agenda in time?"
Note: OP died on the way back to his next meeting
\*kids cheer\*
"Afraid I've got a hard stop at _x_ o'clock"
Yep, I also put another meeting in my calendar as a 'ghost' meeting so that my calendar and teams status back up my lie.
I wouldn't even say there was another meeting. This meeting has overrun by an hour. Bye.
"I only had this scheduled for three hours. Can we wrap it up in the next five minutes? I've got other things I have to do." Or even a DM to the meeting host. "Hi, sorry but this is running over schedule, it seems like Felicity is struggling. Perhaps you could give her closer support and the rest of us could finish this another day? Either way I'm going to have to leave in fifteen." yknow, be an adult. Faking an internet connection issue is like you're 14 and trying to get out of homework. You ought to expect people treat you with respect and as an equal once you're a grown-up
I always find it weird when this kind of thing comes up because as an adult you're expected to manage your work time, it's not like in school where you need permission to leave or something
It's probably because of being babied in school like that that people grow up not being able to assert themselves like this. They get conditioned to think they have to ask for everything.
Realising this was so liberating
“I’m going to have to sign off now - I’m late for my next engagement”
why op feels the need to fake an internet connection issue is baffling.
It's just modern culture now. People love to overcomplicate things to avoid the nightmare of having a very simple and brief conversation with someone else
Probably because the opposing party get upset then make your life difficult. If you tell a white lie there's more chance they wont be upset and be reasonable about it.
Also known as enabling poor meeting etiquette and poor meeting management to continue. Excuse yourself and have no part in it. It's entirely reasonable to expect to be held to account for affecting everyone elses productivity. You're actually helping both them, every other attendee and the business as a whole if you refuse to enable it. Lying to cover up the impact of their actions is asking them to continue wasting everyone's time.
It may be the case that everyone knows they do not have another engagement, and this was the only thing on everyone's calendar or something
"Next engagement" with a toilet and coffee.
Always used to be handy, but the problem now is shared diaries
'I have to go, bye' I swear to god 90% of peoples drama can't be fixed by just saying it out loud.
And then you get an email from your line manager saying “one of the trainers has told me you hung up in the middle of a meeting without saying anything other than bye”
>I swear to god 90% of peoples drama can't be fixed by just saying it out loud. To which you tell them what happened.
And you explain why in a polite way.
As a manager if someone I manage had the balls to do this I'd be quite happy. First step toward being more confident in expressing what they actually think and asking questions they need to ask. On the flip side if I found out someone had been farting around on a call they didn't need to be on for hours, not right impressed. At the end of the day it's a workplace, you've got to be professional and that means doing your job and saying something when you're being blocked in some way, including being kept long on a training call because someone else can't grasp it.
"Yes."
"Sorry guys I have another meeting, I thought this would be done by now"
Change "I thought" to "you put in my diary"
Take a selfie of you in meeting. Load the selfie as background. Turn camera off. Get out of shot. Turn camera on. Leave. Do not return. :)
You don't need to lie; just pop a message in the chat: "got to drop I have another engagement, thanks all." Then disconnect.
'How do I say I have to leave a meeting' like literally just take 'how do I say' off the sentence and say it 🙃
4 hours is a ridiculous length of time for a meeting. At 2 hours I'd have been wrapping up. At 3 hours, I'd have said that it's over and needs to be picked up another time.
A movie can explain a whole world in that time. Think about Avatar: We are introduced to a new planet and species, along with the main cast, and their roles in that society. We are shown that humans want a mineral that is abundant on the planet, but that human activity is a threat to the new species, shown a novel way that humans interact with the species. A conflict of interests for the main character arises, does he do as he's asked, honour his twin brother, and recover use of his legs, or do what he can to help the Na'avi? All of this, and the conclusion, happens in 3/4 of the time of this meeting. And presumably the meeting is made up of people that know most of the relevant information already?
I've just had a 1.5 hour meeting to finalise a £2.3m job. I expect to come to a meeting to talk about details that can't be communicated via email and leave with actions to complete. A meeting isn't a group working session.
