Manager insists remote employee of 21 years attend 90 minute, 6:30 AM meeting three times weekly: 'I am genetically inclined to be a night owl'

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  • A tired female employee rests her head in her hand while sitting at her desk in her home office
  • Start Time

    Hi, I have been with my company for 25 years, 21 or so of those years working 100% remotely.
  • I live on the West coast and as the result of a recent reorganization, I was assigned to a team based on the East coast.
  • They hold a thrice weekly 90 minute team meeting at 9:30 am EST, which is 6:30 AM for me.
  • I am not a morning person and have never been able to fall asleep before 1AM.
  • I have tried to change my sleep patterns several times over the years, but it's never 'took'.
  • I believe that I am just genetically inclined to be a night owl. In my previous role, I quite frequently worked well into the night.
  • If I force myself to get up at 6:15, having only slept 5 hours, I will not be able to function at anything close to 100%.
  • This is actually quite a bad trade off for my employer. (speaking generally, do people think that this is reasonable request on their part?) In any event, I'm trying to figure out how to approach this with my new boss (with whom I have no relationship).
  • My current plan is to force myself to do it for a couple of weeks so that I can say that I tried and then to approach him about only attending the last 30 minutes of the meeting.
  • Seven-thirty is still early for me, but manageable. Anyone have any better suggestions? Thanks
  • A tired female employee rubs her temples while sitting at her desk in her home office
  • Visual_Leadership_35 A 90 minute team meeting three times a week, that's dreadful even without the time zone issues.
  • rs1971 Original Poster's Reply Yeah, it's a software development team and they use the meeting to go over outstanding bugs/ customer issues. The argument for the meeting is that they want everyone to know what everyone else is doing, but in practice. almost everyone just zones out and pays only enough attention to note when their name is mentioned. I have been tangentially involved with this group for 25 years and this meeting has been a mainstay the whole time, so, unfortunately, I don't think
  • AffectionateJury3723 Having worked for companies with offices all over, I can tell you most bosses are not going to inconvenience the rest of the team for 1 person. He may agree to you only attending a half hour but that is only based on whether or not you are key to the discussion.
  • rs1971 Original Poster's Reply I wouldn't expect him to change the meeting time. In fact, it would be almost impossible to do so given the number of attendees in India.
  • toodleoo77 This. Not sure why OP is immediately capitulating to a 6:30 AM meeting. Their boss probably hasn't even realized the time difference.
  • rs1971 Original Poster's Reply He definitely realizes it. While I didn't complain too loudly, when we were introduced, I was clearly less than enthusiastic about the schedule. I think that my exact words were ... 'let's see how it goes'.
  • Aardvark|||6079 Your boss does not care. We have weekly 8:00AM EST meetings. West coast people absolutely need to be there. No exceptions.
  • rs1971 Original Poster's Reply You would have to pay me at least $800k/y to go to a 5 AM meeting, three times a week. I might do weekly, if it was understood that I'd be going back to bed afterwards.
  • ladiabla22 It's called advanced sleep phase. I was diagnosed with it years ago. Basically means we are night owls and our natural body clocks will NOT adjust to earlier hours. You'll just have to make it through these meetings and try to fit in a nap later.
  • rs1971 Original Poster's Reply Yeah, I've lost track of the number of serious attempts I've made to change my cycle over the years. There's nothing worse then having only slept 4 hours the night before and still laying in bed for three hours unable to sleep until well after midnight. I had a similar situation about a decade ago, with 6:30 meetings a couple of times a week and it had serious health ramifications. Fortunately, I ended up running those meetings so I was able to just push them back
  • OneLessDay517 I work for a company that has a large east coast as well as Central and Mountain presence. It's our unspoken but pretty much. standard practice that we schedule meetings based on the person in the latest time zone. It's just polite. I don't schedule a meeting with someone in Denver before 9am their time. When I have meetings with India, I've been on calls at 4-5am my time. But I'm a morning person and am normally prowling my house at 4am anyway, so it's not a big deal to me. do y'a
  • rs1971 Original Poster's Reply It's funny. When I need to talk to someone in India, (which happens pretty frequently) I do it at 10PM at night.
  • ladiabla22 People who don't suffer from this condition don't understand how difficult it makes our lives. My husband wakes up naturally at 5:30/6:00 am and to me that's the middle of the night!
  • rs1971 Original Poster's Reply The 'just go to be earlier' stuff kills me. Like I never thought of that.
  • Academic-Lobster3668 Does your position change make sense in the framework of the reorganization? If it's not clear that you needed to be with this particular group for a very good reason, I suspect they're trying to have you let yourself go. You may be one of the higher cost people at your level due to your tenure. Hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I would start looking now. Good luck! PS. I feel for you - fellow night owl here

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