Scheduling is generally acknowledged to be a messy process. It is what we developer/geek types refer to as a “Hard Problem.” (I’m pretty sure it’s actually an “np hard problem,” but why risk overstating it?)
But I find myself really irritated by the current “solution” that I and most of the library world seem to utilize: Doodle. Don’t get me wrong; Doodle’s great. It converts time zones automatically, and if you sign up for a free account, it gives you the option to add “I can meet at this time if we really need to, but please don’t make me” (“if need be,” they call it) to your polls. It’s fantastic!
But I just realized that I have created multiple Doodles for the same week, and, in filling them out, I’ve potentially made one of them a lie, once the meeting time is set. That’s happened to me before, and it was awkward. It’s why I’m such a stickler for filling them in quickly: if everyone Doodles (yeah, it’s been verbed) in a timely manner, Doodle-overlaps are a little bit easier to avoid. Once one meeting is set, I can head over to the other Doodles I’ve filled out and change them. If, on the other hand, all of my Doodles languish, then my schedule fills up, both with Doodle-things and with other things, and I end up scheduled for multiple things at once.
It’s a very first-world problem, but there you go.
It annoys me extra, because I even have this problem internally to my workplace. A workplace that has Exchange.
Why is Exchange (or Google Calendar or any online calendaring solution with the option to share) different, you might ask? Because you (hypothetical coworker) can decide to set up a meeting, and you can add me to your invite and then start looking at times, and you can see my and everyone else’s free/busy time within the invite, in real-time. There’s no chance of my accidentally lying about meetings, like on a Doodle poll, because there’s no delay; you’re looking at my actual free/busy time. And as soon as your meeting is scheduled? Bam, it shows up on my schedule as a busy time, so other people won’t schedule over it.
The reason we don’t use Exchange to its fullest potential (read: at all), in my workplace, is that some people keep their calendars on paper. And I get that it’s hard to change how you do your work, mid-stream. I’m venting, here, not recommending that we all be forced to go on Exchange. (I’m not even on Exchange, right now; I’m on Google Calendar. You can see my free/busy time right here. But I’d switch to Exchange in a minute if everyone else would!) It wouldn’t even solve all of the problems with external-to-our-organization Doodling. But it’s so wasteful to spend all of this time sending out polls, waiting for people to respond to polls, bugging people who don’t respond, correcting polls when new meetings come up, and apologizing (and restarting the scheduling process, sometimes!) when two polls come back with the same time chosen.
I’m not saying it was always seamless when I scheduled meetings as a consultant (where we all used Exchange). People had so many meetings that there often were no times when everyone could meet. And we’d just meet anyway, without a couple of people, or they’d come in late. And the world didn’t end. But librarian culture is so different—people get mad that they “weren’t told” about things, when they miss meetings. We have what is, on a good day, a consensus culture. (On a bad day it’s a veto culture.) And this might vary by workplace, but I’ve noticed, in mine, that when someone comes in late, we spend a lot of time rehashing. So it seems like, in libraries (as opposed to IT consulting firms), this whole scheduling issue is a much bigger deal, AND it’s harder.
I dunno. Does anyone else have this problem? Or is it just that I’m on too many teams, committees, work groups, etc.?
You are not alone. I’m guilty of it too as we also have Exchange. Weirdly, I’ll often use the scheduling feature if I’m just meeting with one or two other people, but i shift to using Doodle for larger groups. No real reason for it. Some people don’t allow their calendars to be viewed, but they are a small minority in our organization.
I think your characterization of library culture as on a good day, a consensus culture. (On a bad day it’s a veto culture.) is pretty accurate.
In our organization we don’t really spend time rehashing if someone comes in late. The chair of the meeting might fill them in afterwards. Some sections e-mail brief meeting minutes with action items to everyone invited whether they came or not. This seems to satisfy the need for communication.
I’ve found that, in organizations where not attending a meeting can get you signed up for action items, meeting attendance is quite good. :)
[…] remember when I was all “Bleh, I hate that we Doodle all the time at work”? Funny story: I am not the only person at my workplace who feels that way. A group […]