my coworker refuses to share her calendar and says she’ll quit if she’s ordered to

by Alison Green on March 24, 2025

A reader writes:

I work at a small creative business with about 25 employees, Our structure is pretty flat, and there is no traditional HR or processes that come with working at larger organizations. There are three main departments. I run one, and my coworker who I am writing about, Maggie, runs one of the others.

A small thing has become a big issue: While we all have open calendars to make scheduling easier, Maggie refuses to make her calendar open and keeps it entirely private. In addition, her calendar is often entirely booked with meetings, showing no open times to add anything.

As a result, in order to schedule almost anything, the project management team is forced to reach out to Maggie to ask about flexibility on her calendar and wait for her response and/or approval to put something on (often she refuses and says she has no time available). As you can imagine, this creates a bottleneck and a considerable amount of frustration for the PM team, who cannot easily do their work. It also adds a layer that makes it seem like Maggie is the the most senior employee (she is not) and gives her an element of control over all meetings.

To add to the frustration, it has become clear that many of the meetings on her calendar have only her in them and are personal appointments or time blocks to do things like “clean the house.” The PM team knows this because they can see all the other meetings on the calendar, so can see she is not booked with anyone, and more than once Maggie has forgotten to sign out of a shared computer and they have seen meetings on her calendar during work hours (10am-6pm) like “walk the dog,” “pilates,” etc. While we keep a flexible work style with two days home and treat each other like adults who can use their time as they like to get their work done (we all often have things on our calendar like “dentist appt”), this calendar issue has become infuriating for many people in the agency.

Maggie could open her calendar and make any blocks she wishes to private, but she refuses to do this (and has even said she would quit over it). As a result, her calendar has become a source of mockery. The PM team is convinced it’s all fake vs. having respect for blocked times, her relationships are suffering because she is seen as uncooperative, controlling, and sneaky (hiding something), and the vibes are getting more and more toxic.

How would you suggest we move forward with this situation, which is currently at a stalemate? Force her to open her calendar or offer a consequence (no idea what that would be), allow her to quit over it (I would not hate this option), allow her to continue keeping it private and change how we schedule, all make our calendars private (petty but would a point), let it go?

I wrote back and asked, “What has Maggie said about her reasons when asked why she wants to do it this way? And what does Maggie’s boss say about it?”

Maggie refuses to elaborate other than to say that she thinks it’s a violation of her privacy and she wants a private calendar

When the CEO, who is her boss, spoke about it, she told the CEO she would quit if forced to open her calendar.

That was about a year ago, and I don’t think the CEO really understands the implications. This week I spoke to the CEO about it being an ongoing problem and someone else sent the CEO screenshots of Maggie’s calendar to show the scheduling blocks are all personal. So we’ll see if there is action taken but when I spoke to the CEO, she expressed she felt like she had no way to force Maggie to comply.

You have a Maggie problem, but you also have a CEO problem.

Or at least you do if people have clearly laid out to the CEO what problems this is causing — that it’s creating a bottleneck and making the PMs’ jobs harder and that Maggie hasn’t offered any reason for being so committed to not complying with a practice everyone else uses.

If the CEO’s response to that is still that she has no way to force Maggie to comply … then are there any policies or accountability in this organization at all? What would the CEO do if someone stopped coming to work? Refused to meet deadlines? Wanted to walk around the office pants-less? Obviously these are bigger deals than “won’t share her calendar,” but the point is that the only way offices can function is if there are shared agreements around expectations and practices and if people are actually held accountable to meeting those.

But I’m curious about whether the CEO does know how much of a problem this has become. Often when stuff like this gets shared, it’s shared in a sort of shorthand that doesn’t communicate the full extent of the problem. So if there’s any doubt about how much the CEO understands, the next step is to go back to her and describe in detail the specific issues Maggie’s intransigence is causing, and then state clearly that things are at a crisis point and the CEO needs to use her authority to intervene because a year of trying to resolve it with Maggie directly hasn’t worked.

This next part is out of your control, but from there the CEO should talk to Maggie and find out why she’s digging her heels. If Maggie isn’t willing to offer a compelling reason, then the CEO should tell her that this is an expectation of her job like any other, that she needs to comply with it because it’s causing XYZ work problems, and that the CEO is going to check in two days to make sure she’s done it, and that she needs to continue to comply going forward. And then the CEO needs to hold her to that like she would any other work expectation.

The CEO may be thinking “I’m not willing to lose an employee over something as small as their calendar settings,” but this isn’t really about the calendar. It’s about someone insisting they’re going to cause bottlenecks and problems for their colleagues and claiming they feel so strongly about their right to do that that they’ll quit over it without ever explaining why it matters. That’s not about calendar settings; it’s about Maggie’s fundamental willingness to work respectfully and cooperatively on a team.

It also makes me really curious about the rest of Maggie’s work, because I’m skeptical that this isn’t coming out in other ways too.

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{ 301 comments }

{ 301 comments… read them below or add one }

  1. Thin Mints didn't make me thin*

    I wonder if the CEO can also add “improve collaboration” and “demonstrate success in moving projects forward” to Maggie’s goals for this year.

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    1. I should really pick a name*

      This is something that should be fixed within a week, not year.

      When there is a clear specific problem to solve, broad, vague goals are not the answer.

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  2. Alton Brown's Evil Twin*

    Yeah, OP needs to lead with the business consequences first when discussing with the CEO.

    “PM team had to reschedule 3 meetings with new client X because Maggie was slow in giving us her availability, and X is disappointed about the delays to the project.”

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    1. Pastor Petty Labelle*

      I think people are getting sutck on the but its all personal stuff. They are making it about that instead of showing the business effect.

      Which is toxic unto itself. Calling her calendar fake is not helpful or professional.

      Focus on the business impact – we can’t schedule meetings without reaching out to Maggie, this makes it take longer to schedule. Then she refuses to be flexible so we can have meetings. This is true regardless of what is on her calendar. Because the CEO is right, he can’t make her reveal personal information on the calendar. Which is what it seems you all are asking.

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      1. Lily Rowan*

        Agreed – I had someone on my team who kept her calendar fully blocked at all times, and it was SUCH a power play! Sure, she was in the office and working, but that was not the cultural expectation in our office and made scheduling a huge pain in the ass.

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      2. Scott*

        I agree that this person needs to make the business case but the fact that they are all personal like “Pilates” or “walk the dog” are relevant because Maggie is not doing her job and her extra curricular activities are interfering with her ability to do her job

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        1. Decima Dewey*

          If Maggie wants a private calendar filled up with her personal stuff, she can buy one at Staples and keep it in her purse/brief case/on her fridge. Her office calendar should reflect work stuff–with occasional private items for personal appointments that occur during the workday. And it should be open, like everyone else’s.

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          1. CeeDoo*

            That was my thought. Does Maggie not have a phone? That’s where I keep track of personal appointments. I don’t want my personal business attached to my work account.

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            1. Justin*

              Yes, I only put personal stuff if it’s vague like “dr appt” or “parent teacher conference” because, well, everyone has the former and they know I have kids and the company is understanding of that.

              My dog walks (I also plan these) are on my own calendar.

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              1. AnotherOne*

                We’re expected to have our outlook calendars available so people can schedule meetings with us. Anything like a doctors appointment, I just mark as personal but busy.

                While things like the gym- that i’d like to do but can skip get marked as personal but available, that way someone can schedule a meeting over them if they need to.

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            2. TheirThereTheyre*

              Also, I’ve always been able to add a secondary calendar in Google/Outlook. I like to schedule work tasks, projects, supervisee bdays/anniversaries, etc. on my calendar, but don’t want them clogging up my primary calendar meeting availability. No one else sees it, but I can toggle it off/on to overlay with my primary calendar for planning and tasks.

              She could do this … but I’m guessing her real resistance is that she spends a lot of her day *not* working and doesn’t want to give that up. I used to have a director who refused to share his calendar and was always out of the office. We were all pretty sure he had a second job during work hours, but no proof.

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              1. Azure Jane Lunatic*

                I agree with your assessment of Maggie’s resistance.

                I love using multiple calendars for various purposes. I keep my personal stuff in gcal and work has always been in Outlook. Right now I’m using a dedicated calendar for stuff my ADHD has to think is important, as well as a personal calendar that has blocked time for stuff like the time I use to drive to the doctor’s appointment, and there’s a household calendar so we can coordinate who exactly is giving whom a ride to which appointment. Plus I have a (very little used now due to disability, covid, and all that) social calendar that’s public for the purpose of letting friends tag along if I’m doing something fun.

                It might be worth the CEO setting a guideline about how much personal time can be blocked on the work calendar as a routine matter, in terms of hours per week, outside of sick/vacation/other types of formal leave.

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            3. aebhel*

              Yeah, exactly. I don’t want my personal calendar attached to my work calendar ANYWAY, so it’s weird that she’s done this and then used it as a reason not to share her work calendar because doing so would violate her privacy.

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          2. Freya*

            I have multiple calendars associated with multiple email addresses. They can sync to the same instance of Outlook without issue, and stuff that’s important to work goes on the calendar associated with my work email address and personal reminders go on one of the personal ones.

            Boss (and coworkers, if they need to) has access to the work one but not any of the personal ones; boss herself has at least three calendars, one of which is work-relevant stuff and hence I and co-workers can see it, one is her personal one (can’t see that, although I can see it exists), and one is shared between her and her husband (can’t see that one either). It takes a little organisation and attention to detail to ensure that I keep work stuff on the work calendar and stuff my coworkers don’t need to know on the personal one, and some attention to the settings to make sure they display (or not!) correctly, but it’s relatively easy.

