Meeting scheduled outside of work hours for support team

The name of the pictureThe name of the pictureThe name of the pictureClash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP





.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;







up vote
13
down vote

favorite












We are a small company of around 14 employees that provides 3rd party support for software that is made by other companies. I work in the support team.



My colleagues and I have noticed a common occurrence surrounding meetings in our work place. All of the departments have their meetings involving their whole team in work hours, apart from the support team.



The support team instead has the meetings involving the whole department outside of work hours. The company justifies this by raising the point that if we did it inside of work hours there would be no one available for that time to man the phones and handle any issues that occur in that time.



Is there any solution that could be tried? My initial thought would be to pull half of the team out for the meeting and then do the other half afterwards.










share|improve this question









New contributor




Olides is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.















  • 10




    Are you paid for the time you spend in these meetings? How often do they take place?
    – brhans
    8 hours ago






  • 5




    We are not paid for the time we spend in the meetings. On average this can be once a month or longer between each meeting
    – Olides
    8 hours ago







  • 34




    @Olides if you're required to attend the meeting for work, there is no excuse for that time being unpaid. In some jurisdictions, that may even be a violation of labor law.
    – alroc
    8 hours ago







  • 13




    Do you get pizza?
    – vikingsteve
    6 hours ago






  • 9




    I know you said you aren't paid for the time spent in these meetings; but can you elaborate slightly? I take that to mean you are an hourly employee and are paid for other specific hours, and not those meetings....is that right? Or are you a salaried employee who makes $x per month and when they introduced these meetings they continued to pay you the same $x per month?
    – Rob P.
    5 hours ago
















up vote
13
down vote

favorite












We are a small company of around 14 employees that provides 3rd party support for software that is made by other companies. I work in the support team.



My colleagues and I have noticed a common occurrence surrounding meetings in our work place. All of the departments have their meetings involving their whole team in work hours, apart from the support team.



The support team instead has the meetings involving the whole department outside of work hours. The company justifies this by raising the point that if we did it inside of work hours there would be no one available for that time to man the phones and handle any issues that occur in that time.



Is there any solution that could be tried? My initial thought would be to pull half of the team out for the meeting and then do the other half afterwards.










share|improve this question









New contributor




Olides is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.















  • 10




    Are you paid for the time you spend in these meetings? How often do they take place?
    – brhans
    8 hours ago






  • 5




    We are not paid for the time we spend in the meetings. On average this can be once a month or longer between each meeting
    – Olides
    8 hours ago







  • 34




    @Olides if you're required to attend the meeting for work, there is no excuse for that time being unpaid. In some jurisdictions, that may even be a violation of labor law.
    – alroc
    8 hours ago







  • 13




    Do you get pizza?
    – vikingsteve
    6 hours ago






  • 9




    I know you said you aren't paid for the time spent in these meetings; but can you elaborate slightly? I take that to mean you are an hourly employee and are paid for other specific hours, and not those meetings....is that right? Or are you a salaried employee who makes $x per month and when they introduced these meetings they continued to pay you the same $x per month?
    – Rob P.
    5 hours ago












up vote
13
down vote

favorite









up vote
13
down vote

favorite











We are a small company of around 14 employees that provides 3rd party support for software that is made by other companies. I work in the support team.



My colleagues and I have noticed a common occurrence surrounding meetings in our work place. All of the departments have their meetings involving their whole team in work hours, apart from the support team.



The support team instead has the meetings involving the whole department outside of work hours. The company justifies this by raising the point that if we did it inside of work hours there would be no one available for that time to man the phones and handle any issues that occur in that time.



Is there any solution that could be tried? My initial thought would be to pull half of the team out for the meeting and then do the other half afterwards.










share|improve this question









New contributor




Olides is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











We are a small company of around 14 employees that provides 3rd party support for software that is made by other companies. I work in the support team.



My colleagues and I have noticed a common occurrence surrounding meetings in our work place. All of the departments have their meetings involving their whole team in work hours, apart from the support team.



The support team instead has the meetings involving the whole department outside of work hours. The company justifies this by raising the point that if we did it inside of work hours there would be no one available for that time to man the phones and handle any issues that occur in that time.



Is there any solution that could be tried? My initial thought would be to pull half of the team out for the meeting and then do the other half afterwards.







meetings work-time






share|improve this question









New contributor




Olides is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question









New contributor




Olides is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 3 mins ago









KlaymenDK

2,0305921




2,0305921






New contributor




Olides is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









asked 9 hours ago









Olides

7414




7414




New contributor




Olides is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





Olides is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Olides is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.







  • 10




    Are you paid for the time you spend in these meetings? How often do they take place?
    – brhans
    8 hours ago






  • 5




    We are not paid for the time we spend in the meetings. On average this can be once a month or longer between each meeting
    – Olides
    8 hours ago







  • 34




    @Olides if you're required to attend the meeting for work, there is no excuse for that time being unpaid. In some jurisdictions, that may even be a violation of labor law.
    – alroc
    8 hours ago







  • 13




    Do you get pizza?
    – vikingsteve
    6 hours ago






  • 9




    I know you said you aren't paid for the time spent in these meetings; but can you elaborate slightly? I take that to mean you are an hourly employee and are paid for other specific hours, and not those meetings....is that right? Or are you a salaried employee who makes $x per month and when they introduced these meetings they continued to pay you the same $x per month?
    – Rob P.
    5 hours ago












  • 10




    Are you paid for the time you spend in these meetings? How often do they take place?
    – brhans
    8 hours ago






  • 5




    We are not paid for the time we spend in the meetings. On average this can be once a month or longer between each meeting
    – Olides
    8 hours ago







  • 34




    @Olides if you're required to attend the meeting for work, there is no excuse for that time being unpaid. In some jurisdictions, that may even be a violation of labor law.
    – alroc
    8 hours ago







