This is TOTALLY a big company observation but when someone schedules a meeting with me I’m hyper-aware of whether they’ve selected a conference room near me or near them (midway is rarely picked). With my team I usually ask them to come to me (and i’m talking about just a few hundred feet at most so it’s not a huge deal) but when i’m visiting others, i consciously choose a room near them as opposed to calling them over.
Does anyone else experience room scheduling alpha behavior? Or are there other workplace dynamics that you note with regards to displays of power?
It’s clearly a measure of whether they value your time less than theirs. Of course, if they book far from you, it’s a good excuse to wait till 5 after then call the room from your desk 🙂
Its at work in small companies as well. Company of 30 people but split on two floors. One director would have the office manager call the other director (me) and she would let me know “Steve wants you to come down here”. And what about those who do not schedule meetings but walk into your office with documents in hand to meet?? I would just laugh in both cases (before or after I said um, NO).
my ideal office to curb human alpha ape behavior involves a wheel-and-spokes design with sweet meeting space in the middle