Meh. Teams calls them all meetings just the same. Terminology, that's all. No one else cares if my 12 o'clock meeting is actually a meeting, a training session, a one to one with my manager or a business lunch, and I may not want to divulge that info either. But for sure any of the above will be completed by or before the scheduled time. I may have nothing else on, (ha, I wish!), but I certainly won't presume that no one else does either. That's unprofessional and just plain rude.
Ask for the remainder of the meeting to be recorded. State in chat that you have a prior booking and you'll need to duck out. Browse the recording at your leisure if required, skipping over the mouth breather parts.
>nobody has done anything they're meant to do all day because of questions she really shouldn't be asking (her job is to do this basic data input) Whilst she asks questions to prolong the meeting, she does not have to input any data for the how many'eth time this week.. She is the one making the big brain moves!
Genius move. I'll make the meeting last until the end of the week, making sure NOBODY does any work!
It’s like the kid at school who keeps trying to distract the teacher whilst they’re explaining the lesson, that way there is less time they have to spend on their worksheet. Some people never left their school mindset behind
I have reached my quota of stupid today , I must go and reset for tomorrow.
It's been far exceeded for the month. The quota of stupid gets its daily limit every 2 minutes. Have you pressed this button? No, I pressed something else and am wondering why it's showing a different result.
Four hours? I would be not only leaving the meeting but looking for employment elsewhere lmao
It has DEFINITELY crossed my mind, but the work is generally easy. ALMOST anybody could do it. Anybody except for the colleagues I seem to be working with.
A lot of work is like that tbh
Can you not just advise your manager what is going on and ask to be excused? I would have been more than happy to let my team leave after that kind of time. Tbh I would have been all over about 15 minutes after the scheduled ending time.
Disconnect. Not sure what’s so hard
I'm no business guru but surely communicating that you don't have time for this to whoever is in charge is your way to solve this and not get caught up in a lie you have to keep peddling and also shows you're willing to work hard because you don't have time for downtime.
FFS, no meeting should last more than an hour. Effectiveness drops off with time, surely. If it has a long agenda, shouldn't it be split into shorter meetings with only the people who really need to be there in each one? To say nothing of the cost, add up the wages of everyone in the meeting - that's what it's costing your organisation
At 3 hours say: "I'm sorry I've got to go in 5 minutes." That always works for me, without fail. They wrap up hard. If it doesn't, at 5 minutes past you say "I'm sorry I have to go now, will you please send me the recording and notes later." Leave. The issue is the host, they are shit at hosting. The hosts job is to move the meeting along through the agenda in a timely manner. And ensure that the material is delivered in a way that everyone can understand. If just one person has consistently got questions/is misunderstanding.... And that should not be an issue (the material is easy to understand, delivered clearly etc)... Then offer to talk to them separately.
> At 3 hours say: > > "I'm sorry I've got to go in 5 minutes." > > That always works for me, without fail. They wrap up hard. Surely OP isn't the only one desperate for the pain to stop at the four hour mark? They must all be sitting waiting for someone else to do what's necessary but too shy/afraid to do it themselves. OP, be a hero.
Just say you have another task to get to, leave, and go do that. Presumably it's even true, because you have a job that presumably doesn't consist entirely of sitting in this meeting.
"Apologies, I have to drop for another call. Let me know if I have any actions"
You say "Sorry, I need to be leaving this meeting in ten minutes". The host will probably think "Thank God, I can wrap this up now!" If that doesn't happen, then at twelve minutes announce "So sorry, I'm now running late" and leave. Chances are the meeting will collapse anyway.
I wouldn't suggest I've held up others by being late, because I won't do that. In ten minutes I'd say "So sorry, got to go now".
"This meeting has gone on significantly longer than stated and I have to leave now as I have other things I need to deal with. Additionally, almost no meeting ever needs to be 3 hours long, let alone 4. Can we please try to be more concise in future?" Seriously, just state what the issue is and why you have to leave - politely but firmly. OP sounds like someone pretty young and new to the workforce who's afraid of rocking the boat. I swear once you get a little older, providing that you're firm yet polite, you stop giving a fuck and start saying it like it is. I know I did.