  • 13




    Do you get pizza?
    – vikingsteve
    6 hours ago






  • 9




    I know you said you aren't paid for the time spent in these meetings; but can you elaborate slightly? I take that to mean you are an hourly employee and are paid for other specific hours, and not those meetings....is that right? Or are you a salaried employee who makes $x per month and when they introduced these meetings they continued to pay you the same $x per month?
    – Rob P.
    5 hours ago







10




10




Are you paid for the time you spend in these meetings? How often do they take place?
– brhans
8 hours ago




Are you paid for the time you spend in these meetings? How often do they take place?
– brhans
8 hours ago




5




5




We are not paid for the time we spend in the meetings. On average this can be once a month or longer between each meeting
– Olides
8 hours ago





We are not paid for the time we spend in the meetings. On average this can be once a month or longer between each meeting
– Olides
8 hours ago





34




34




@Olides if you're required to attend the meeting for work, there is no excuse for that time being unpaid. In some jurisdictions, that may even be a violation of labor law.
– alroc
8 hours ago





@Olides if you're required to attend the meeting for work, there is no excuse for that time being unpaid. In some jurisdictions, that may even be a violation of labor law.
– alroc
8 hours ago





13




13




Do you get pizza?
– vikingsteve
6 hours ago




Do you get pizza?
– vikingsteve
6 hours ago




9




9




I know you said you aren't paid for the time spent in these meetings; but can you elaborate slightly? I take that to mean you are an hourly employee and are paid for other specific hours, and not those meetings....is that right? Or are you a salaried employee who makes $x per month and when they introduced these meetings they continued to pay you the same $x per month?
– Rob P.
5 hours ago




I know you said you aren't paid for the time spent in these meetings; but can you elaborate slightly? I take that to mean you are an hourly employee and are paid for other specific hours, and not those meetings....is that right? Or are you a salaried employee who makes $x per month and when they introduced these meetings they continued to pay you the same $x per month?
– Rob P.
5 hours ago










7 Answers
7






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
46
down vote



accepted










If you're not being paid for these "off hours" meetings, that needs to stop immediately.



Unless your support team is supporting things that are literally life-and-death situations (in which case, these "off hours" meetings wouldn't be happening because you'd have to be staffed 24/7), the organization can sustain an hour every few weeks for an all-hands meeting unless your SLAs demand otherwise.



You just have to message it properly. Advise high-profile customers in advance that support will be unavailable for Hour X on Day Y, and put a notification on the outgoing message that plays when people call in that the support staff is offline and will return at whatever time the meeting concludes.



Provide an emergency number as well which goes to a supervisor-level person for the team in case the customer cannot wait and help truly is needed that instant.



Other ideas:



  • Review your call metrics to determine the historically quietest hour of the day, and quietest day of the week/month. Schedule the meeting then.

  • Schedule the meeting during lunch. People probably call for support less often during lunch, because it's their lunch as well.

  • Schedule first thing in the morning or at the end of the day

  • As you suggested, split the meeting in half

  • Host the meeting "virtually" through desktop video/chat technology so that people can staff the phones while also being in the meeting

  • Contract with a "virtual assistant" type company to provide first-level assistance ("did you try turning it off and back on again?") and ticket logging.





share|improve this answer




















  • This is a useful answer, I shall point out some of these to upper management and see how it goes! Thank you.
    – Olides
    8 hours ago






  • 3




    Support will be "unavailable" or support will be "limited" ?
    – vikingsteve
    6 hours ago






  • 3




    @vikingsteve If you're going with "limited", you should explain what's limited. Don't just say "support is limited" and then drop people into an hour-long waitlist (because the support staff comes back in an hour); say something like "support staff are unavailable for another [N] minutes, but all other functions are still fully usable."
    – Nic Hartley
    4 hours ago










  • This answer says it all. Good one.
    – Fattie
    3 hours ago










  • Other idea: keep it out of hours but with overtime pay. (I also wouldn't suggest lunch.... the point of lunch is to eat and do things that aren't work related)
    – UKMonkey
    1 hour ago


















up vote
36
down vote













Meetings are work. Therefore they happen within working hours. They may not happen during the time you are providing support, but they are your working hours.



If you have to provide support from nine to five, monday to friday, 40 hours a week, then your company is right that you can't have meetings from nine to five. However, you can have your meeting from 8am to 9am, or from 5pm to 6pm on some day, and now you are working 41 hours a week, and you should get paid 41 hours a week.






share|improve this answer



























    up vote
    6
    down vote













    It's common in a support or engineering maintenance role that people are 'on call' at all times during working hours or even in engineering support roles out of the building altogether.



    Meetings therefore tend to be either brief or after hours if everyone needs to attend.



    If after hours is not an option then:-



    Most places where I have been in this situation handle it either by calling the meeting ad hoc during a non busy period and having it in situ if everyone is in the same room rather than using a meeting room for the purpose. This works well for small teams that are all in one place.



    Or



    Larger groups would usually designate a skeleton staff while the rest attend the meeting, often mostly juniors. These can then easily be brought up to speed either in another much smaller meeting or just given the salient points they would need to know.



    More formal meetings are handled in much the same way with the bare minimum of skeleton staff not attending.



    If your people actually go onsite to support, then it's potentially disruptive to clients if they need to attend a meeting or rush a job to get back in time for one. So after hours is the best choice by far.






    share|improve this answer



























      up vote
      2
      down vote














      Is there any solution that could be tried? My initial thought would be
      to pull half of the team out for the meeting and then do the other
      half afterwards.




      The standard way to do this is to determine the slowest hour in the month (or week if this must be a weekly meeting) and hold the meetings at that time.



      The phones would be manned by a skeleton crew - usually far less than half the department is needed. And folks on the team take turns being part of that crew. With such a small company, I'm guessing there are slow times where just 1 or 2 people could handle the calls for an hour.



