My coworker booked a 4:30 PM check-in and got annoyed when I declined it.
By @sashaliterally · Work
She put a non-urgent recap on my calendar for the last thirty minutes of the day just because the slot was technically white space. I told her we could do tomorrow morning instead, but she claims fifteen minutes shouldn't be a big deal.
The full story
I work in operations at a logistics firm, and between managing freight issues and doing afternoon school pickup for two kids, my calendar is a delicate house of cards. A coworker booked a 4:30 PM meeting today to 'quickly debrief' a project we finished last week. Everyone in our office knows people start packing up around 4:30 to beat the highway rush, plus I have hard-stop pickup at 5:15 across town. I declined it within two minutes with a polite note saying I was heads-down wrapping up end-of-day tasks and asked if we could sync over email or do 9:30 AM tomorrow. She immediately messaged me asking why I couldn't 'just spare fifteen minutes' since the calendar slot showed I had open time. I told her open time doesn't equal meeting availability, especially at the literal end of the workday for something that isn't on fire. My husband thinks I should've just hopped on with my camera off while starting my drive, but I refuse to normalize 4:30 PM syncs for non-emergencies. Now she's acting chilly in our project channel. It feels ridiculous, but people treat an empty calendar block like public property.
How people voted
- OP Is Right — 35% (6 votes)
- Both Messy — 53% (9 votes)
- OP Is Wrong — 12% (2 votes)
Readers say “Both Messy” (53%) — 17 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@yaraee — are you sure she didn't need that recap done before sending an end-of-day report to management
@vincelately — soft.
@sashakay — love when people think white space on a calendar is an open invitation to waste my time
@yarawelp — lmaooo
@levihere — why don’t you just block out your calendar with focus time if you know you need to leave by then
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