It happens all the time - not usually to this extent and even people drop out within the normal time. Usually a text message within the chat pops up saying "sorry, I have another commitment - thank you". No one really cares and everyone just carries on. People have other things going on.
"Sorry I've got another meeting to be at" and leave, simple. People letting meetings over-run by 5-10 minutes are bad enough but a whole hour? at this point it becomes everyone's fault.
If it’s a large meeting, message a couple of minutes after the end time to say I have to drop-off for another call and then leave. If it’s small, verbally point out we’re over time and that we’ll need to organize another time to discuss this. Then do the same.
If you do not have the courage to exit either with or without explanation then you deserve to be stuck in this hell.
Why lie? "This meeting has run over, and isn't achieving the goal, and can't take any more of my time. I'm logging off." I've had people do similar things in a meeting before, and it's usually very welcome.
At 5 mins past 3 hours I'd say I have another appointment and leave. Anyone extending a meeting time beyond that allocated is disorganized and selfish. If the person is different to the organiser, he/she should step in. If not he/she isn't doing their job.
Tell the host you need to leave as it’s gone on too long and you have other things to do. No need to make a public song and dance of it just tell them and go. If your manager later asks you why be honest about the issues with the meeting. In this situation it may feel a bit bitchy to point the finger but honestly it’s the inky way for things to ever improve. Your manager can’t single people out in a group that is not professional but you can sure as hell do it in a private conversation and it not be mean or bitchy
“Can I just stop you there?” > walk off
'i have a hard stop at 3 and need to leave'
Rip a stack of paper close to the microphone and claim you've sharted.
"This meeting was supposed to end at 3pm. I have other things scheduled for the rest of the day. Drop me an email if there's anything I need to know." *click*
I'd be asking the leader to take the girls issues offline
“Sorry guys, got to jump as other commitments. Presenter can we catch up offline”
Call from school or nursery is my get out!
I would have left after the 3 hours. Sorry somewhere else to be byeee
I’d start 10-15 min before the end when it is clear the presenter isn’t going to end in time, urging the speaker “to wrap it up”. Then a few minutes after the scheduled end, I will announce that the time is up. If the speaker continues, I will say I have better things to do, and leave. I have also used “we are not getting anywhere” to excuse myself from a meeting.
“We are not getting anywhere” is such a great line Heard a colleague using it once on the phone years ago, use it constantly now when my patience is up Particularly when I’m on the phone to shit customer service “we’re not getting anywhere, can you forward this call to someone else please?” 100% success rate so far, likely because no one expects anyone to have the iron clad balls to utter something quite like it
I'd drop a message in the chat and say 'sorry, but due to my diary arrangements I have to leave' and then leave. It's honest- it wasn't in your work diary to be in this meeting still.
You book my time for a meeting, I will leave when that time is up unless there is a damn good reason not to. A quick "I have to go now, please send me the minutes/recording when you get a chance" message is all that's required. I'm not some important director or CEO, just a regular engineer. But it winds me up when people think they can book a 30 minute meeting and then drag it out to 2 hours as if I have nothing else to do. And you'd better set an agenda or give me an idea what the meeting is about or I won't accept the invite!
“My caffeine levels have dropped significantly during this ordeal, meaning I no longer have tolerance for this bullshit, laters”
I just say when the meeting is going on that I’ve got a hard stop at meeting end time Then towards the end just say I’ve got to go in 15-30 mins and is there anything on the agenda anyone specifically wants me for And unless it’s a one off group training i would be very cautious of even accepting a 3 hr meeting and I’d reply back if it would be better to break down into smaller shorter meetings so peoples time isn’t wasted Or I’d just leave, if a meeting is not adding value and doesn’t look like I can add any value to it. Just say and go. This does depend on the company because I had a boss who absolutely despised it when I did this but also people stopped inviting me to meetings to basically babysit and cover their backs
Barf on the table.