            And if I should leave this workplace, then I can take my personal records with me, because they were never on a workplace calendar!

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          3. Princess Sparklepony*

            I’m guessing she does it so that no one can schedule her without contacting her first. It’s a power play.

            I wonder what would happen if people just set up meeting that worked for everyone else and sent the meeting invite to Maggie and she can clear her schedule or not attend. How much do they really need her at the meeting? Send her the notes, at least you can move forward.

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      3. BPT*

        Nobody is asking her to actually reveal personal information on the calendar. If she has a doctor’s appointment or some other private appointment, she can still make that individual calendar item private. But it is definitely inappropriate to have all of your time blocked off to “clean the house” or “do Pilates.” If it was an hour blocked off over lunch to do an activity like this, I doubt anyone would complain.

        What is on her calendar does actually matter for how to deal with it – if her entire calendar was blocked off for legitimate meetings or work that was causing a slowdown, that would have the same business impact, but would have an entirely different solution than a calendar completely blocked off for non-work reasons.

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        1. Bruce*

          I put my personal stuff on my work calendar and mark it private, but I don’t block the whole day. It also helps that my boss has told me that he trusts me to do what I need to during the day, both I and my wife have enough health issues that some appointments HAVE to be during working hours… and I have evening work meetings almost every week night Monday to Thursday. As it is my calendar stays pretty open, I realize I’m lucky in that respect…

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      4. Beth*

        The CEO absolutely can make her show her calendar. He can’t and shouldn’t make her show every personal detail – she can mark personal meetings as ‘private’, she can start labeling all personal blocks as something generic like ‘break’ or ‘appointment’ – but he absolutely can say “We require work calendars to be public to your coworkers for collaboration purposes”. That’s not even a weird thing for a boss to require.

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        1. Distracted Librarian*

          And he can also insist she keep open times on her calendar for meetings. I’ve had to have that conversation with direct reports who got enthusiastic about time blocking as a productivity technique – to the point that they blocked all day, every day.

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      5. But Of Course*

        Well, it actually is relevant. I agree the business impact (including the power play) is what needs to be solved, but if Maggie were this booked up with work stuff, there’s an immediate case for either hiring (I got a multi-year temp job once because my department’s boss was fully booked with meetings for 40+ hours a week – a dumb structure of international and intranational liaison) or restructuring jobs to take work off Maggie’s plate. The fact that it’s largely personal means this need doesn’t exist, which makes it VERY relevant that she’s filling her calendar with personal stuff. It’s possible her job doesn’t need to exist if she’s able do so little work during the work day. (I neither know nor care if she’s getting up at 2 am, banging out all her work, and then living her life during work hours; that level of asynchronous work doesn’t sound like it’s working for the team, though.)

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        1. Susannah*

          Yes, but…. I wonder if they are made-up block of unavailable time so Maggie doesn’t have to explain/account for every hour of work.
          If it’s the requirement at her job, then she needs to do it. But I suspect she is just putting in “walk dog” or “clean house” as a sort of (un) civil disobedience.

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          1. But Of Course*

            What a weird way to go about it. “Let me put eyebrow-raising personal appointments on my calendar to avoid scrutiny while being maximally unavailable, while ‘reviewing database’ is bland corporate nothing that achieves the same goal.”

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            1. I Have RBF*

              Seriously.

              If I want to block my calendar for head down stuff, I block a couple hours with “Fix [servername] disk hog issue.” “Corporate training”, or something like that. (Actually, I wouldn’t use “corporate training”, because I want to get pulled away from that…)

              Same reason I write “lunch” instead of “nap” – because no one needs to know that I sleep on my lunch hour. (Timers are great things.)

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          2. Princess Sparklepony*

            I think they are notes to herself. The question is if they are moveable or does she consider them truly blocked off and she will be cleaning the house, walking the dog, doing pilates at those times.

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        2. DE*

          I kinda think it’s more likely that the calendar items are not genuine rather than that she’s walking the dog all afternoon. The calendar is “real” but the appointments on it aren’t.

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      7. Insert Clever Name Here*

        Nope, but he can make her reveal the work information, which is what is needed. Maggie can mark “dog walking” and “pilates” private just like I put “appointment” when it’s not work related.

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        1. Silver Robin*

          that does not solve the problem that Maggie has a calendar full of stuff that makes it impossible to schedule something without asking first. It is unreasonably to expect people to schedule over the private blocks…what if those are actually doctor’s appointments or something?

          What Maggie could actually do if she wants to keep using her work calendar for personal tasks is mark herself “free” during the more flexible stuff so people can actually see open blocks on her calendar. The actual content can stay private, but then coworkers can still set the meetings they need.

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          1. So they all cheap-ass rolled over and one fell out*

            The weird thing, to me, about focusing on the open calendars is that the only thing it can enable is LW (or some other coworker) making judgements about which items on the calendar are less important than the meeting LW is trying to schedule.

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            1. Ally McBeal*

              But that’s not weird. It’s very important and normal. I was an EA for many years, and still do plenty of scheduling now, and sometimes people’s calendars are so difficult that it’s easier for everyone if I can reach out with “Hey Brad, CEO needs to meet with you and 10 other execs next Monday. I see you have client meetings for most of the day but you have two blocks that are just internal meetings – can you please shift those around to accommodate?”

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            2. Starbuck*

              It’s not stated but I assume the main motive for transparency is that 1. she might be shamed into not putting Pilates down for 10:00am in the middle of work hours so that appointment disappears, or 2. Coworkers can say ‘Maggie, we need to schedule the client meeting this Tuesday and everyone else is free at 3pm – I see you’ve got “pet the dog” booked on your calendar then so I’m assuming that’s flexible enough that you’ll be able to make it”

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          2. fhqwhgads*

            It’s not even just that it’s impossible to schedule without asking first. It’s impossible to schedule. That’s part of why the rest of them are so resentful having seen “pilates” or “walk the dog”. Because they’re having to chase her for what might be moveable AND she’s saying the appointments aren’t moveable, regardless of what they are.
            Her goal is to obfuscate what could/should be moveable or not. All the bottleneck stuff happening is a feature, not a bug.
            If she showed titles rather than just free/busy, it would illustrate how many of the blocks on her calendar are nothing to do with work. And sure not all private appointments are moveable. But if she’s got multiple hours a day every day of what she’s claimed to date were unmoveable commitments in the middle of the workday, it’s gonna beg a bunch of questions. Right now it’s gossip-ey begging those questions. If people can see her calendar it will objectively beg those questions. Her plausible deniability (and full control over the scheduling, which I’m guessing she enjoys) goes away.

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        2. Wendy Darling*

          I put personal appointments on my work calendar all the time so someone doesn’t schedule a meeting when I have a doctor appointment or whatever, but I mark them private so even people I’ve shared my calendar with can’t see the content. Works great!

          That said I have a reasonable number of these — for a while I had physical therapy twice a week during work hours (I worked late to make it up, yay flexible jobs) and that was still only taking up 2 hours a week. 3 hours tops if I also had a doctor appointment that week. You could definitely still find time to schedule meetings!

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      8. Silver Robin*

        I am going to say that it matters somewhat that this is not work stuff, because it means Maggie is not overwhelmed with projects and expectations such that she cannot reasonably be expected to handle it all. I could very well see a fully booked calendar (one of the supervisors on my team has one that truly terrifies me) due to being genuinely busy, in which case the CEO needs to do something about workflow and capacity. The fact that this is all personal stuff means that Maggie’s judgement around her calendar and time management is the problem, not structural work stuff.

        As Lily Rowan mentioned, people can be petty and block their calendars anyway with supposed work stuff and the issue around flexibility/availability/responsiveness is still a problem. I just think that the fact that it is all personal makes it really clear that the issue is Maggie not the organization.

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      9. Kevin Sours*

        I think you are misreading that aspect of things. Nobody wants her to reveal personal information. The letter actually addresses that specifically. But it’s a problem when somebody is blocking out there entire work day with non work activities.

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      10. So they all cheap-ass rolled over and one fell out*

        It sounds like they can’t schedule meetings even with reaching out to Maggie. A lot of the time she claims to be too busy. If Maggie’s schedule is as full of personal appointments as they claim, I can’t imagine Maggie is getting a lot of work done anyways… which is another business impact OP and their coworkers should focus on.

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      11. I Have RBF*

        “Maggie is unavailable for meetings during core business hours, causing delays in projects due to the inability to schedule any meetings about them. It appears that most of the items on her calendar are non-work items during work hours.”

        That lists the business impacts, and indicates the reason is that Maggie is a) not available for meetings, and b) stealing time for personal tasks. Both are a problem.

        If all of the meetings on Maggies calendar were “Focus work on project A”, “Meet with NNNN on project B”, then my focus would be different – “Maggie is unavailable for meeting because she has too much on her plate.”

        The fact that she keeps her calendar “private”, but is always “busy”, makes me think that she wants people to think the latter, but she’s actually busy with personal stuff, not job stuff.

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        1. Oniya*

          I’d say that your first sentence would be the best lead-in to the CEO. It doesn’t even bring up the nature of the ‘appointments’ or the accessibility of Maggie’s calendar, only the fact that she has made herself ‘unavailable’ and this is causing a problem. I’d be questioning whether Maggie’s inclusion on these projects is even necessary.

