Boss reschedules weekly 9:35 AM meeting to 9:32 AM, berates employee at 9:33 when he's a minute late: 'I would have assumed it was a mistake and still joined at 9:35.'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Aug 25, 2026 3:15 PM EDT

What kind of boss schedules a meeting at 9:32 exactly? 

If your day is made up of constant meetings, you know they can sometimes run over. You get into a flow state of talking about something, and suddenly you forget that you have a one-on-one meeting with your boss that you're 5 minutes late for. Sometimes, meetings don't start exactly on time because everyone is trying to figure out how to connect the Zoom to the TV in the meeting room so that everyone in the office can see everyone in the other office. You have less of an excuse for being late to a meeting when you're meeting in the same office as the people you're meeting with, but it's still not the biggest deal in the world, especially if you're only late by a mere minute. 

If you work in an industry where people aren't crazy, you can be a couple of minutes late to a meeting without your bosses flipping out. There's a difference between it taking one minute to log on to Zoom and routinely being 20 minutes late to meetings. Any reasonable person would understand that, but the boss in this story is not reasonable. 

For some reason, the boss of Reddit user RotaryPhoneDialer decided it was a good idea to move their Monday morning meeting, which is always at the same time. He didn't move it an hour earlier or later. He moved it three minutes earlier than usual, and then asked RotaryPhoneDialer why they were a minute late. Obviously, something fishy is going on here, and some internet sleuths offered their insights into why a boss would do such a thing to their employee. Spoiler alert: they might be on the cutting room floor soon.

Advertisement
  • Handsome businessman working on laptop
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    An employee logging onto a Zoom meeting that was usually scheduled for 9:35 AM.

    Image depicted solely for explanatory purposes.

  • My regularly scheduled Monday morning meeting at 9:35 got rescheduled to 9:32. My boss called at 9:33 asking why I was late.

    7 AM 8 AM 9 AM 10 AM Weekly Kickoff Weekly Kickoff 9:32 AM to 10:00 AM
    via u/RotaryPhoneDialer
  • Ferro_Giconi Even if I saw that in time to make it to the meeting 3 minutes early, I would have assumed it was a mistake and still joined at 9:35 because no one sane makes meetings that don't align to a 5 minute grid.
    via u/Ferro_Giconi
  • LiveMarionberry3694 I don't think I've ever had a meeting that wasn't in 15 minute increments. 9:35 is so strange, why not just make it 9:30 Edit alright I get it, people schedule that 5 minutes for a break. You don't have to leave another comment saying the same thing lol
    via u/LiveMarionberry3694
  • kingtacticool Sounds like they are trying to set a trap to start a paperwork trail for disciplinary action. Especially calling within a minute of being late. They were waiting for them to be late.
    via u/kingtacticool
  • mississippi_dan 100% this. OP doesnt need to be apolegitic which is basically an admission of guilt. They need to email their boss and copy HR. State that you need X amount of hours advanced notice to any meeting time changes. OP needs to start their own paper trail.
    via u/mississippi_dan
  • Djolumn There is a theory that people are more likely to be on time for meetings that start at oddly specific times. I used to work for a company that encouraged this practice.
    via u/Djolumn
  • elegoomba Reeks of insane MBA consultant nonsense lol
    via u/elegoomba
  • Internal-Hedgehog-47 Start applying elsewhere, your boss either hates you, has a screw loose, or both.
    via u/Internal-Hedgehog-47
  • cygnus311 This is insane person behavior. I know you're not supposed to talk bad about previous jobs in interviews, but this is probably one of the few examples where you could be honest about why you're leaving your job and actually get sympathy.
    via u/cygnus311
  • ostrichfood That's not why you don't talk bad about previous jobs...you don't talk bad because the people interviewing you will assume you are going to talk bad about them/company or that your a toxic employee and just complain a lot. It's always best practice to just never talk bad no matter the circumstance
    via u/ostrichfood
  • thorn312 I have a meeting every Friday at 2pm. Last Friday I took my break and went to the post office. At 11am, someone moved the meeting. To 11am.. Nope.
    via u/thorn312
  • Divine_Entity_ Changing a meeting with less than 24hrs notice is just asking for people to not notice the change. If someone is normally very busy or away from their desk alot (doing other job duties), they may only have 1 or 2 times a day they actually check email/calendar to see the change. If you are making a short notice change, the polite thing is to delay the meeting, that way in the worst case someone who missed the change will find out when they go to join the meeting. Making it earlier
    via u/Divine_Entity_
  • opinions-only My boss blew up my phone at 8am on a Monday, I normally start at 9am, tried to call me on teams but I turned off incoming calls so he asked for it to be on.. Then demanded my personal number. Dude chill, I'm driving into work and dropping my kids off. The problem can wait until 9am
    via u/opinions-only
  • Hot_Ad_787 Hahahahaha that's honestly hilarious. I'd just reply, "you're joking right?"
    via u/Hot_Ad_787
  • OhTheHueManatee I used to have a manager that insisted that you clock in and out for your lunch in a time that didn't end in a 0 or a 5. So you'd have to clock out at like 1:17 not 1:15. He would seriously chew you out for it. Drove me up the wall. Of course he never explained why this was "more efficient" so I just assumed it was him being a bu y with his power.
    via u/OhTheHueManatee
  • SilentAffairs93 As someone who regularly works with international schedules and have execs be at least 15mins late to meetings, having someone schedule and reschedule meetings by 3 mins would be so neurotic, that person would've either lost their mind in a week or been fired for control issues. Either way, this person needs their head examined.
    via u/SilentAffairs93

  • What do you think this employee should do? Why did the boss do this?

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

schedule boss bad boss meetings zoom meeting Horrible Bosses bad bosses work schedule
Scroll Down For The Next Article