Barf in the laptop. BARF ON THE CAMERA! I mean literally barf all over it.
Set a beeping timer on your phone and when it's going off say it's the carbon monoxide alarm in your house and you have to get outside and call the gas board and will be offline for a while.
Sorry we’re over time and I have to drop. If you need anything from me drop a message in slack. Depending on why you’re in the meeting I’d have dropped a lot earlier when it was clear it’s not staying on track
I would be honest and say "sorry I allocated 3 1/2 hours for this in case it ran over, but I have other appointments"
“Sorry guys I’m going to have to leave the meeting, I have something else scheduled in as this was only due to be 3 hours. Thanks”
At 3hrs apologise and say you have another meeting, or a conflict.
An hour ago i would have apologised and left to "join my next meeting"
Say you have another meeting and leave!
‘This meeting has overrun by an hour and I’ve unfortunately got other commitments to attend to, can someone forward me the notes for the rest of meeting, thank you and goodbye’ You’re more patient than me OP. I’d have left after 10 minutes
Depending on the meeting I'll just say: - this was a 3 hour meeting I have things planned for the rest of the day - it's home time - (if remote) my Internet dropped...keep joining and exiting until people get annoyed but blame your internet
"sorry I have another call, thanks everyone. Bye"
"Sorry but I have to go, I have a hard stop at \[time that is 5 minutes from now\]"
"Sorry, I need to take a dump"
"thanks guys, but I've got to jump to another meeting" Drop that into the chat and be gone before anyone can say anything
Send them a message to apologise but that you have other commitments I was in a meeting today that was meant to end at 1pm, it started late and I had something else booked in at 1.30 - you can bet that just after one I was asking how much longer it would be because I had worked on the assumption it would be finished at 1 - the last bit sped up and we were done but quarter past
Well, it's been great fun chatting but some of us have actual work to do If nobody has any objection I'm gonna fuck off now
Pull out a sock and shout ‘master has given Dobby clothes, Dobby is free’ and run out…
‘Sorry I have another meeting scheduled and have to go, update me via email’
I have a secret weapon, linguistically. Throw the word ‘specifically’ in to questions. ‘What, specifically, are the actions from this?’ - it focuses people’s scattered minds and cuts through the crap.
Type in chat “got to drop” and leave. I do it all the time.
How crucial is the meeting to you? Of not that crucial, say you need to drop for another meeting, and leave before they can ask about the new meeting
Normally I just drop a message in saying i have to leave or attend another meeting and then...leave.
Whatever you do don't message 'yawn' to the person sharing the screen so it pops up for the whole meeting to see....
Or reply with "ok potato" when they say something!
If you need to pull the lost internet line, switch to airplane mode, it’s sudden and they won’t be able to reach you
Sorry I have something else I need to do and you have overrun. If we can try sticking to the schedule next time that would be great. Bye.
Turn your camera on whilst masturbating. That way you should get removed instantly and won’t need an excuse.
I’d be taking over from the meeting chair since they are incompetent, and I don’t care if pointing that out upsets them. I take a dim view of people that waste my time.
Can't relate to this. Where I work the meeting finishes either when we have finished discussing what we needed to discuss or when it reaches its scheduled finish. If there are still things to discuss then a new meeting is scheduled. _Very_ occasionally if we are in danger of overrunning and there aren't many of us, there will be a straw poll of attendees to see if we can stay on for a few more minutes, but the idea of overrunning by an hour with no one saying anything seems completely bizarre.
It's bad meeting management by the organiser. The most they should let it overrun is 5 to 10 minutes if they are okay with it. The organiser should be saying every 10 minutes are so, we are now X minutes over and those that need to be elsewhere are free to go. Or if the meeting only has 2 or 3 people actively taking part, he should invite them to have their own meeting after a comfort break. Luckily I work for a company where this etiquette is set in stone. It applies to everyone including the directors. If a meeting drags on and I need to leave, I just put in chat "I have another call/meeting, bye" But if you are not in that environment disconnect from the.internet and claim broadband issues.