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      12. Media Monkey*

        but i think the fact that it’s personal stuff does make a difference. i would say that even in companies with a lot of time flexibility to do personal things during the work day, you’d be expected to move your dog walking time (or even focus time if you are in a company where people block out focus time) to accomodate a meeting. if i am scheduling a meeting, it is helpful to see if the block when i want to schedule is another meeting that can’t be moved, or a personal block that could/ should be moved.

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    2. Anonym*

      Exactly. This is not as much about the calendar visibility as about being available to do work (join meetings). If her calendar was fully public but still fully booked, the largest part of the problem would remain. Maggie is not doing the work, and she’s preventing others from doing the work.

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      1. Funko Pops Day*

        Absolutely agree with this (and similar points below)– even if all the blockers were (a) public and (b) work related, the lack of open times so that every meeting requires an exchange with her and/or meetings are delayed is the real problem.

        I agree with the suggestions below to identify when the meeting needs to happen, and then pick a time that works for everyone else, then send an email saying “I picked a time that maximized availability, but if this doesn’t work for you, please identify a new time that everyone is available that will work for you before [deadline for meeting] and let us all know by [48 hours from now]” Possibly, approach CEO again and say this is the business impact, and to manage it going forward, I am going to handle it by scheduling meetings in this way unless you have another solution I should consider.

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        1. Alexander Graham Yell*

          Exactly. I’d get some real specifics, too – “It can take from 4 hours to 2 days to schedule a meeting, we average x meetings per week that involve her, we’ve missed deadlines for A, B, and C clients. We can’t continue this way, so either she needs to be taken off of/replaced on projects if she’s truly booked this much, or we need a new process. I suggest *Funko Pops Day’s idea*, but I’m open to other strategies if you have ideas.”

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          1. Margaret Cavendish*

            This, and for comparison purposes you should have a couple of data points about how long it takes to schedule meetings that *don’t* include Maggie. If everyone else’s meetings get scheduled same day and hers take three days plus a phone call, it’s easto demonstrate the problem.

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    3. Anon (and on and on)*

      Yep! The CEO is seeing this as a personality conflict when it’s really an operational problem. She needs to use performance management with Maggie, setting clear expectations and backing those up with consequences, rather than coaching or advice.

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    4. Momma Bear*

      I agree. This isn’t a calendar problem so much as Maggie making herself unavailable because she wants to block off her entire day with no differentiation and doesn’t offer options to meet business needs. I think if OP starts framing it to CEO that Maggie is hindering quantifiable work it may make CEO take action. At some point it doesn’t matter if she’s washing her hair or in another meeting – she’s unavailable to the point she is a bottleneck. Either she becomes more available or she becomes superfluous and projects start working around/without her.

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    5. Heck, darn, and other salty expressions*

      Tell her no personal appointments allowed on the work calendar. Her shenanigans are going to cause people to lose their 2 days of work from home and flexible schedules.

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  3. The Cosmic Avenger*

    I know Maggie runs a department, but if she has people who work under her, they must be somewhat involved and knowledgeable about that department’s area of expertise. I’d start holding meetings when most people can make it, and ask her department staff to make decisions about their area, and if they’re unwilling, have the other department heads make them.

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    1. Rectilinear Propagation*

      I agree with this. If Maggie refuses to even show what her availability is, then it makes no sense to try to schedule things around her. Schedule meetings following the office convention and she’ll either show up or not.

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      1. CeeDoo*

        Where I used to work, any action items that weren’t desirable were assigned to the people who weren’t at the meeting but were supposed to be. It was an informal way of saying “if you want the good tasks, be at the meeting.”

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        1. Silver Robin*

          Good policy (assuming those folks are fully able to do the less desirable task). Privileges come with participation; you cannot contribute nothing and expect to get things you like. I use this with volunteers especially because it is mitigates this assumption that the volunteers will be catered to in all things because of the favor they are doing. No, this is a commitment and if you want the nicer task or to have influence over the event planning, or whatever it is, you have to actually show up. Gratitude and recognition obviously are warranted, but only if you actually do the work.

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      2. Elbe*

        The “schedule meetings away” approach works well to free up the PMs to get meetings on the calendar faster, but I could see this backfiring.

        1) If Maggie responds with available times, the PM is just going to have to do more work to reschedule. It seems really unlikely that Maggie will check others’ calendars before she sends over a proposed time. If Maggie insists on attending, I don’t think anything would really change.

        2) Maggie could just not show up. And then everyone would still have the problem that someone who is supposed to be doing work isn’t doing anything

        3) If Maggie is actually responsible for critical items, things falling through the cracks could cause problems. They would effectively just be swapping out scheduling problems for other problems.

        At the end of the day, the only good solution here is for someone to make Maggie prioritize her work instead of other errands or let her go. It is absolutely ridiculous that the CEO is allowing her to act like this.

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    2. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

      Or end the meeting with a list of things that Maggie needs to decide, ideally with a target date by which time decisions are required to avoid timeline slippage. Either you’ll end up with solid documentation that Maggie’s lack of availability is a problem or you’ll learn that maybe she doesn’t need to be in all of these meetings. (Or she’ll figure it out expeditiously and stop causing problems).

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      1. The Cosmic Avenger*

        100%. I’ve kind of done this, not with a person who was chronically absent, but just with people who once in a blue moon had an immovable conflict, and we couldn’t schedule around it. We’d have the meeting, discuss everything around their decisions, including our take on them and the ramifications, and then send them the notes and ask them to respond. They always did, but if they didn’t, we probably would know pretty well what the rest of us thought needed to be done, even if the decision was outside of our area of expertise.

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        1. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

          Yeah, it happens. I’ve been on project teams where we’re trying to schedule meetings of like 40 people, some of whom are Directors. We’ll typically ask for someone who can’t make it to send a surrogate. But if we really need a decision from the Director (or their boss), we’ll follow up after the meeting / ask someone from that person’s chain of command to update them. In a generally functional workplace, we can handle that kind of thing.

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      2. TeaCoziesRUs*

        This. And return awkward to Management by making that deadline 48 hours before its truly necessary, then when she blows it off, send it out again, CCing the CEO. Start pushing her power plays with the calendar the CEO’s way, so CEO can no longer have plausible deniability concerning her calendar. Doing this means they’ll either actually start managing her or fire her. I hate having to treat a CEO this way, but they’re her manager. They’ll either manage or you’ll know you truly have more than a calendar problem.

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    3. hillia*

      This 100%. Schedule meetings with no reference to her calendar. If she shows up, great; if not, oh well. I would not under any circumstances get into a loop where she’s controlling the meeting scheduling by forcing everyone to call and beg for her availability.

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    4. duinath*

      Yep. All the rest of you pick a time that works, send the time to Maggie, loop in her second in command (or whoever can pass for that if you squint) and then just have the meeting.

      If Maggie doesn’t like that, at least she’ll have some incentive to make a change.

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    5. Melicious*

      Yeah, if I was a PM, I’d start adding “please respond with availability by 10am tomorrow” and then schedule the meeting without her if she doesn’t.

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      1. Noni*

        This is absolutely how it should be handled. Give Maggie autonomy over her own schedule, but set a reasonable timeframe for responding with availability for meetings.

        Then, if there’s still an issue, it’s not about personal/public calendars, but the effect on the work.

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    6. Michigander*

      That’s what I was thinking. Whenever it’s possible to hold a meeting without Maggie because she refuses to respond to scheduling requests or to reschedule something so time-sensitive as “clean the house”, do it. You at least get some meetings accomplished, and maybe she’ll be so annoyed about being left out that she’ll make more of an effort to open up her schedule. That or she’ll complain to the CEO, but at least then it opens the issue up for discussion again.

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    7. Lab Boss*

      Agreed- I often end up trying to schedule meetings that are impossible because of overly full calendars. You pick the best time you can, invite a substitute for someone unavailable if needed, and send out notes and action items to everyone including the people who couldn’t come. With reasonable people, they accept that they’re too busy to be at every meeting.

      If Maggie decides to buck against this and insist she gets full scheduling control over everything, THEN there’s a rock-solid business problem to present to the CEO.

      Reply ↓
    8. AnotherOne*

      This feels like the best solution.

      Obviously, yes- reframe the issues for the CEO. But in the meantime and maybe going forward, meetings get scheduled when everyone in the office and clients sans Maggie can make it. And Maggie is simply noted as not required.

      Maybe someone in Maggie’s department gets designated each meeting as responsible for following up with anything that would require an answer from Maggie.

      Reply ↓
    9. Heather*

      This has the added benefit of figuring out if Maggie’s role is a redundancy at this point. If she’s spending that much of her day doing personal stuff (which, as a Creative who’s dealt with this EXACT scenario, that’s a canary in the mine), your team could be due for restructuring of duties or eliminating her role altogether.

      Reply ↓
    10. RedinSC*

      This is what I was thinking. Invite Maggie, but also invite the people doing the work, have them make the decisions, if Maggie doesn’t like that, she needs to start participating, and NOT being a roadblock.

      Reply ↓
  4. Butterfly Counter*

    This feels very much like a power play.

    While I don’t have a calendar for my job, I know how common they are. And if she’s worried about personal stuff, just don’t put personal stuff on there! Have her download her own calendar app that she can keep full to the brim and have her work calendar for work/worktime meetings.

    This is a problem that is easily solvable. That she’s not solving it means it’s a power play to have control over meetings.

    Reply ↓
    1. Naomi*

      I don’t think it’s a power play; I think Maggie has filled her workdays with personal appointments and errands. She’s putting them on the calendar so she can’t be scheduled for meetings when she wants to be doing something else, but she doesn’t want to share the calendar because it will show she is spending very little time on work.

