So… I work in an office.
Each Wednesday, my team has a weekly team meeting. We rotate who chairs the meeting each week between all team members.
On a Monday, whoever is chairing the coming Wednesday’s meeting will usually send an email to the team, containing the agenda for the upcoming meeting. The purpose of this email is to allow all team members to review the agenda, and request (via an email response) any additions/changes to it before Wednesday.
It’s a convenient way of doing it, because when it comes times to compile the final agenda, you have all the changes/additions conveniently stored in one place (your inbox!).
So, I am hosting this Wednesday. On Friday of last week, I get an “instant message” on my screen from an office colleague (Melanie*), asking me to add agenda item XYZ to the upcoming Wednesday meeting agenda.
My instant message response: “Hey Melanie! Yeah no worries. I’ll be sending the usual email out to the team on Monday asking for any changes/additions to the agenda, so please send me a reminder email then”.
Melanie’s response: “This IS the reminder!, smiley face”.
Now, I know Melanie well enough to know that the point of that last message was to make it clear to me that the job of ensuring that XYZ gets added to the meeting agenda was now 100% my responsibility.
I think it’s fair and reasonable that I ask for all changes to the agenda to be submitted to me in the one place, in order to ensure I don’t miss any.
I now have to remember to not only send the Monday email, but to also add Melanie’s changes before I send it, assuming I can remember the details of Melanie’s agenda item, which I will have to store somewhere (instant messaging does not store history at my place of work).
Not fair, I say.
For those who agree that Melanie’s expectations of me are unfair, what would be the appropriate response to Melanie here?
I don’t mean how can I tell her off… I basically mean, what is the nice way of saying “You’re free to not send me a reminder Melanie, but I of course give no guarantees your XYZ item will be added to the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, because you are knowingly breaking the usual process of submitting agenda items, even when I’ve specifically requested that you follow the usual process”.
Tips? Advice?
(In real life, I caved in, and said sure… I’ll make sure XYZ gets added to the agenda when I get around to compiling it).