More about Early Morning Meetings

So, as part of my sleep rant last week, I also ranted about this guy in my office who just loves to schedule these 7 AM meetings. He says that it is to accommodate the people in India, and I’m sure part of that is true, but I suspect that his real motivation is to provide himself another method for self-congratulation. Not to mention a way to clue others into how devoted he is, how hard he works. I know a lot of hard-working people at my office, but for some reason the work-load of this particular person always seems to be called to my attention. That makes me suspicious that he’s perhaps done a very good job of creating this image for himself. But, I’m willing to admit that I’m a suspicious sort, and this guy is not exactly my favorite team member.

Anyway, so last week was the debacle of the last minute canceled 7 AM on Tuesday, which got rescheduled for 7 AM on Thursday. We had the meeting on Thursday and ran out of time, so it was stated then that a follow-up would be scheduled for sometime this week (of course another 7 AM meeting). Well, I didn’t see an invite and was wondering about it. Last night I went to my riding lesson, came home, took care of the dogs, changed, made dinner, ate, etc. Finally about 10 PM I got around to checking mail. Well. There was the meeting invite, sent at 5:34 PM (conveniently about 10 minutes after I had signed off) for 7 AM this morning. Am I the only one who thinks this is F*ed up? Bad enough to schedule a 7 AM, but at least give a little freaking warning!!! Luckily I checked my mail, and I usually do, but sometimes I skip over things if they don’t appear critical, or to concern me immediately or directly, especially when I’m checking things by BlackBerry.

I tried to get to bed as soon as I could, but I just can’t go to bed right after eating dinner, and I need a little down time to unwind too, after a busy day. So I know the lights didn’t go off until midnight. I think I slept pretty well, in general, until 4 AM when I was suddenly awake and worried about going back to sleep so close to the time that I had to get up. So I pretty much laid there until I got up at 5 AM. Finally got up, got ready, took care of the dogs, came to work, getting here at 6 AM. Yes, that’s SIX O’CLOCK AM.

I am so freaking pissed and also a little paranoid. First, there was absolutely no reason for the last minute meeting schedule. He knew last Thursday at the conclusion of the first meeting that a second meeting was going to be necessary. This is not an emergency. Couldn’t he have planned a little better? It shows a real lack of respect for other peoples’ time. As I’ve stated before, 7 AM meetings are really rough on me on the best of days, I really appreciate having a little notice so that I can plan for them accordingly. I realize that sometimes shit happens and something needs to get scheduled suddenly, but that is not the case with this stupid meeting. A part of my paranoid self wonders if this was done on purpose, with the hope that I’d miss the meeting invite, especially since it was sent right after I went offline. But that’s my normal paranoia at work. Coming to work this morning felt like the middle of the night. Black as midnight and quiet, it was almost eerie to be in the office so early, no one at all was around. The vents weren’t even on, nor were the cafeteria people around yet – I’ve figured out that the earliest you can get coffee here is about 6:30. Anyway, I can see already that this is going to be a brutal day. I just have to now try to get over my pissed-off-ness and move on. I sometimes have a little trouble with that, I’m willing to admit it.

Update 8:45 AM: GAWD! It's not even 9 AM yet. Shoot. Me.