      Reply ↓
        1. Rogue Slime Mold*

          My chief disappointment with this scenario is that Maggie can’t be bothered to keep two sets of books. Like the shared calendar says “Working on the legacy code” and then her private calendar says “Pilates.”

          Like at least try, and make LW and her other coworkers complain that there isn’t that much legacy code, she can’t be spending most of her week on that. This is just flat out putting “Secret Stuff Neener Neener” on the shared version and uncoded truth on the unshared version.

          Reply ↓
          1. Ook*

            I was going to say that! If her work calendar has to be public for ease of co-ordinating meetings etc, then she shouldn’t put personal details on it, not refuse to open her calendar “because of privacy”
            Give her a month (and that’s generous) to creates & populate a second calendar for herself and clean her personal stuff off the work one, and there she is.
            She can always block out time on the public one as “focusing on x” . A calendar isn’t like a timesheet.

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      2. Observer*

        I don’t think it’s a power play; I think Maggie has filled her workdays with personal appointments and errands.

        The two are not mutually exclusive. It’s definitely a power play. And probably one of the reasons for this play is to be able to do whatever she wants whenever she wants to, work related or not.

        Reply ↓
        1. BobCat*

          This is a very good point – and very common. People have a tendency to think of two options as mutually exclusive when they most likely aren’t. At least start by giving both options a 50-50 chance of both being true, then look for ways to tip the scales either one way or the other.

          Reply ↓
      5. Dust Bunny*

        I was just getting on here to ask this: So, when is she actually working? Because it sounds like she’s filled her days with a lot of non-job stuff.

        Reply ↓
      6. learnedthehardway*

        Agreed. I can’t believe the CEO won’t deal with this performance issue. Well – lack of performance issue.

        Reply ↓
      8. I Choose the Bear*

        Exactly! Filling her calendar and blocking access to make it look like she couldn’t fit in One More Thing is her method of time theft. I’m with Allison, evidence of low productivity and mediocre effectiveness have to be showing up elsewhere .

        Reply ↓
      9. Mark This Confidential And Leave It Laying Around*

        Both can be true! It’s a oower play by a person who doesn’t want to be available for work during work hours.

        Reply ↓
      10. I Have RBF*

        This is how I read it.

        She wants to prioritize not-work stuff while she’s supposed to be working, and wants to keep her calendar private so her bosses don’t notice.

        Reply ↓
      11. Double A*

        I use Google calendar but I have to assume other calendar work the same where you can also mark individual events as Private so you’d just see “Busy” on the calendar. I do think occasionally if I don’t feel like having a Dr. appointment public on my calendar. But it sounds like all Maggie’s appointments are suspect.

        Reply ↓
    2. Lacey*

      Absolutely.

      And it seems like she’s also trying to hide how much of her work time she’s using for home stuff. Which, don’t get me wrong, I pop the laundry in during work hours and if we’re slow I might even wash some dishes. But, I’m not delaying projects to get housework done and it sounds like she is.

      Reply ↓
      1. Momma Bear*

        This. I also wonder if she’s as invaluable as the CEO thinks she is or if she’s cultivated this perception that nothing can go forward without her.

        In my company there are very few meetings that can’t happen with just a subset of players and it’s not uncommon for a manager to send someone in their stead if it’s important for their department to have a representative, even if that person isn’t the decision-maker. It’s a workflow problem if one person and their calendar can hamstring everyone else.

        I’d schedule the meeting when the majority can make it and see what happens. Make her choose which event she attends and maybe then have to explain to the CEO why she didn’t choose the Important Meeting.

        Reply ↓
  5. Jamalama*

    Or, just go ahead a schedule the meetings? This is perhaps not the most professional thing but then it puts the ball back in her court and if she has to do enough reaching out about how that meeting is a conflict, maybe she’ll get her own stuff figured out.

    Reply ↓
    1. GrooveBat*

      Yes, I was just coming here to say this. Make Maggie’s intransigence a bigger problem for *her* than it is for the rest of you.

      Reply ↓
    2. Thin Mints didn't make me thin*

      “Oh, you didn’t know about the new team polo-shirt mandate? I know we discussed it in the marketing meeting last week. I’m sure you were on the invite list.”

      Reply ↓
    3. Athena*

      That’s absolutely what I would be doing. I would make sure to schedule things far enough in advance so she has no excuse for not being able to “move things around.”

      Reply ↓
    4. Anonym*

      Yes! You can be clear about it. “Because of deadline X, we need to meet to discuss this by DATE. If this time doesn’t work, please suggest a different time.” She can suggest something within the parameters.

      Or continue being bizarrely difficult, but this time with email proof that she was told about the time constraints and given an opportunity to suggest something that works.

      Reply ↓
      1. GrooveBat*

        I wouldn’t even give her the option to suggest a different time, as that then puts the onus back on OP to scramble around to find a new time to accommodate Maggie.

        Reply ↓
    5. Smithy*

      Yeah – I do think that what you can do in this case is a schedule a time that works for everyone else and include Maggie. Then you can tag her in the meeting invite and say “@Maggie, this time worked for everyone else. If you need a time change – please let us know what would work on your calendar this week.”

      Then if she doesn’t reply and doesn’t show – the conversation with the CEO isn’t about the calendar management – it’s that Maggie doesn’t show to critical meetings and isn’t supporting a system where they can happen.

      Reply ↓
      1. honeygrim*

        I think this is definitely the way to go. If she has a legitimate conflict with a meeting, she can state that to the CEO. This will also give the LW the opportunity to make it the CEO’s problem. “Maggie is not attending meetings that are critical to her job.”

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      2. GrooveBat*

        The only way this would work, IMO, would be if OP makes it clear that *Maggie* is the one who needs to do the rescheduling at a time when everyone else is also available. I know Outlook has a “propose new time” setting that allows you to look at everyone else’s calendars before asking for a reschedule; OP needs to insist that Maggie use that. Otherwise, Maggie is forcing OP to bend over backwards to accommodate her, which is obnoxious and unfair.

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      3. learnedthehardway*

        I wouldn’t offer the option to change the time. I would tell her this is WHEN the meeting is – particularly client or vendor meetings.

        It is time-consuming and frustrating to schedule meetings with multiple people – especially if they are external to the organization. ANY change means you practically have to start from scratch.

        Perhaps if the meetings are presented as a fait acompli, and are a hassle for Maggie herself, then she’ll get more onboard with sharing her schedule – that, or she’ll just accept because she’s not really busy, anyway.

        Personally, I do block my schedule when I have work I have to get done, appointments (and travel), or if I am not willing to take a meeting at a particular time/day – but that’s because I have an online calendar, and candidates I’m interviewing are asked to make their own appointment. So, I have to block off time when I can’t be available. However, my clients know that they can generally go ahead and book me when they need me.

        Reply ↓
        1. GrooveBat*

          Yeah, that’s why I was suggesting the “decline and suggest a new time” option for Maggie, which then gives OP the option to accept or reject the request.

          Basically, I just don’t want OP to get stuck in a situation where she’s the one who has to bend over backwards to accommodate Maggie’s mystery calendar and has to constantly go back and forth with “What about this time? Or this? Or this?”

          Presenting the meetings as a fait accompli is also perfectly fine with me.

          Reply ↓
    6. LaminarFlow*

      I would totally just….go ahead and schedule stuff. If Maggie is too busy with her various commitments, she might miss things that are important to her, or essential for her job function. Consistently missing out on the conversations and decisions will likely impact her ability to do her job.

      But also, I agree that this is a CEO problem, but since they don’t want to address the problem with Maggie, it is going to continue to be annoying for everyone else, which sucks.

      Reply ↓
    7. Seal*

      That’s what I’d do. Maggie’s being ridiculous and isn’t in a position to push back (but I’ll bet she will).

      Reply ↓
    8. Beth*

      OP can and should do this as Maggie’s peer, but it sounds like at least part of the problem is lower-level staff (PMs) needing Maggie in meetings and being unable to get her. It’s rough to ask a lower-level employee to take this route with a department head! If OP goes this route, they should also think about how to support their team if Maggie pushes back on it.

      Reply ↓
      1. Allonge*

        Eh, if OP is willing to have their back, it can still work. I agree OP should start this approach, probably with the other department head looped in. At some point, it should be ok to say ‘I invited Maggie, she never responded, I also invited Bob from her department who will work on this anyway, I did what I could’.

        It’s better than having to wait for Maggie to deign to respond to work matters when she has pilates on her agenda.

        It’s the same principle as advised here often: make it management’s problem, not yours. Right now everyone is doing their best not to make it into a problem, but that delays actual work.

        Reply ↓
    9. Tiger Snake*

      I was wondering if the fact that Maggie runs a department is preventing this. The level of chasing and bending over backwards – as opposed to trying your best and then booking the meeting anyway – is something I’m used to seeing in big organisation and reserved for the very top brass.

      You can see it in very large businesses because those big bosses genuinely do have that much work going on, because their approval can really make or break a project, and they therefore have the egos to match if they feel like they were snubbed on purpose. But for a business of 25 people, that’s a lot.
      It makes me question whether there’s a fear of repercussion. But if so, what else is in play with these power dynamics that would make LW unable to protect her employees from who is ostensibly her equal?

      Reply ↓
  6. mreasy*

    The most common calendar apps enable you to make the meeting info private and just show you as “busy” to the person booking. Maggie doesn’t have a leg to stand on and this is definitely a power play. Having just gotten my workplace to normalize using Scheduling Assistant on Outlook, I know the terrible inefficiency it creates when you have to email everyone and wait for their responses to schedule anything.