      The other way I've seen this done is to have the meetings after hours (or before hours), but giving everyone comp time to make up for the hour. The comp time would be spread out among the slowest hours over several days so that not everyone is out at the same time.



      Finally, in one small company where I worked, folks from other departments filled in on the phones whenever the support team needed to meet as a team. I myself was a fill in many times.



      This simply isn't a big deal in most companies.






      share|improve this answer



























        up vote
        2
        down vote














        Is there any solution that could be tried?




        Yes, plenty of them.



        I'll pitch this one which has no overtime:



        1. Assuming support is 9-5

        2. Have the meeting Tuesday night from 5-6

        3. Half the attendees only work 7 hours on Wednesday

          The rest work only 7 hours on Thursday

        4. 40 hours each... no overtime (except maybe California), no unpaid work.

        You can split the comp time up further to give better phone coverage... but you said the whole company is 14 people so I kept it simple.



        Your risk in suggesting this is being regarded as not a team player.

        Carefully consider this in a (very) small company like yours.






        share|improve this answer



























          up vote
          0
          down vote













          I don't know what country you're in. In the US, if the employees are hourly, requiring them to work extra hours and then not paying them for the time is illegal.



          If the employees are salaried, it's legal, but it's still problematic. Requiring people to put in extra time in a non-emergency situation tends to hurt morale.



          Is it really necessary for all the employees to attend these meetings at the same time? Why not hold them i shifts, half the employees today and half tomorrow or some such?






          share|improve this answer



























            up vote
            0
            down vote













            Meetings need to be done during work hours. That's the bottom line.



            Now, the question is, "work hours" can be defined in many ways:



            1) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5. Your "work hours" can be 9-6, and the extra hour can be used for meetings. You will work a 45-hour week (and be paid for that!).



            2) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5. You can change your "active hours" to be 9-4, then the hour 4-5 would be for meetings. Your "work hours" are still 9-5, but the customer only sees you as working 9-4.



            3) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5, and let's say your team is 5 people (to make the numbers easier). Then, if you have a meeting from 5-6, every member of the team picks a different day of the week and that person's "work hours" is 10-5 on their chosen day. So you will be understaffed for 1 hour every morning of the week, but the work will still get done with minimal (customer-facing) SLA issue, and everyone still works a 40-hour week.



            There are lots of ways to solve this problem; this list is not exhaustive, and you can probably think of something more creative to add to it.



            One thing to be aware of, though, is, especially in a support role, and especially especially in a small company, being strict about "the rules" might be frowned upon. Before doing anything, you should decide whether you want to be seen as "that guy", because you will.






            share|improve this answer




















              Your Answer








              StackExchange.ready(function()
              var channelOptions =
              tags: "".split(" "),
              id: "423"
              ;
              initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

              StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
              // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
              if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
              StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
              createEditor();
              );

              else
              createEditor();

              );

              function createEditor()
              StackExchange.prepareEditor(
              heartbeatType: 'answer',
              convertImagesToLinks: false,
              noModals: true,
              showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
              reputationToPostImages: null,
              bindNavPrevention: true,
              postfix: "",
              imageUploader:
              brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
              contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
              allowUrls: true
              ,
              noCode: true, onDemand: false,
              discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
              ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
              );



              );






              Olides is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.









               

              draft saved


              draft discarded


















              StackExchange.ready(
              function ()
              StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fworkplace.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f121926%2fmeeting-scheduled-outside-of-work-hours-for-support-team%23new-answer', 'question_page');

              );

              Post as a guest

























              StackExchange.ready(function ()
              $("#show-editor-button input, #show-editor-button button").click(function ()
              var showEditor = function()
              $("#show-editor-button").hide();
              $("#post-form").removeClass("dno");
              StackExchange.editor.finallyInit();
              ;

              var useFancy = $(this).data('confirm-use-fancy');
              if(useFancy == 'True')
              var popupTitle = $(this).data('confirm-fancy-title');
              var popupBody = $(this).data('confirm-fancy-body');
              var popupAccept = $(this).data('confirm-fancy-accept-button');

              $(this).loadPopup(
              url: '/post/self-answer-popup',
              loaded: function(popup)
              var pTitle = $(popup).find('h2');
              var pBody = $(popup).find('.popup-body');
              var pSubmit = $(popup).find('.popup-submit');

              pTitle.text(popupTitle);
              pBody.html(popupBody);
              pSubmit.val(popupAccept).click(showEditor);

              )
              else
              var confirmText = $(this).data('confirm-text');
              if (confirmText ? confirm(confirmText) : true)
              showEditor();


              );
              );






              7 Answers
              7






              active

              oldest

              votes








              7 Answers
              7






              active

              oldest

              votes









              active

              oldest

              votes






              active

              oldest

              votes








              up vote
              46
              down vote



              accepted










              If you're not being paid for these "off hours" meetings, that needs to stop immediately.



              Unless your support team is supporting things that are literally life-and-death situations (in which case, these "off hours" meetings wouldn't be happening because you'd have to be staffed 24/7), the organization can sustain an hour every few weeks for an all-hands meeting unless your SLAs demand otherwise.



              You just have to message it properly. Advise high-profile customers in advance that support will be unavailable for Hour X on Day Y, and put a notification on the outgoing message that plays when people call in that the support staff is offline and will return at whatever time the meeting concludes.



              Provide an emergency number as well which goes to a supervisor-level person for the team in case the customer cannot wait and help truly is needed that instant.



              Other ideas:



              • Review your call metrics to determine the historically quietest hour of the day, and quietest day of the week/month. Schedule the meeting then.

              • Schedule the meeting during lunch. People probably call for support less often during lunch, because it's their lunch as well.

