No Meeting Morning Has Entered Review
A protected time block has been challenged by a meeting described as a quick sync.
Hearing Transcript: No Meeting Morning Review Proceedings, April 2022. Abridged.
PRESIDING OFFICER: State the matter before us.
PETITIONER: The petitioner blocked Tuesday mornings from nine to twelve for focused work. This has been on the calendar since January.
PRESIDING OFFICER: And the challenge?
PETITIONER: A colleague requested a quick sync at ten-fifteen. When the petitioner declined, citing the protected block, the colleague replied that the matter was time-sensitive.
PRESIDING OFFICER: Was the matter time-sensitive?
PETITIONER: The agenda was distributed twenty minutes before the meeting request. The agenda read: updates, alignment, and any other business.
PRESIDING OFFICER: Proceed.
PETITIONER: The petitioner accepted the meeting. This took the protected morning from three hours to two hours and four minutes, accounting for the transition cost documented in the existing literature.
The petitioner wishes to record that the meeting lasted forty-seven minutes. The time-sensitive matter was addressed in the final six.
PRESIDING OFFICER: What relief is sought?
PETITIONER: The petitioner seeks acknowledgment that the phrase "quick sync" has no binding relationship with duration, urgency, or outcome.
A secondary relief: that "time-sensitive" be required to specify the consequence of proceeding on Tuesday afternoon instead.
PRESIDING OFFICER: The panel notes that the meeting produced two follow-up meetings, both of which have been scheduled on Tuesday mornings.
PETITIONER: The petitioner is aware.
PRESIDING OFFICER: Has the protected block been maintained in any week this quarter?
PETITIONER: The protected block has been honored on one occasion. That Tuesday was a public holiday.
FINDING
The no-meeting morning functioned as intended on the public holiday. On all other Tuesdays, it functioned as a negotiating position rather than a protected block.
The hearing acknowledges this represents real effort on the part of the petitioner. The effort is directed primarily at defending the time, not at using it.
The scheduled quiet was not silent. It was loud with the negotiation required to keep it quiet. This finding is entered into the record without further judgment.
HEARING ADJOURNED