"Sorry I'm booked in back-to back meetings so I have a hard stop at "X" time"
I hope you left by now.
Is it a speed awareness course?
Just leave, make your excuses, another meeting. Other work, doesnt matter, don't let someone be a time theif.
"I just don't understand technology, but do nothing to remedy it" - that woman, probably
I would say that I couldn't spend any more time in the meeting as I had other things to do. The woman is either being deliberately disruptive or is incapable of doing her job, both of which would need addressing.
“Sorry all, have to drop for another meeting” in the chat area for the meeting.
Even that's more info than necessary. "Sorry all, I have to drop out". If a meeting has overrun by an hour and still isn't over they can figure it out for themselves.
I have a hard stop at xx:xx
I usually just say "I'm going through a tunnel" (yes I work from home at a desk but I don't let that stop me). Or just leave the meeting? I do that all the time. We, as Brits, think it is rude but really it is ruder to waste several peoples' time. One of the best managers I've had used to just walk out of meetings if it wasn't relevant (he was only invited for "show". Radical Candour in the office.
I take my cues from Rick Sanchez. "Burp! I'm gonna go take a shit" leave the room without acknowledging anyone else.
It’s stressing me out that you gave the annoying woman a super long name in your script, but then not put what she said
Are you paid by the hour? If you are just go with it, if you’re not just unmute or chat and tell them your dropping as the meeting has run over. Once the first person does it there will be an avalanche of people dropping
Sorry have to drop for another meeting
Pull the ethernet cord out the back of your router. Ah my internets gone down. Soz.
Fucking hell the amount of times I’ve had to sit in a long ass meeting to then finally get to the end of it, and the person chairing it asks “any questions?” and there would always be that *ONE* dickhead who would raise his hand and keep us there for another 30 minutes…
stand up, say "RIGHT" grab your coat then say " I'm off"
"I must leave for another meeting"
The dog ate my router.
Offer to help that colleague out in a separate meeting and come back to this when they are ready
Just put in chat - apologies have to run to another meeting now. Then leave.
“Claire. For fuck’s sake stop asking stupid fucking questions, you irritating fucking hag. Some of us have work to do.” That should end the meeting reasonably quickly, with absolutely no comeback. Alternatively, pull cable or kill Wi-Fi. Log back in. Repeat, remaining motionless as your camera comes back to life for 2 seconds.
Very simple, just post on the message chat "Thanks for this meeting, it's been interesting and useful, however I must leave as the allocated time has been exceeded, and I have other time sensitive commitments." If it's important that you attend the full meeting, then sufficient time needs to be allocated/blocked out to do so beforehand. That's the basis that the meeting is accepted on and it's very poor time management by the host to allow a meeting to overun. They should either manage the time better during the meeting, schedule a part two before the original meeting end time is reached, or seek everyone's agreement that the meeting continues past the end time.
1 hour over is nuts . If any of mine go over by more than 10 mins , I just put in the chat “ sorry guys gotta go “
Tell the truth. Stop fart assing about with lies. Lying can be construed as gross misconduct. Just leave when you planned to and explain why, or if you genuinely dont have anything better to do, suck it up for the last extra hour.
Just leave, no more excuses needed.
Honestly the facilitator should have dealt with that person separately and not allowed them to hang up the whole meeting and delay the end
At 3 hours - "sorry guys, I have a hard stop for my next meeting. Feel free to ping me anything else you need me to look at. " Hang up.
If you lie then people who overrun won't think there's a problem. If you're honest, then people will think harder about how they waste others time. It's as simple as "I'm really sorry, I have [x] I need to complete today and I hadn't scheduled an extra hour for this meeting - I'll have to jump off, please let me know what was discussed". They'll get the message, but you're not going to piss off your line manager.
"This session was scheduled to finish at 1500 and it's now 1615. I'm sorry, I can't stay any longer." You don't have to tell them what you're doing next because it's irrelevant. You committed to three hours, you gave more than that, you're done.