              • Schedule first thing in the morning or at the end of the day

              • As you suggested, split the meeting in half

              • Host the meeting "virtually" through desktop video/chat technology so that people can staff the phones while also being in the meeting

              • Contract with a "virtual assistant" type company to provide first-level assistance ("did you try turning it off and back on again?") and ticket logging.





              share|improve this answer




















              • This is a useful answer, I shall point out some of these to upper management and see how it goes! Thank you.
                – Olides
                8 hours ago






              • 3




                Support will be "unavailable" or support will be "limited" ?
                – vikingsteve
                6 hours ago






              • 3




                @vikingsteve If you're going with "limited", you should explain what's limited. Don't just say "support is limited" and then drop people into an hour-long waitlist (because the support staff comes back in an hour); say something like "support staff are unavailable for another [N] minutes, but all other functions are still fully usable."
                – Nic Hartley
                4 hours ago










              • This answer says it all. Good one.
                – Fattie
                3 hours ago










              • Other idea: keep it out of hours but with overtime pay. (I also wouldn't suggest lunch.... the point of lunch is to eat and do things that aren't work related)
                – UKMonkey
                1 hour ago















              up vote
              46
              down vote



              accepted










              If you're not being paid for these "off hours" meetings, that needs to stop immediately.



              Unless your support team is supporting things that are literally life-and-death situations (in which case, these "off hours" meetings wouldn't be happening because you'd have to be staffed 24/7), the organization can sustain an hour every few weeks for an all-hands meeting unless your SLAs demand otherwise.



              You just have to message it properly. Advise high-profile customers in advance that support will be unavailable for Hour X on Day Y, and put a notification on the outgoing message that plays when people call in that the support staff is offline and will return at whatever time the meeting concludes.



              Provide an emergency number as well which goes to a supervisor-level person for the team in case the customer cannot wait and help truly is needed that instant.



              Other ideas:



              • Review your call metrics to determine the historically quietest hour of the day, and quietest day of the week/month. Schedule the meeting then.

              • Schedule the meeting during lunch. People probably call for support less often during lunch, because it's their lunch as well.

              • Schedule first thing in the morning or at the end of the day

              • As you suggested, split the meeting in half

              • Host the meeting "virtually" through desktop video/chat technology so that people can staff the phones while also being in the meeting

              • Contract with a "virtual assistant" type company to provide first-level assistance ("did you try turning it off and back on again?") and ticket logging.





              share|improve this answer




















              • This is a useful answer, I shall point out some of these to upper management and see how it goes! Thank you.
                – Olides
                8 hours ago






              • 3




                Support will be "unavailable" or support will be "limited" ?
                – vikingsteve
                6 hours ago






              • 3




                @vikingsteve If you're going with "limited", you should explain what's limited. Don't just say "support is limited" and then drop people into an hour-long waitlist (because the support staff comes back in an hour); say something like "support staff are unavailable for another [N] minutes, but all other functions are still fully usable."
                – Nic Hartley
                4 hours ago










              • This answer says it all. Good one.
                – Fattie
                3 hours ago










              • Other idea: keep it out of hours but with overtime pay. (I also wouldn't suggest lunch.... the point of lunch is to eat and do things that aren't work related)
                – UKMonkey
                1 hour ago













              up vote
              46
              down vote



              accepted







              up vote
              46
              down vote



              accepted






              If you're not being paid for these "off hours" meetings, that needs to stop immediately.



              Unless your support team is supporting things that are literally life-and-death situations (in which case, these "off hours" meetings wouldn't be happening because you'd have to be staffed 24/7), the organization can sustain an hour every few weeks for an all-hands meeting unless your SLAs demand otherwise.



              You just have to message it properly. Advise high-profile customers in advance that support will be unavailable for Hour X on Day Y, and put a notification on the outgoing message that plays when people call in that the support staff is offline and will return at whatever time the meeting concludes.



              Provide an emergency number as well which goes to a supervisor-level person for the team in case the customer cannot wait and help truly is needed that instant.



              Other ideas:



              • Review your call metrics to determine the historically quietest hour of the day, and quietest day of the week/month. Schedule the meeting then.

              • Schedule the meeting during lunch. People probably call for support less often during lunch, because it's their lunch as well.

              • Schedule first thing in the morning or at the end of the day

              • As you suggested, split the meeting in half

              • Host the meeting "virtually" through desktop video/chat technology so that people can staff the phones while also being in the meeting

              • Contract with a "virtual assistant" type company to provide first-level assistance ("did you try turning it off and back on again?") and ticket logging.





              share|improve this answer












              If you're not being paid for these "off hours" meetings, that needs to stop immediately.



              Unless your support team is supporting things that are literally life-and-death situations (in which case, these "off hours" meetings wouldn't be happening because you'd have to be staffed 24/7), the organization can sustain an hour every few weeks for an all-hands meeting unless your SLAs demand otherwise.



              You just have to message it properly. Advise high-profile customers in advance that support will be unavailable for Hour X on Day Y, and put a notification on the outgoing message that plays when people call in that the support staff is offline and will return at whatever time the meeting concludes.



              Provide an emergency number as well which goes to a supervisor-level person for the team in case the customer cannot wait and help truly is needed that instant.



              Other ideas:



              • Review your call metrics to determine the historically quietest hour of the day, and quietest day of the week/month. Schedule the meeting then.

              • Schedule the meeting during lunch. People probably call for support less often during lunch, because it's their lunch as well.