    Reply ↓
    1. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

      Sounds like there’s a second issue, which is that Maggie’s calendar shows her as booked basically all the time.

      LW, maybe it makes more sense to think of the problem as Maggie’s lack of availability for important meetings, rather than her refusal to share her calendar details. My understanding is that the team would like to see what’s on her calendar so they can grab blocks of time that are for non-work things, since they figure those things can be skipped or rescheduled when there’s work stuff that needs doing. Which makes sense! The real problem you’re having is that it’s impossible to schedule meetings with her because she’s never available. Not having the work-around of seeing what the things are is making it harder to work around, but it’s not necessarily the biggest problem.

      I think that presenting it as a lack of availability might help in communicating that this is a real problem that needs solving.

      Reply ↓
      1. Lacey*

        That’s a smart way to reframe. Because if she made herself more available, I doubt her calendar settings would be all that important.

        Reply ↓
      2. mreasy*

        Rereading it seems like Maggie DOES show her calendar but with every single block showing as “busy.” In which case I agree – she doesn’t need to show what her calendar items are, she just needs to stop scheduling time for non-meetings on her work calendar! I had a report who did this because she did time-blocking, and I had to ask her to change her time blocks for e.g. “research for X project” or “writing for Y project” to optional so I knew I could still book during them. Maggie could even do this, honestly.

        Reply ↓
        1. L.H. Puttgrass*

          In Outlook, at least, you can share your availability—including the times and lengths of any appointments—without showing the content of those appointments. So other people might see that Maggie has “meetings” all day every day, but not see what those “meetings” are.

          I suspect that Maggie doesn’t want to share her calendar and mark certain entries as private because everyone would see that she only has something like four legitimate business meetings each week.

          Reply ↓
        2. Time Blocking Pro Says Wut?*

          “she just needs to stop scheduling time for non-meetings on her work calendar”

          100% disagree with this framing. If I didn’t block off project time, then I would get literally zero projects done. My time is finite, my calendar is a representation of *how I spend my time.* It’s literally a time chart, not just a list of meetings.

          I strongly suggest reframing “optional” as “flexible” – meaning that the block can be moved to another time, but it cannot be canceled since the work that I’m delaying for your meeting is definitely not *optional*. If my work is “optional” then why am I doing it at all?

          This is not a defense of Maggie, but anyone who is trying to argue that calendars are ONLY for meetings is looking at calendars all wrong. Maggie seems to be using time blocking excessively, but time blocking itself, used properly, is a very effective time management strategy.

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          2. Tiger Snake*

            This is where perhaps you don’t need to make the calendar public at all. Outlook and most other schedulers let you define types of booking as well. A lot use colours, though there are some other options; and it takes very little customisation to set up (if any at all).

            Outlook for example doesn’t need any system setting changes; the team just needs to agree on a colour indication system. It already comes out of the box letting you define whether a meeting puts you out of the office or tentatively booked vs normal meeting, and then with only one extra button press also make it clear how flexible that appointment is just by agreeing that a red flag high priority no interrupts and green means low priority and flexible for higher priority tasks.

            Reply ↓
            1. amoeba*

              You can even have things on your calendar and still show the time as “free”! Which is what I’d suggest for personal stuff that can be easily moved around. So, sure, if you want to remind yourself to empty the dishwasher between meeting A and B or whatever, by all means put it in your calendar, but have Outlook show it as free. People scheduling won’t even see it, all fine. Of course, the time isn’t blocked, which I guess isn’t what Maggie wants…

              Reply ↓
      3. Hush42*

        So reading this the whole time I was trying to figure out if the team can’t see her calendar at all or if they can’t see the details of her meetings. If its the former then that is certainly a problem and she should absolutely make it so that everyone can see what her available times are without the detail of what the meetings are.
        If they can see the blocks but can’t see what the details are then I don’t think that her sharing her calendar is the issue. Like Grumpy said, the issue there is her availability, not whether or not you can see the details. If someone told me I had to completely open my calendar so that other people can try to decide whether their meeting is more important than whatever is currently on my calendar I would probably also think about quitting. At my company everyone can see others calendars without the details showing. I have my details shared specifically with my boss and no one else. My boss has his shared with me and his one other direct report.

        Reply ↓
        1. freelance bot*

          Yeah, I feel like this is (or should be) about her lack of availability, not whether or not everyone in the company can see the details of her personal calendar.

          My perspective on this is colored by two things: one, I am a freelancer, and this would be a wild overreach if any of my clients demanded it, and two, I have a serious medical condition, and even marking every appointment as a generic “doctor’s appointment” would reveal that there is *something* wrong with me, and it would also make it harder for me to keep track of my own appointments.

          If I were an employee somewhere that insisted on this, I guess I would just make a second personal calendar with the details stripped out, but it seems like that wouldn’t really satisfy the request here, and using multiple accounts would make it harder for me to manage my schedule.

          As I said, I am a freelancer, so maybe I am way off-base, but I would be frustrated by this requirement.

          Reply ↓
      4. Antilles*

        I agree with this re-framing and I also think it’s likely to get further with the CEO than continuing to futilely argue about sharing the calendar. The CEO clearly seems to believe that Maggie’s desire for privacy around her appointments has some merit, so shifting the argument might help get traction.

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      5. Hyaline*

        This was also my thought. Maggie could make her calendar totally public, but if it isn’t clarified that yes, people can go ahead and schedule over her one-woman blocks of time (within reason–over Pilates or Housecleaning, not Dentist), it doesn’t actually solve the problem. If she left large enough and frequent enough blocks of time open, this wouldn’t be an issue, even if all the others were still marked private.

        Reply ↓
        1. amoeba*

          Yup, this. In my org, the automatic settings are always private for everything – scheduling works just fine because people leave their available times actually, well, available! Honestly, this would help much more than sharing, because otherwise the poor people trying to find a slot have to start going through all of her agenda and seeing what seems important and what doesn’t, instead of just picking a time when everybody’s free…

          Reply ↓
  7. Jeremy Jamm*

    I already can’t wait for an update to this because there’s real potential for Maggie to melt down SPECTACULARLY if she feels pushed.

    Reply ↓
  8. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

    It doesn’t solve the larger problem, but can the PM team start just picking times for meetings and send invites? If Maggie wants to change the time, it’s up to her to suggest another time. If she can’t do that, I guess the meeting is going to happen without her and her staff will have to give her an update.

    Also, is there any reasonable way the project teams could make provisional decisions and communicate them like “we’re going to do this unless someone objects by [DATE].”?

    Reply ↓
  9. Ann Perkins*

    How necessary is it to have Maggie at these meetings?

    If the CEO won’t do anything, you and the head of PM could let Maggie know that going forward, meetings will be scheduled to the best of ability to find an open spot for the most possible people within a reasonable timeframe, and since she completely blocks off her calendar, it may or may not be at a time she actually wants. It’s not fair to the PM team to have to go back and forth with just one meeting participant and puts the ball in Maggie’s court to either change her ways or miss meetings that she should be a part of because she booked a pilates class at the same time and won’t move it. I’d make sure the CEO is ok with this approach though before you move forward or at least aware of it in case she complains.

    Reply ↓
  10. hotg0ss*

    I don’t understand why Maggie doesn’t have a personal and a work calendar- this seems like it would be so easily solved by compartmentalization! The fact that she’s unwilling to do something so simple is a Maggie problem that will only be solved by the boss taking action. The other commenter who says “just schedule the meetings” nails it. If everyone thinks the blocks are fake, then why not proceed like they are, and give some power back to the team?

    Reply ↓
    1. But Of Course*

      Because Maggie wants to have complete control over her day in a way that isn’t practical for workplaces. She’s ranking personal items like housework on par with work meetings for priority by having everything show as “busy”, refusing to be timely in scheduling meetings her lack of availability has pushed into her court, and ferociously defending her right to not function as a member of an office with a collaborative work style.

      You could make an argument that a weekly Pilates appointment is within normal bounds for many offices and therefore there’s merit in putting it on her work calendar, but that’s not what she’s doing because there is zero merit in blocking time to do housework – even less to being seen to block time for housework.

      Reply ↓
      1. Strive to Excel*

        To me the difference between what Maggie is doing and a weekly Pilates appointment reflects an appropriate use of work time, rather than of a work calendar. Putting your weekly lunchtime/flextime hour on there says “here is the time that I’m contractually allowed free; I’m showing it to you all so you can better plan”. Same thing as showing your PTO on your calendar. In large multinationals I’ve seen people have their start & stop times too, which is useful if you have more than one time zone and/or flex time involved.

        The problem with Maggie is that she’s blocking out significant amounts of worktime for non-work tasks, and as a rule of thumb during work time work should be the prioirty.

        Reply ↓
      2. I Have RBF*

        … but that’s not what she’s doing because there is zero merit in blocking time to do housework – even less to being seen to block time for housework.

        There might be merit in blocking time for housework, if that’s what you need to do to get it done, but not during work hours.

        I work 100% remote. The only time I clean something during work hours is if I spilled something, or I’m rinsing my lunch dishes (part of lunch hour.) Otherwise, cooking, cleaning, laundry and other chores are for lunch or after work. I don’t do personal work on company time, and when I log off for the day I’m done with work (except for emergencies pr scheduled maintenance.)

