10. March 2021

5 Tips for Proper Calendar Etiquette

These days, working from home office means being in front of our screen almost all of the time. Sometimes, it can truly be challenging and exhausting.

That’s why it is even more important to keep a user-friendly scheduling experience in mind for those you work with.

To soften the impact that a “meeting marathon,” we encourage everyone to consider our Personio calendar etiquette 🎩 when it comes to meetings.

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Our Top Tips For Calendar Etiquette

What We Learned From Our Team

A few months ago, we ran a survey with our Diversity Committee. What we discovered was that both time management and work-life balance were named as major pain points.

One topic that came up a lot was that many participants simply didn’t feel in charge of their own time. Therefore, the family-friendly sub-committee decided to get to work on this.

At Personio, we want to encourage everyone to take charge of their own time. Coming up are our recommendations to also encourage you to manage your time efficiently.

Our Top Tips For Calendar Etiquette

Since “calendaring” is a team and company-wide exercise, we want to share our top five tips to spend more time focusing and less time scheduling meetings.

1. Check other peoples’ calendars and give them enough heads up

When scheduling a meeting, make sure to double-check if people are free and to not interrupt them during focus time. The more uninterrupted time teams have, the higher their productivity is. Also, if people need to prepare something for the meeting, make sure to give them enough time to do so.

2. Be explicit about meeting agendas and participants

Everyone at Personio is #DrivenByImpact, which usually means that our calendars are absolutely packed. Therefore, it is always helpful to know what will be covered, who needs to be there, and the impact it will ultimately bring.

3. Choose the right space for your meeting (and make it inclusive)

In order to have a productive meeting, the right environment is key. So, start by considering the following:

Rooms: In a normal world where we all used to go to the office, we asked our employees to book the right kind of room for meetings. After all, not every meeting even needs a room. If your meeting could take place while going for a walk or in a common space, please take advantage of it to save rooms for others. However, if you expect more people to join a meeting, make sure to book a suitable space.

Zoom: Always include a Zoom link for your meetings, even if you expect it to take place in person. It’s always possible for someone to do home office at the last minute or someone from another office might need to be included.

Be inclusive: As stated above, please always make it possible to attend meetings remotely. If you have a situation where the majority of people are in one office and only one or a few people are remote, please consider for the onsite people to also join the Zoom call individually to create a better atmosphere on the call and include the remote colleagues. Please also remember to book a room in the other offices if you are setting up a meeting with someone outside your own office. Since our team is very international, please also pay attention to different time zones.

4. Take charge of your own time

You own your time. We want to make you feel empowered to say “no” sometimes and also decline meetings if it really doesn’t suit you. That’s ok.

5. Be helpful, collaborative and available

While you own your time, we would also ask you to make it possible for your colleagues to set up time with you and to be responsive to them. Most importantly, please always respond, i.e. RSVP to invites by either accepting or declining (also add a note when declining) them. “Maybe” usually doesn’t help, at least not unless you add an explanatory note.