              • Schedule first thing in the morning or at the end of the day

              • As you suggested, split the meeting in half

              • Host the meeting "virtually" through desktop video/chat technology so that people can staff the phones while also being in the meeting

              • Contract with a "virtual assistant" type company to provide first-level assistance ("did you try turning it off and back on again?") and ticket logging.






              share|improve this answer












              share|improve this answer



              share|improve this answer










              answered 8 hours ago









              alroc

              13.1k24355




              13.1k24355











              • This is a useful answer, I shall point out some of these to upper management and see how it goes! Thank you.
                – Olides
                8 hours ago






              • 3




                Support will be "unavailable" or support will be "limited" ?
                – vikingsteve
                6 hours ago






              • 3




                @vikingsteve If you're going with "limited", you should explain what's limited. Don't just say "support is limited" and then drop people into an hour-long waitlist (because the support staff comes back in an hour); say something like "support staff are unavailable for another [N] minutes, but all other functions are still fully usable."
                – Nic Hartley
                4 hours ago










              • This answer says it all. Good one.
                – Fattie
                3 hours ago










              • Other idea: keep it out of hours but with overtime pay. (I also wouldn't suggest lunch.... the point of lunch is to eat and do things that aren't work related)
                – UKMonkey
                1 hour ago

















              • This is a useful answer, I shall point out some of these to upper management and see how it goes! Thank you.
                – Olides
                8 hours ago






              • 3




                Support will be "unavailable" or support will be "limited" ?
                – vikingsteve
                6 hours ago






              • 3




                @vikingsteve If you're going with "limited", you should explain what's limited. Don't just say "support is limited" and then drop people into an hour-long waitlist (because the support staff comes back in an hour); say something like "support staff are unavailable for another [N] minutes, but all other functions are still fully usable."
                – Nic Hartley
                4 hours ago










              • This answer says it all. Good one.
                – Fattie
                3 hours ago










              • Other idea: keep it out of hours but with overtime pay. (I also wouldn't suggest lunch.... the point of lunch is to eat and do things that aren't work related)
                – UKMonkey
                1 hour ago
















              This is a useful answer, I shall point out some of these to upper management and see how it goes! Thank you.
              – Olides
              8 hours ago




              This is a useful answer, I shall point out some of these to upper management and see how it goes! Thank you.
              – Olides
              8 hours ago




              3




              3




              Support will be "unavailable" or support will be "limited" ?
              – vikingsteve
              6 hours ago




              Support will be "unavailable" or support will be "limited" ?
              – vikingsteve
              6 hours ago




              3




              3




              @vikingsteve If you're going with "limited", you should explain what's limited. Don't just say "support is limited" and then drop people into an hour-long waitlist (because the support staff comes back in an hour); say something like "support staff are unavailable for another [N] minutes, but all other functions are still fully usable."
              – Nic Hartley
              4 hours ago




              @vikingsteve If you're going with "limited", you should explain what's limited. Don't just say "support is limited" and then drop people into an hour-long waitlist (because the support staff comes back in an hour); say something like "support staff are unavailable for another [N] minutes, but all other functions are still fully usable."
              – Nic Hartley
              4 hours ago












              This answer says it all. Good one.
              – Fattie
              3 hours ago




              This answer says it all. Good one.
              – Fattie
              3 hours ago












              Other idea: keep it out of hours but with overtime pay. (I also wouldn't suggest lunch.... the point of lunch is to eat and do things that aren't work related)
              – UKMonkey
              1 hour ago





              Other idea: keep it out of hours but with overtime pay. (I also wouldn't suggest lunch.... the point of lunch is to eat and do things that aren't work related)
              – UKMonkey
              1 hour ago













              up vote
              36
              down vote













              Meetings are work. Therefore they happen within working hours. They may not happen during the time you are providing support, but they are your working hours.



              If you have to provide support from nine to five, monday to friday, 40 hours a week, then your company is right that you can't have meetings from nine to five. However, you can have your meeting from 8am to 9am, or from 5pm to 6pm on some day, and now you are working 41 hours a week, and you should get paid 41 hours a week.






              share|improve this answer
























                up vote
                36
                down vote













                Meetings are work. Therefore they happen within working hours. They may not happen during the time you are providing support, but they are your working hours.



                If you have to provide support from nine to five, monday to friday, 40 hours a week, then your company is right that you can't have meetings from nine to five. However, you can have your meeting from 8am to 9am, or from 5pm to 6pm on some day, and now you are working 41 hours a week, and you should get paid 41 hours a week.






                share|improve this answer






















                  up vote
                  36
                  down vote










                  up vote
                  36
                  down vote









                  Meetings are work. Therefore they happen within working hours. They may not happen during the time you are providing support, but they are your working hours.



                  If you have to provide support from nine to five, monday to friday, 40 hours a week, then your company is right that you can't have meetings from nine to five. However, you can have your meeting from 8am to 9am, or from 5pm to 6pm on some day, and now you are working 41 hours a week, and you should get paid 41 hours a week.






                  share|improve this answer












                  Meetings are work. Therefore they happen within working hours. They may not happen during the time you are providing support, but they are your working hours.



                  If you have to provide support from nine to five, monday to friday, 40 hours a week, then your company is right that you can't have meetings from nine to five. However, you can have your meeting from 8am to 9am, or from 5pm to 6pm on some day, and now you are working 41 hours a week, and you should get paid 41 hours a week.







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 8 hours ago









                  gnasher729

                  76.6k32141245




                  76.6k32141245




















                      up vote
                      6
                      down vote













                      It's common in a support or engineering maintenance role that people are 'on call' at all times during working hours or even in engineering support roles out of the building altogether.



                      Meetings therefore tend to be either brief or after hours if everyone needs to attend.



                      If after hours is not an option then:-



                      Most places where I have been in this situation handle it either by calling the meeting ad hoc during a non busy period and having it in situ if everyone is in the same room rather than using a meeting room for the purpose. This works well for small teams that are all in one place.



                      Or



                      Larger groups would usually designate a skeleton staff while the rest attend the meeting, often mostly juniors. These can then easily be brought up to speed either in another much smaller meeting or just given the salient points they would need to know.



                      More formal meetings are handled in much the same way with the bare minimum of skeleton staff not attending.



                      If your people actually go onsite to support, then it's potentially disruptive to clients if they need to attend a meeting or rush a job to get back in time for one. So after hours is the best choice by far.






                      share|improve this answer
























                        up vote
                        6
                        down vote













                        It's common in a support or engineering maintenance role that people are 'on call' at all times during working hours or even in engineering support roles out of the building altogether.