        Yes, I will schedule daytime appointments, but that’s because of the Dr/Dentist/Mechanic hours limitations. If they have evening hours, I try to schedule for the end of my day so it doesn’t take as big of a bite out of my working hours. After all, a big part of what I get paid for is my availability to do quick tasks, answer questions, or solve problems. I couldn’t do that if I schedule housework or pilates during my work day.

        IMO, Maggie is shooting herself in the foot in multiple ways – she is mixing personal and business so much that there is no proper line between them, and that hurts the work as much as it can her.

        Reply ↓
        1. amoeba*

          Yeah, and I mean – if you have a lot of downtime, it might still be acceptable to use it for some housework. Depends on the workplace – like, 2 h of deep cleaning every day, very probably not OK anywhere, but emptying the dishwasher when you have 15 mins between meetings or whatever is fine in many places! But the key here is *if and when you have downtime*. This can never have priority over work meetings!

          Reply ↓
      1. Snow Globe*

        This. I don’t think that her personal errands are actually taking up 100% of work time. She just wants to fill in every slot on the calendar so no one can just schedule something at a time she might decide is inconvenient.

        Reply ↓
    3. Elbe*

      She’s intentionally putting her private plans on her work calendar so that everyone has to schedule around them.

      If she had a separate calendar, other people could use that time to schedule meetings – which is exactly what she is trying to prevent.

      Reply ↓
  11. FirstNameLastNameUK*

    As others have said. Just schedule the meeting, not everyone can make every meeting.

    I would add on the invite note her apologies and ask her to name her substitute.

    I’ve got £20 that says she manages to rearrange her calendar.

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    1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      I’m going to say that she skips all meetings because they conflict with her “meetings” (I’m already on team mockery) and a year from now, the CEO will tell OP that she needs to check calendars and be more aware when scheduling meetings. And I hope that OP can and will say that since Maggie was “unable” (there I go again) to attend 100% of the meetings scheduled over the entire year, by everyone in the company, maybe Maggie is the problem.
      PS: to your bet, I concede that Maggie will attend any meeting that includes the CEO.

      Reply ↓
  12. RagingADHD*

    The calendar visibility isn’t the actual problem, because it she made it public with every day blocked out in private appointments, it’s functionally no different than where you are now.

    The problem is that Maggie won’t agree to set up meetings that she is apparently needed for.

    I think people would worry less about petty BEC-type things like “makes her look more senior” or how she’s using her time, if she simply cooperated with taking meetings.

    Reply ↓
    1. Elbe*

      Agreed. The real issue here is that she’s effectively prioritizing personal plans making everyone at the company schedule meetings around personal tasks.

      Reply ↓
  13. Rogue Slime Mold*

    If the CEO’s response to that is still that she has no way to force Maggie to comply … then are there any policies or accountability in this organization at all?

    It’s like the worker who just flat out set up an easel in her cubicle and spent her days painting, because what is management going to do?

    Reply ↓
      1. NoIWontFixYourComputer*

        I searched for “easel painting cubicle” and couldn’t find it, but then, sometimes Google doesn’t find what you want.

        Reply ↓
      2. Rogue Slime Mold*

        Yes, though it may have been in examples of coworkers who just flagrantly dared management to fire them. This one stuck with me because it’s so many levels above playing solitaire on your computer–people standing across the room can see what you’re doing.

        I recall the further detail that this person tried to get the office involved in doing jigsaw puzzles together, but everyone else had work, and so she had to find a solo pursuit for all the hours opened up by telling the supervisor she had too many tasks and getting them reassigned.

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        1. Elsewhere*

          Maggie left herself logged into a work computer? Depending on the circumstances it’s possible that alone could be a major security problem. But if I had found a computer logged into her account I might have either changed the settings on her calendar to public or printed out a couple weeks worth and left them in the break room. But I’m petty like that.

          In real life Maggie needs to hear that any information on her workstation is work product and that she has no expectation of privacy. None.

          And frankly if this is an issue would cause her to quit, so be it.

          Reply ↓
          1. I Have RBF*

            In real life Maggie needs to hear that any information on her workstation is work product and that she has no expectation of privacy. None.

            QFT

            IIRC, IT can enforce a policy about making calendars public, but allowing setting appointments private.

            At my job we have a shared calendar for when we are out of the office. When I have to take my wife to her monthly medical appointments, I mark myself out of the office. Simple, and in a shared location.

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        1. A Significant Tree*

          Ha, in one of the offices where I work, someone has set out a jigsaw puzzle for anyone to do during a break. I have to avert my eyes when I walk past that table because I will absolutely sit down and lose the next 2+ hours puzzling. But I wouldn’t put it on my calendar.

          Maggie’s reluctance to make her calendar public is ridiculous. Two things needs to happen: 1) Maggie needs to be coached in how to use a work calendar to support productivity (hint: do not fill up with personal errands that she prioritizes over work requirements). And, until it’s possible to schedule meetings to include her, meetings need to be scheduled for everyone else’s attendance and she can find a way to join or send a proxy.

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    2. Butterfly Counter*

      There aren’t any rules that say Maggie can’t hire her own personal assistant Golden Retriever to go to her meetings for her.

      Reply ↓
  14. Doug*

    If the private settings on the current calendar aren’t enough, they could keep a literal personal calendar and just block out things at work with nothing on them to refer to their personal calendar… though I’d hope there’s an expectation of a certain amount of availability.

    Reply ↓
  15. Kimmitt*

    It’s really funny that Maggie still has a job. I kind of respect the audacity. My theory is 2nd job, but I hope I find out the real story someday.

    Reply ↓
    2. MassMatt*

      Hmm, 2nd job is an interesting possibility. I’m amazed someone thinks they can 1–fill their work schedule/work time with stuff like walk the dog, to the degree that they are virtually unavailable, and 2–demand their WORK SCHEDULE be private and secret. And 3–the CEO seems to be fine with this. It reminds me of the Simpsons “we tried nothing, what else can we do?!”

      I think it’s a power play, key is where the LW says this makes it seem as though she is the most senior person (since all meetings are subject to her approval) when she very much is not.

      If the CEO is too spineless to do anything about this, I would follow other suggestions here to simply schedule around her. She can decide whether to move her Pilates workout (during work!) or get left out of the loop and have decisions made without her.

      Reply ↓
    3. Wednesday wishes*

      I thought maybe to except what are the chances that the second job is actually willing to tolerate this too? Unless she is giving all of her availablility to that one.

      Reply ↓
    4. Elbe*

      Yeah, there’s something going on here. Most people would not be willing to give up a job just to attend a pilates class during the workday.

      I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a second job. It would explain why she’s dying on this hill and presumably not worried about not having a paycheck.

      Reply ↓
  16. Angstrom*

    This is not a personal preference like a screen color scheme. This is The Way We Work, and everyone needs to be on board. The CEO needs to use the big stick here.

    If the CEO won’t act and she won’t attend meetings, decisions can be made without her, and she will become irrelevant.

    Reply ↓
    1. A. Lab Rabbit*

      The CEO is a huge problem. Either she’s afraid of confrontation, or Maggie knows where the bodies are buried.

      Reply ↓
      1. Grizabella the Glamour Cat*

        Exactly.

        I was baffled by this statement in the letter:

        “…when I spoke to the CEO, she expressed she felt like she had no way to force Maggie to comply.”

        This is nuts. She’s the CEO. She can ORDER Maggie to comply if she wants to keep her job. I have NEVER in my entire working career (I’m now retired) had a job where there weren’t things I was required to do if I wanted to keep my job and someone over me who had the power to fire me if I refused to do those.

        The CEO is the biggest part of the problem here, imo. She sounds like one of those bosses who is so conflict averse that she’ll do anything to avoid confronting a problem head on, even if it means letting an employee get away with murder.

        Maggie has it made. She can do whatever she wants (or goof off as much as she wants) with no repercussions, and she knows it! She is a huge missing stair, and the CEO is another one.

        Reply ↓
  17. Dark Knight in White Satin*

    The CEO may be thinking “I’m not willing to lose an employee over something as small as their calendar settings,”

    Sounds like she’s specifically unwilling to lose Maggie. Is she willing to lose OP and/or others because of Maggie? Has the company changed its business plan to “keep Maggie happy at all costs”?

    Reply ↓
    1. Poison I.V. drip*

      Maggie is bluffing. If she quits her next employer will expect her to keep her calendar open too, because that’s a business norm.

      Reply ↓
      1. Grizabella the Glamour Cat*

        Yes, and the CEO needs to CALL Maggie’s bluff once and for all. If that result in Maggie quitting, c’est la vie. LW didn’t say anything about Maggie having such rare and unique talents as to be irreplaceable.

        This CEO sounds like a real wimp. Maggie is walking all over her coworkers, and CEO is just sitting there and letting her do it.

        Reply ↓
  18. Jason*

    We had a similar situation at my company a few years back. After “Mark” repeatedly refused to allow a public calendar (we knew that he also would block of time for personal stuff and keep it private) we just started booking meetings at the time that worked for everyone else, Mark be d*mned.

    He either started missing meetings or ask us to reschedule. We’d accommodate a reschedule if it was possible but ask him when he was available and then magically he’d be available. Unless he was critical to the meeting (rarely) then we went with what worked for the majority.

    After months of him being inconvenienced he opened up his calendar and low-and-behold he was much more available then he pretended to be.

    Reply ↓
    1. Rogue Slime Mold*

      Yeah, I think the key here is to figure out how to transfer the pain of dealing with this back onto Maggie.

      Reply ↓
      1. Angstrom*

        Start saying that decisions will be made at the meetings regardless of her attendence. If she doesn’t attend she doesn’t get to decide the issues.