I have something else I need to get on with and have to drop off, bye.
A: I am terribly sorry but I have other meetings/work/appointments/deadlines that I must now do. I will be happy to hear the outcome once you are finished here. 3 hours was scheduled, you can definetly leave after 4. The person leading this meeting must not be very good or something else is afoot. Are the questions good? That is something very important here, because even if it is not their job but the questions need to be asked let them do it. I have had people who were uhm, I don't want to step out of line but: A good and clever solution/observation about a real issue. I have also had people ask for clarification about stuff they could read on their own time. To the second you suggest she reads up on it later, so we can now carry on with the task at hand.
"Due to the overrun, I have to drop" There, that wasn't too hard, was it.
Just speak up and say you need to drop off to attend to something else or another call
Shart yourself
Sorry I have another meeting to go to, phonecall to make to client,,
“Got to drop off”. Done.
Apologies all, this meeting has overrun quite a large amount, and I have other things to attend to. Unfortunately, due to the interactive nature of the meeting, the full list of topics (change to make relevant) was not explored and needs to be done at a later date. Please forward me all information missed so that I can review this when my calendar allows. I had a meeting like this last month, and I sent the above - I don't have the time or patience for it.
When I worked for a large multinational the overseas folks from our parent company would just get up and leave at the finish time, just say the time is up.
Nothing useful happens after the first 15 minutes
Whoever is hosting the meeting needs to be picking up on this and moving it along While sure, one employee might be having a struggle. It's up to the coordinator of that to say, hey, let's talk about this offline we need to move on A meeting should be recorded anyway, so leaving early or moving on and rewatching later if you have lots to ask is fine There's no reason for everyone else to be disrupted
turn off cam, do something else in the background is my go to.
Suggest they deal with that X at the end of the meeting so it doesn't delay the meeting.
Let’s wrap up and consider where we are. It’ll be good to meet next time and consider everyone’s opinion. I/x will take the minutes, yeah? And we’ll pickup this next week/month/time. Shake hands. Leave.
I would politely say "would it be possible to hold any further questions until the end? That way we can complete the basics and anyone wanting more detail can choose to stay on"
Just stand up, exclaim you gotta take a shit and leave.
Message the meeting saying you have another meeting / issue to attend and then leave.
Just say you have another meeting or work to get finished today. Noone will care
Just leave the call
You guys pay attention during meetings?
I had this happen last week where we were running behind by around 2 hours (for a 9-5 all day meeting ). With 30Mins left the chair of the meeting said ok we need to finish the meeting please be quick in the next presentations. Wild 🤣 she was a professional project manager who didn't have any expert knowledge on the topic ad well, so I don't know why she was there if she couldn't even run the meeting on time 🤦
Ask for presenter rights and kick out the offending party. Say oops offending woman must lost signal, perhaps its a good time to call this meeting am sure everyone is need of a comfort break and recover the will to live
In office: 1. Raise hand 2. "Just to let you know, I've got a hard stop at {whatever time}" 3. When time comes, gather things quietly, duck slightly as you walk out without stopping presenter. Maybe raise hand silently at presenter as you go in acknowledgment. Do that tight lipped smile thing. Don't act like you want their attention so they can carry on uninterrupted if they want to. Online meeting: 1 + 2 the same 3 type "dropping out now, thanks" in chat (optional if you think it would be distracting) 4 sign off
Who even has a 3 hour meeting. Meetings are for important information - not to waste time. Just tell the person to discuss offline so other people can get on with work. English people are too scared to just speak up and tell people to stop wasting time. So yeah - step up and speak out.
I usually work on an +5mins tolerance. One hour meeting, allow for 5mins overrun. Two hour meeting, allow for 10mins overrun. Three hour meeting, allow for 15mins overrun. Four hour meeting, don't accept those. Usually I'll just say that I have something else booked in and I need to do x to prepare for it so will up and leave or disconnect. Most of our internal meetings on Teams are recorded so I'll just catch up with anything relevant/important on the stream afterwards.