                        Meetings therefore tend to be either brief or after hours if everyone needs to attend.



                        If after hours is not an option then:-



                        Most places where I have been in this situation handle it either by calling the meeting ad hoc during a non busy period and having it in situ if everyone is in the same room rather than using a meeting room for the purpose. This works well for small teams that are all in one place.



                        Or



                        Larger groups would usually designate a skeleton staff while the rest attend the meeting, often mostly juniors. These can then easily be brought up to speed either in another much smaller meeting or just given the salient points they would need to know.



                        More formal meetings are handled in much the same way with the bare minimum of skeleton staff not attending.



                        If your people actually go onsite to support, then it's potentially disruptive to clients if they need to attend a meeting or rush a job to get back in time for one. So after hours is the best choice by far.






                        share|improve this answer






















                          up vote
                          6
                          down vote










                          up vote
                          6
                          down vote









                          It's common in a support or engineering maintenance role that people are 'on call' at all times during working hours or even in engineering support roles out of the building altogether.



                          Meetings therefore tend to be either brief or after hours if everyone needs to attend.



                          If after hours is not an option then:-



                          Most places where I have been in this situation handle it either by calling the meeting ad hoc during a non busy period and having it in situ if everyone is in the same room rather than using a meeting room for the purpose. This works well for small teams that are all in one place.



                          Or



                          Larger groups would usually designate a skeleton staff while the rest attend the meeting, often mostly juniors. These can then easily be brought up to speed either in another much smaller meeting or just given the salient points they would need to know.



                          More formal meetings are handled in much the same way with the bare minimum of skeleton staff not attending.



                          If your people actually go onsite to support, then it's potentially disruptive to clients if they need to attend a meeting or rush a job to get back in time for one. So after hours is the best choice by far.






                          share|improve this answer












                          It's common in a support or engineering maintenance role that people are 'on call' at all times during working hours or even in engineering support roles out of the building altogether.



                          Meetings therefore tend to be either brief or after hours if everyone needs to attend.



                          If after hours is not an option then:-



                          Most places where I have been in this situation handle it either by calling the meeting ad hoc during a non busy period and having it in situ if everyone is in the same room rather than using a meeting room for the purpose. This works well for small teams that are all in one place.



                          Or



                          Larger groups would usually designate a skeleton staff while the rest attend the meeting, often mostly juniors. These can then easily be brought up to speed either in another much smaller meeting or just given the salient points they would need to know.



                          More formal meetings are handled in much the same way with the bare minimum of skeleton staff not attending.



                          If your people actually go onsite to support, then it's potentially disruptive to clients if they need to attend a meeting or rush a job to get back in time for one. So after hours is the best choice by far.







                          share|improve this answer












                          share|improve this answer



                          share|improve this answer










                          answered 8 hours ago









                          Kilisi

                          104k56233406




                          104k56233406




















                              up vote
                              2
                              down vote














                              Is there any solution that could be tried? My initial thought would be
                              to pull half of the team out for the meeting and then do the other
                              half afterwards.




                              The standard way to do this is to determine the slowest hour in the month (or week if this must be a weekly meeting) and hold the meetings at that time.



                              The phones would be manned by a skeleton crew - usually far less than half the department is needed. And folks on the team take turns being part of that crew. With such a small company, I'm guessing there are slow times where just 1 or 2 people could handle the calls for an hour.



                              The other way I've seen this done is to have the meetings after hours (or before hours), but giving everyone comp time to make up for the hour. The comp time would be spread out among the slowest hours over several days so that not everyone is out at the same time.



                              Finally, in one small company where I worked, folks from other departments filled in on the phones whenever the support team needed to meet as a team. I myself was a fill in many times.



                              This simply isn't a big deal in most companies.






                              share|improve this answer
























                                up vote
                                2
                                down vote














                                Is there any solution that could be tried? My initial thought would be
                                to pull half of the team out for the meeting and then do the other
                                half afterwards.




                                The standard way to do this is to determine the slowest hour in the month (or week if this must be a weekly meeting) and hold the meetings at that time.



                                The phones would be manned by a skeleton crew - usually far less than half the department is needed. And folks on the team take turns being part of that crew. With such a small company, I'm guessing there are slow times where just 1 or 2 people could handle the calls for an hour.



                                The other way I've seen this done is to have the meetings after hours (or before hours), but giving everyone comp time to make up for the hour. The comp time would be spread out among the slowest hours over several days so that not everyone is out at the same time.



                                Finally, in one small company where I worked, folks from other departments filled in on the phones whenever the support team needed to meet as a team. I myself was a fill in many times.



                                This simply isn't a big deal in most companies.






                                share|improve this answer






















                                  up vote
                                  2
                                  down vote










                                  up vote
                                  2
                                  down vote










                                  Is there any solution that could be tried? My initial thought would be
                                  to pull half of the team out for the meeting and then do the other
                                  half afterwards.




                                  The standard way to do this is to determine the slowest hour in the month (or week if this must be a weekly meeting) and hold the meetings at that time.



                                  The phones would be manned by a skeleton crew - usually far less than half the department is needed. And folks on the team take turns being part of that crew. With such a small company, I'm guessing there are slow times where just 1 or 2 people could handle the calls for an hour.



                                  The other way I've seen this done is to have the meetings after hours (or before hours), but giving everyone comp time to make up for the hour. The comp time would be spread out among the slowest hours over several days so that not everyone is out at the same time.



                                  Finally, in one small company where I worked, folks from other departments filled in on the phones whenever the support team needed to meet as a team. I myself was a fill in many times.



                                  This simply isn't a big deal in most companies.






                                  share|improve this answer













                                  Is there any solution that could be tried? My initial thought would be
                                  to pull half of the team out for the meeting and then do the other
                                  half afterwards.