        Reply ↓
  19. Alex*

    The problem here doesn’t seem to be that you can’t figure out when Maggie’s calendar has free time on it, but rather, you believe that the majority of the meetings are personal items that should not take priority over work, and it is severely limiting when meetings can be scheduled.

    I’m not sure just sharing the calendar would be the solution if all that time was still blocked. The problem is that Maggie doesn’t make herself available for meetings. That is the problem that you should bring to the CEO, not the specific calendar settings.

    Reply ↓
  20. Ann*

    I so want an update on this one! I have worked with multiple people hiding that they do no work and lashing out “don’t micromanage me.” Why accommodate her charade, why wait for her?

    Reply ↓
  22. Grumpy Elder Millennial*

    Posted this initially as a reply to another comment, but I think it’s important, so posting again as its own comment:

    Sounds like there’s a second issue, which is that Maggie’s calendar shows her as booked basically all the time.

    LW, maybe it makes more sense to think of the problem as Maggie’s lack of availability for important meetings, rather than her refusal to share her calendar details. My understanding is that the team would like to see what’s on her calendar so they can grab blocks of time that are for non-work things, since they figure those things can be skipped or rescheduled when there’s work stuff that needs doing. Which makes sense! The real problem you’re having is that it’s impossible to schedule meetings with her because she’s never available. Not having the work-around of seeing what the things are is making it harder to work around, but it’s not necessarily the biggest problem.

    I think that presenting it as a lack of availability might help in communicating that this is a real problem that needs solving.

    Reply ↓
    1. Great Frogs of Literature*

      Yeah, I think you’re right. Even if the PMs could see Maggie’s calendar, I bet she’d get annoyed when they scheduled over her pilates class. The problem is that she doesn’t have enough availability during work hours.

      Reply ↓
    2. non-calendar user*

      I agree the issue is that it’s hard to schedule with her, not how visible her calendar is. My biased perspective is that I’m in an organization that uses calendars to schedule, and I also block my entire calendar so that people need to ask me when I’m available to schedule something with me — and they do ask, and then I tell them when I’m available, and nobody’s ever not been able to schedule with me.

      I do this because I want to manage my own schedule and not have meetings scheduled for me. I realize that this is out of organization norms, and after reading this letter I am going to think about if there are compromises that make sense in my case, because I definitely understand that it makes the meeting scheduling less efficient. My reasoning is that my workload is really different week to week in terms of what I need to get done that can be done in short intervals vs longer focus times, and when I schedule meetings I try to block them together to allow time for me to do the rest of my work, and I don’t like the idea of letting people schedule things whenever I don’t have another meeting.

      Reply ↓
      1. Allonge*

        Hm – so I get that there are days and weeks when people are too busy to have a meeting even though they don’t have a conflicting one, and I would say it’s more than fine to reflect that workload on the calendars.

        But what you are describing also brings to mind something we discussed on this forum before: the interpretation of a calendar invite is also different from org to org.

        I would have no problem declining a meeting based on a general level of busyness or because I am delivering on a project and it’s crunch time. OTOH it would be way too much work (for me and others) to discuss the placement of every.single.meeting because I may not be available, and this would not fly in my org either.

        But it’s also not a problem for me to get a meeting request and say ‘hi, sorry, I know it’s not on my calendar but I am super busy on Tuesday, can we do this a week later’. Because it’s a meeting request, not a meeting order. This also works in various ways – we are over 400 and a very meeting-heavy company; there is simply not enough time in the world to discuss all meeting placements one by one with everyone.

        Reply ↓
        1. Great Frogs of Literature*

          Yeah, this would drive me up the wall, because it means I need to spend time in MY busy day having a back-and-forth about your calendar, when we literally have a tool designed to eliminate that.

          But I also feel comfortable saying “Hey, can we push this to next week? I’m really swamped right now” and have rescheduled meetings for similar reasons. My org also has (or at least used to have) a norm where you should try to schedule meetings in proximity to other meetings, to leave blocks of focus time free.

          If I’m expecting calendar invites and am in the middle of crunch time (say, when I was doing a lot of interviewing), I’ll be very proactive about blocking time on my calendar, but I’m also careful to leave time when I AM available to schedule.

          Reply ↓
        2. Salsa Verde*

          Right, them sending you a calendar invite IS them asking if you are available for a meeting at that time, and you can just decline and/or suggest another time if you can’t do it then.

          Maybe no one has ever not been able to schedule with you, but I think it’s important to recognize that you are adding work to everyone who is trying to schedule with you. Less efficient = more work for you AND others.

          If you didn’t block off your entire calendar, you’d probably be cutting the work of scheduling meetings in half or maybe more. Someone can send a meeting invite without having to contact you separately and wait for your reply. If you are available during the meeting time, great! Just accept the invite. If you are not available, THEN you can open up the dialogue about when is a better time (you can even decline and suggest another time all in one message).

          I schedule a lot of meetings in my job, and people doing this makes my life so much harder. Please also consider that you are not the only one doing this, so multiply that by the number of people in the meeting.

          Reply ↓
      2. KGD*

        I tend to include work blocks in my calendar for tasks that requires more focus and then leave gaps at the times I’m open to meetings. I make it clear that they are work blocks so people can still occasionally ask to book over them when necessary, but I find it mostly works out pretty well.

        Reply ↓
        1. non-calendar user*

          the reason I don’t do this is to preserve flexibility – my work blocks are not things I block off in advance, instead based on what my schedule is in terms of already committed meetings I might decide hmm, I’m willing to meet during my planned work block, or otherwise decide no, I’m not. just blocking times wouldnt easily allow me to override them if I think it’s worth it

          Reply ↓
      3. Mutually Supportive*

        There are ways to manage this without blocking out all of your time though. If you block out 5 hours of your day, people can put meetings in the other 2-3 hours so they’ll naturally be close together and you’ll have a 5 hour clear run for deep thought. Otherwise it’s just making more work for you, and the other person, all the time!

        Outlook has a “focus time” setting that you can use for it to automatically block out time for you. I have it set to block out the first 2 hours every day as a default.

        Reply ↓
        1. non-calendar user*

          my schedule isn’t regular enough for to block the same time every day or even every week. I manage my time more flexibly, which is why I like to be asked when would be good for me rather than making my calendar available for other people to just put something on it.

          Reply ↓
      4. Pierrot*

        I appreciate that you are willing to re-examine your approach to calendaring, because I do think it’s inconsiderate to do this solely so that you can have more influence over when the meeting is scheduled (as opposed to blocking out periods of time when you know for a fact that you are busy). If there is a particular window of time on a given day when you would prefer not to meet, you can block out that time as “do not schedule”. You can also do what I do — I use my calendar as a to do list and block time out for things that do not need to necessarily occur at a specific time, but having them on the calendar helps me plan and remember. I schedule that time as “tentative” on Outlook, so people who look at my calendar can see what I can move around if needed. I also schedule somethings as “free” so that it still shows up on my calendar but does not make me look like I’m completely unavailable.

        Reply ↓
        1. non-calendar user*

          I think it’s inconsiderate to schedule a meeting without asking someone first! I see that norms in this regard are changing, but that’s how I feel.

          Reply ↓
          1. Kevin Sours*

            One of the things I had to readjust my thinking on which really made some things click is that in places where people schedule things on the calendar directly that usually is asking. Rather than have a bunch of go arounds with everybody asking when people want to schedule you can just send out a meeting request via email and people can respond to it just like they would if you sent an email asking if that time was a good one. Starting from a point of “this is a time nobody has a prior commitment” is much more efficient then playing the “okay what times is everybody available”. It’s possible that if you tried to suggest alternate times for proposed meetings you’d get a better response.

            But, yeah, it sounds like you are expecting people around you to do a bunch of extra work for your convenience.

            Reply ↓
        2. Salsa Verde*

          It is extremely inconsiderate, and usually inconsiderate to lower-level employees who are tasked with scheduling meetings.

          Again, sending a calendar invite IS asking you. Maybe framing it that way can help you manage it better.

          Reply ↓
          1. UKDancer*

            Yes, when I was more junior I had a senior colleague who refused to use his outlook calendar and wrote everything in a leather diary. He thought this was safeguarding his time. It meant I had to ring him up, check availability, book it with him and then send the invite to everyone else so msking a quick task take longer.

            It added to my workload and I felt no wish to be helpful and obliging in return. So I always did his tasks last as punishment.

            I’m so glad my current company insists on open Outlook calendars for all.

            Reply ↓
      5. Nancy*

        If you use Outlook, it has a ‘suggest other time’ feature you can use if the meeting time truly doesn’t work. Outlook also doesn’t show why the time is blocked, so Maggie and team could use Outlook.

        Going back and forth over email to get everyone to agree with a time is inefficient and annoying.

        Reply ↓
      6. I Have RBF*

        If I really, really need a block of focus time, I’ll schedule it, but often afternoon/evening because less people need me after 3 pm. I’m on the US west coast, and a lot of people in the company are in the east or midwest. Currently I have 6 hours of standing meeting per week. Most of them are before noon my time. Here, at least, people are pretty good about understanding if you have your head down in something.

        Reply ↓
  23. Ann O'Nemity*

    I’ve encountered people like Maggie that keep their calendars set to private and full of bogus meeting blocks. In 100% of cases, this kind of behavior is about avoiding accountability, signaling false busyness, and making some kind of power play. I wonder if Maggie has other issues with unchecked ego and underperformance.

