Me: we only got 40 minutes notice that we had to stay in late for a meeting with the USA team. Can we politely ask them to give us like a days notice in future? I can’t just stay late at any time, neither can the guys with kids to collect.

Manager: oh ok. I’m very sorry this has affected you. Here, let me explain why this is going to keep happening and you’ll need to deal with it.

So, how's the job search going?

Me: and let me give a brief demonstration on how this is going to affect you more then me today.

*walks out*

Here's my trick: I check whether there's a proper meeting agenda. If not, I cancel the meeting right away, on the grounds that unprepared meetings are a waste of time and I have shit to do.

The kicker is that "ooohhh we MUST talk talk talk right away" meetings most certainly have no agenda, no clear questions, nothing.

Another thing is that proper preparation takes me a half a day at least, so it has to be the next day.

Also, I start working early so that I leave at 4 PM CE(S)T, that's before US folks start working unless you're unlucky enough that the US branch is on the East Coast.

@Charmesal front runner at the minute is a company that reached out. They have AWFUL stuff on Glassdoor. I asked and I was told not to worry, they fired and replaced all the senior management, everything is fine now.

@practiseSafeHex good luck. Sounds a lot better then your current company

@Charmesal yes the 200 posts that suddenly flood their page with:

Cons:
nothing that I can think of, keep up the great work guys!

Are totally believable and I in no way find it suspicious.

... but yeah it probably is a step up

@practiseSafeHex on the other hand - if you cannot show limits to your current management, then you will not be able to do this with other managers, either. Rinse and repeat.

@practiseSafeHex probably. Most people are forced to talk way to positively about their company, or they choose a select few whom actually don't have an issue (yet)

@Fast-Nop this was in fact a hugely important meeting for the quarterly sign off of work items we will work on (you know, keeping it agile). That happens every quarter.

For some reason calendar bingo just always seems to be an impossible task for the USA guys, so it always ends up being a last minute thing when they find a spare minute.

Leaving early and not attending isn’t really an option as I’m the mobile lead and am supposed to sign off on it.

@Fast-Nop true

@practiseSafeHex well OK if it's once every three months, then it isn't a lot.

Except if that happens with everything in that manner, in which case not being there and not signing off makes the point.

@Fast-Nop the response from my manager was exactly that. It’s once every three months, and we’ll plan for it ... but he expects these last minute meetings to happen regularly

And that was that, effectively “deal with it”

@practiseSafeHex well then HE will have to deal with occasional "sorry, I won't be there today" hiccups. Otherwise, the suckers in the US branch have no incentive to learn.

Speaking as someone on a USA team who manages a team in India, let me just say that what the manager did is a big dick move and I for one am very cognizant of this situation and avoid it like the plague. I always give my team multiple days' notice when we need to meet (I typically try to send the invite on a Friday or Monday at the latest for a Wednesday meeting).

I mean, are there sometimes emergency situations that really do require all hands on deck? Of course. But those should be so few and far between that nobody has cause to complain (like once or twice a year at most in my mind and anything more is a failure of management).

In fact, I've admonished my team multiple times to not stay late! They know I do not expect it of them and if they feel they NEED to stay late then they need to come to me because I'm failing in that case in managing them and I want to know so I can correct it. Work-life balance is EXTREMELY important to me, for myself and for those I manage.

I'm so lucky we don't have any colleagues overseas. Yet, I stay late all the time.. My brain basically works American time anyway xD

@practiseSafeHex Leaving early and not attending IS an option. Don't guilt yourself into going for a false sense of duty. Respect has to go both ways. Nobody can expect somebody to just jump in a minute's notice. Any exception you allow will be perceived as the new norm.

I've been there.

"Hey, you have a laptop. You could work from home on the weekends."
-- "Yes, I could."
=> me walks out of the office without the laptop and not working on my weekend.

They let me go. I was thankful for that. Truly a toxic workplace. (And I was looking at new options to begin with, and now had 2 weeks of paid time to do that.)