                                  The standard way to do this is to determine the slowest hour in the month (or week if this must be a weekly meeting) and hold the meetings at that time.



                                  The phones would be manned by a skeleton crew - usually far less than half the department is needed. And folks on the team take turns being part of that crew. With such a small company, I'm guessing there are slow times where just 1 or 2 people could handle the calls for an hour.



                                  The other way I've seen this done is to have the meetings after hours (or before hours), but giving everyone comp time to make up for the hour. The comp time would be spread out among the slowest hours over several days so that not everyone is out at the same time.



                                  Finally, in one small company where I worked, folks from other departments filled in on the phones whenever the support team needed to meet as a team. I myself was a fill in many times.



                                  This simply isn't a big deal in most companies.







                                  share|improve this answer












                                  share|improve this answer



                                  share|improve this answer










                                  answered 5 hours ago









                                  Joe Strazzere

                                  234k114688976




                                  234k114688976




















                                      up vote
                                      2
                                      down vote














                                      Is there any solution that could be tried?




                                      Yes, plenty of them.



                                      I'll pitch this one which has no overtime:



                                      1. Assuming support is 9-5

                                      2. Have the meeting Tuesday night from 5-6

                                      3. Half the attendees only work 7 hours on Wednesday

                                        The rest work only 7 hours on Thursday

                                      4. 40 hours each... no overtime (except maybe California), no unpaid work.

                                      You can split the comp time up further to give better phone coverage... but you said the whole company is 14 people so I kept it simple.



                                      Your risk in suggesting this is being regarded as not a team player.

                                      Carefully consider this in a (very) small company like yours.






                                      share|improve this answer
























                                        up vote
                                        2
                                        down vote














                                        Is there any solution that could be tried?




                                        Yes, plenty of them.



                                        I'll pitch this one which has no overtime:



                                        1. Assuming support is 9-5

                                        2. Have the meeting Tuesday night from 5-6

                                        3. Half the attendees only work 7 hours on Wednesday

                                          The rest work only 7 hours on Thursday

                                        4. 40 hours each... no overtime (except maybe California), no unpaid work.

                                        You can split the comp time up further to give better phone coverage... but you said the whole company is 14 people so I kept it simple.



                                        Your risk in suggesting this is being regarded as not a team player.

                                        Carefully consider this in a (very) small company like yours.






                                        share|improve this answer






















                                          up vote
                                          2
                                          down vote










                                          up vote
                                          2
                                          down vote










                                          Is there any solution that could be tried?




                                          Yes, plenty of them.



                                          I'll pitch this one which has no overtime:



                                          1. Assuming support is 9-5

                                          2. Have the meeting Tuesday night from 5-6

                                          3. Half the attendees only work 7 hours on Wednesday

                                            The rest work only 7 hours on Thursday

                                          4. 40 hours each... no overtime (except maybe California), no unpaid work.

                                          You can split the comp time up further to give better phone coverage... but you said the whole company is 14 people so I kept it simple.



                                          Your risk in suggesting this is being regarded as not a team player.

                                          Carefully consider this in a (very) small company like yours.






                                          share|improve this answer













                                          Is there any solution that could be tried?




                                          Yes, plenty of them.



                                          I'll pitch this one which has no overtime:



                                          1. Assuming support is 9-5

                                          2. Have the meeting Tuesday night from 5-6

                                          3. Half the attendees only work 7 hours on Wednesday

                                            The rest work only 7 hours on Thursday

                                          4. 40 hours each... no overtime (except maybe California), no unpaid work.

                                          You can split the comp time up further to give better phone coverage... but you said the whole company is 14 people so I kept it simple.



                                          Your risk in suggesting this is being regarded as not a team player.

                                          Carefully consider this in a (very) small company like yours.







                                          share|improve this answer












                                          share|improve this answer



                                          share|improve this answer










                                          answered 4 hours ago









                                          J. Chris Compton

                                          1,017310




                                          1,017310




















                                              up vote
                                              0
                                              down vote













                                              I don't know what country you're in. In the US, if the employees are hourly, requiring them to work extra hours and then not paying them for the time is illegal.



                                              If the employees are salaried, it's legal, but it's still problematic. Requiring people to put in extra time in a non-emergency situation tends to hurt morale.



                                              Is it really necessary for all the employees to attend these meetings at the same time? Why not hold them i shifts, half the employees today and half tomorrow or some such?






                                              share|improve this answer
























                                                up vote
                                                0
                                                down vote













                                                I don't know what country you're in. In the US, if the employees are hourly, requiring them to work extra hours and then not paying them for the time is illegal.



                                                If the employees are salaried, it's legal, but it's still problematic. Requiring people to put in extra time in a non-emergency situation tends to hurt morale.



                                                Is it really necessary for all the employees to attend these meetings at the same time? Why not hold them i shifts, half the employees today and half tomorrow or some such?






                                                share|improve this answer






















                                                  up vote
                                                  0
                                                  down vote










                                                  up vote
                                                  0
                                                  down vote









                                                  I don't know what country you're in. In the US, if the employees are hourly, requiring them to work extra hours and then not paying them for the time is illegal.



                                                  If the employees are salaried, it's legal, but it's still problematic. Requiring people to put in extra time in a non-emergency situation tends to hurt morale.



                                                  Is it really necessary for all the employees to attend these meetings at the same time? Why not hold them i shifts, half the employees today and half tomorrow or some such?






                                                  share|improve this answer












                                                  I don't know what country you're in. In the US, if the employees are hourly, requiring them to work extra hours and then not paying them for the time is illegal.



                                                  If the employees are salaried, it's legal, but it's still problematic. Requiring people to put in extra time in a non-emergency situation tends to hurt morale.



                                                  Is it really necessary for all the employees to attend these meetings at the same time? Why not hold them i shifts, half the employees today and half tomorrow or some such?







                                                  share|improve this answer












                                                  share|improve this answer



                                                  share|improve this answer










                                                  answered 6 hours ago









                                                  Jay

                                                  8,99211531




                                                  8,99211531




















                                                      up vote
                                                      0
                                                      down vote













                                                      Meetings need to be done during work hours. That's the bottom line.



                                                      Now, the question is, "work hours" can be defined in many ways:



                                                      1) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5. Your "work hours" can be 9-6, and the extra hour can be used for meetings. You will work a 45-hour week (and be paid for that!).



                                                      2) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5. You can change your "active hours" to be 9-4, then the hour 4-5 would be for meetings. Your "work hours" are still 9-5, but the customer only sees you as working 9-4.



                                                      3) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5, and let's say your team is 5 people (to make the numbers easier). Then, if you have a meeting from 5-6, every member of the team picks a different day of the week and that person's "work hours" is 10-5 on their chosen day. So you will be understaffed for 1 hour every morning of the week, but the work will still get done with minimal (customer-facing) SLA issue, and everyone still works a 40-hour week.



                                                      There are lots of ways to solve this problem; this list is not exhaustive, and you can probably think of something more creative to add to it.



                                                      One thing to be aware of, though, is, especially in a support role, and especially especially in a small company, being strict about "the rules" might be frowned upon. Before doing anything, you should decide whether you want to be seen as "that guy", because you will.






                                                      share|improve this answer
























                                                        up vote
                                                        0
                                                        down vote













                                                        Meetings need to be done during work hours. That's the bottom line.



                                                        Now, the question is, "work hours" can be defined in many ways:



                                                        1) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5. Your "work hours" can be 9-6, and the extra hour can be used for meetings. You will work a 45-hour week (and be paid for that!).



                                                        2) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5. You can change your "active hours" to be 9-4, then the hour 4-5 would be for meetings. Your "work hours" are still 9-5, but the customer only sees you as working 9-4.



                                                        3) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5, and let's say your team is 5 people (to make the numbers easier). Then, if you have a meeting from 5-6, every member of the team picks a different day of the week and that person's "work hours" is 10-5 on their chosen day. So you will be understaffed for 1 hour every morning of the week, but the work will still get done with minimal (customer-facing) SLA issue, and everyone still works a 40-hour week.



                                                        There are lots of ways to solve this problem; this list is not exhaustive, and you can probably think of something more creative to add to it.



                                                        One thing to be aware of, though, is, especially in a support role, and especially especially in a small company, being strict about "the rules" might be frowned upon. Before doing anything, you should decide whether you want to be seen as "that guy", because you will.






                                                        share|improve this answer






















                                                          up vote
                                                          0
                                                          down vote










                                                          up vote
                                                          0
                                                          down vote









                                                          Meetings need to be done during work hours. That's the bottom line.



                                                          Now, the question is, "work hours" can be defined in many ways:



                                                          1) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5. Your "work hours" can be 9-6, and the extra hour can be used for meetings. You will work a 45-hour week (and be paid for that!).



                                                          2) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5. You can change your "active hours" to be 9-4, then the hour 4-5 would be for meetings. Your "work hours" are still 9-5, but the customer only sees you as working 9-4.



                                                          3) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5, and let's say your team is 5 people (to make the numbers easier). Then, if you have a meeting from 5-6, every member of the team picks a different day of the week and that person's "work hours" is 10-5 on their chosen day. So you will be understaffed for 1 hour every morning of the week, but the work will still get done with minimal (customer-facing) SLA issue, and everyone still works a 40-hour week.



                                                          There are lots of ways to solve this problem; this list is not exhaustive, and you can probably think of something more creative to add to it.



                                                          One thing to be aware of, though, is, especially in a support role, and especially especially in a small company, being strict about "the rules" might be frowned upon. Before doing anything, you should decide whether you want to be seen as "that guy", because you will.






                                                          share|improve this answer












                                                          Meetings need to be done during work hours. That's the bottom line.



                                                          Now, the question is, "work hours" can be defined in many ways:



                                                          1) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5. Your "work hours" can be 9-6, and the extra hour can be used for meetings. You will work a 45-hour week (and be paid for that!).



                                                          2) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5. You can change your "active hours" to be 9-4, then the hour 4-5 would be for meetings. Your "work hours" are still 9-5, but the customer only sees you as working 9-4.



                                                          3) Let's say your company supports customers from 9-5, and let's say your team is 5 people (to make the numbers easier). Then, if you have a meeting from 5-6, every member of the team picks a different day of the week and that person's "work hours" is 10-5 on their chosen day. So you will be understaffed for 1 hour every morning of the week, but the work will still get done with minimal (customer-facing) SLA issue, and everyone still works a 40-hour week.



                                                          There are lots of ways to solve this problem; this list is not exhaustive, and you can probably think of something more creative to add to it.



                                                          One thing to be aware of, though, is, especially in a support role, and especially especially in a small company, being strict about "the rules" might be frowned upon. Before doing anything, you should decide whether you want to be seen as "that guy", because you will.







                                                          share|improve this answer












                                                          share|improve this answer



                                                          share|improve this answer










                                                          answered 2 hours ago









                                                          Ertai87

                                                          4,156416




                                                          4,156416




















                                                              Olides is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.









                                                               

                                                              draft saved


                                                              draft discarded


















                                                              Olides is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












                                                              Olides is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.











                                                              Olides is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.













                                                               


                                                              draft saved


                                                              draft discarded














                                                              StackExchange.ready(
                                                              function ()
                                                              StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fworkplace.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f121926%2fmeeting-scheduled-outside-of-work-hours-for-support-team%23new-answer', 'question_page');

                                                              );

                                                              Post as a guest

















































































                                                              Comments

                                                              Popular posts from this blog

                                                              What does second last employer means? [closed]

                                                              Installing NextGIS Connect into QGIS 3?

                                                              One-line joke