    Reply ↓
    1. TQB*

      I’m not ruling this out, but as a person who’s always trying some new “system” to defeat procrastination and increase productivity, note that time blocking for deep work is a popular recommendation. I’ve always been loathe to do it for just these reasons (i.e., won’t people just think I’m arrogantly declaring my appointment with myself is more important than group work? because of course my calendar is visible!) So I guess it’s possible that Maggie is Eating the Frog or Pomodoring or whathaveyou.

      Reply ↓
      1. Beth*

        I block off hours for focus time, as does most of my team. We treat those time blocks as “Avoid scheduling here if you can”–as in, schedule meetings in open blocks if they’re available, but you can schedule here if there’s no open alternative. I think that’s the norm for personal blocks on work calendars. (And likely that’s why Maggie wants her calendar hidden–she doesn’t want other people to feel they can make a judgement call and schedule over her personal blocks.)

        You should go ahead and schedule your focus blocks! If you want to be really clear that you’ll prioritize meetings if needed, you can add more detail to the title e.g. “Focus time – ask first :)” or “Deep focus – avoid if possible”. If most of your meetings are internal to your team, you can also just tell your coworkers what you’re up to with your system trials.

        Reply ↓
      2. Allonge*

        If almost all her time is blocked off, she is doing Pomodoring wrong though. It cannot be the case that someone is either in meetings or in deep-focus work or off, that is not how work works, especially if you are a manager of others.

        There is nothing wrong with blocking time off for heads-down work; the issue is that her entire time seems to be blocked off and she is not responding to attempts to schedule a meeting.

        Reply ↓
        1. Ann O'Nemity*

          Yeah, I’m not against blocking off time for heads-down work. More the bogus meetings for things like walking the dog.

          Reply ↓
      3. The Unspeakable Queen Lisa*

        You can use your words and then people won’t think other things because you’ve left them guessing. Why can’t you say in a team meeting that you’re going to be trying this new technique?

        At one point, I tried the “only check email 3 times a day” thing – I told my boss I was trying it out, I did it, it didn’t work and I stopped. But I wouldn’t have totally changed my way of working without saying something.

        Reply ↓
  24. ScottW*

    Like other people are saying, if it gets too frustrating I just schedule the meeting and invite the holdout’s next-in-line as well. Holdouts almost always show up rather than let their deputy represent them. I remember once when someone insisted that they had to meet with their boss, completely non-negotiable, at the same time. They didn’t even care that their boss was coming to my meeting. They would not come and insisted I move my meeting. When I refused, pointing out that their boss was no longer available to meet with them, they grudgingly agreed to attend. It’s just a power play.

    Reply ↓
  25. Stuart Foote*

    I’ve always had my calendar set to private and so have 95% of the people I’ve worked with. It’s also not uncommon for department managers to have their calendar completely booked with meetings, and I know sometimes they do just block off time for focused work.

    Usually people either just ping the busy person to see if they can make a given time work, or just schedule the meeting and let the person ask for a different time if needed. But it really doesn’t seem like Maggie is doing something way outside the norm here.

    Reply ↓
    1. A. Lab Rabbit*

      But Maggie is doing something way outside the norm in the company that she works for. That’s the issue.

      Reply ↓
    2. Noni*

      Yeah I agree. Also, Maggie is a department head and these sound like more junior people trying to schedule meetings with her. Why does OP think Maggie doesn’t deserve the deference of owning her own schedule? Why can’t these people just politely ask her availability rather than unilaterally dropping a meeting onto her calendar? That, by the way, is one of my major pet peeves at work, especially if it’s last minute, and I’d be blocking out full days everyday in retaliation to this practice too.

      Reply ↓
      1. Michigander*

        They do email her for her availability, and then “often she refuses and says she has no time available”. Which might be frustrating but understandable if she actually was a very busy department head, but it’s hard to be understanding when you’ve seen her calendar and know that it’s full of Pilates, dog-walking, and chores.

        Reply ↓
      2. Beth*

        It sounds like OP’s team has tried what you’re suggesting. When people ask for her availability, she says she has no time.

        It’s also incredibly normal to schedule meetings with people without asking first! Having to ask multiple people for their availability, wait for answers, compare the results, note that there’s no overlap, reach out to a few people with “X or Y would work best for the group, could you make either of those work?”, etc. is incredibly time consuming and inefficient. There’s a reason people used to have secretaries to handle all of their scheduling! One of the major pros of having shared calendar systems like Outlook is avoiding that mess.

        The norm in every company I’ve worked at is for people to share their calendars so coworkers can see where they’re definitely unavailable (other meetings, doctors’ appointments, etc), where they’d prefer to avoid meetings if possible (focus time, prep time), and where they’re open and available. Maybe the culture where you work is different, but this is a broadly normal thing, and would be very weird to get annoyed about at most companies.

        Reply ↓
        1. UKDancer*

          Yes same. All calendars are shared in all the companies ive worked in. To arrange a meeting you send an invite. ita quite acceptable for people to decline, be too busy or have conflicts and suggest alternatives.

          But it’s a lot quicker than having to email a lot of people and ask for availability and try to find a slot.

          Reply ↓
        2. Salsa Verde*

          Completely agree, this is very normal, and causes lots of work that the company has already spent money to try to avoid (by buying a calendaring tool).

          Reply ↓
    3. Zona the Great*

      It’s pretty clear that Maggie is doing something way outside the norm of her office which is the only metric that matters here.

      Reply ↓
      1. Noni*

        But Maggie is a department head, per the OP. I think a lot of those commenting here are treating her as a low-level employee. As a department head, I would think that Maggie has the ability to influence those types of workplace norms and maybe that’s what she’s trying to do. There actually are workplaces where “I’d like to meet with you; how does Tuesday afternoon look for your schedule?” is the norm. And a lot of employees appreciate the ability to have that type of autonomy over their own schedules.

        Reply ↓
        1. Allonge*

          Sure, but where that is the norm, actually responding is also the norm. And by responding I don’t mean just refusing to meet, but saying Tuesday does not work, how about Friday, I am free 3-4?

          And I would bet that blocking lots of time off for cleaning the house and other private pursuits is not the norm anywhere that gets any work done.

          Reply ↓
          1. Michigander*

            Agreed on both counts! Maggie is not really following any workplace norms that I know of by 1) refusing to work with others to schedule meetings and 2) blocking off most of her schedule for chores and exercise.

            Reply ↓
        2. Daisy-dog*

          I wouldn’t say it’s influencing workplace norms by threatening to quit. It might be if she created a different system that worked for at least 1 other person.

          Reply ↓
        3. fhqwhgads*

          You’re way focused on the hierarchy here. OP’s also a department head. Why is Maggie the Dept Head somehow more important than the other two dept heads who have the same problem with Maggie?

          Reply ↓
  26. Whelmed*

    I wonder why they don’t just start scheduling over the blocks and let her sort out if she can come or not. If she doesn’t, schedule it again but copy the CEO on it to show them how she doesn’t appear. That’s what I would do but I’m kind of a jerk…

    Reply ↓
  27. Tess McGill*

    Agree with other commenters. Schedule the necessary meetings, proceed with those meetings without her, document how her uncooperative calendar behavior is affecting the deliverables for the clients, and document clients’ dissatisfaction over delays. I would remove her from the equation and move on with work, while being attentive to the negative impact her non-sharing of the calendar is causing for the clients … and document, document, document. Good luck OP!

    Reply ↓
  28. Bunch Harmon*

    Not only is this an issue with Maggie’s calendar and availability, it is also going to instill bad habits in her team. It’s all too common for people to think “my boss does this thing, so why shouldn’t I?”. I worked at an nonprofit with an executive director who took ages to respond to emails. Several people started doing the same, because they figured it would be hypocritical of management to say anything about it. I can imagine people on Maggie’s team having the same thoughts about their calendars and availability.

    Reply ↓
    1. HonorBox*

      This is a terrific point, and something OP should keep an eye on. If anyone – on Maggie’s team or others – starts doing this, that would be something to point out to the CEO. The business already has a problem with delays because of Maggie, and that’s only going to be compounded if others follow her lead.

      Reply ↓
  29. jane's nemesis*

    The OP says they’re allowed to WFH two days a week. What is she doing on the other three days when she’s in office? Is she leaving to go to pilates or home to walk her dog and pretending they’re meetings? Or is she just holed up in her office with the door shut all day?

    I definitely agree with the other commenters who said the meetings should just be set for when it works for everyone else, and if she doesn’t come, well, then, she just missed the meeting. Bonus points if the meetings can be set for days she’s in office so someone can pop their head in her office and say “hey, are you coming to the Llama groomers meeting?”

    Reply ↓
  30. Beth*

    Honestly, it sounds to me like Maggie just doesn’t want to work. You know (and have screenshot evidence) that a lot of her calendar is filled with things like “Pilates” and “Clean the house” and “Walk the dog”. She refuses to make her calendar public–so people can’t decide that it’s OK to schedule over her cleaning time, they have to ask her when is OK and accept her judgment. And when people do ask, she responds by saying she has no time. It really sounds like work is at the bottom of her priorities list.

    If I’m right, she’s not going to change her behavior unless someone forces her to. It sounds like the CEO is hesitant to force it because they think that her calendar nonsense is less disruptive than her not being there at all. Is that true? Or is this blocking things so significantly that it’s worth calling her bluff? Spelling out the business impact–this is eating X hours of PM time, it’s blocking Y and Z initiatives, customer A and B have complained, internal project F is at risk due to delays–could help a lot here.

    Reply ↓
    1. Dark Knight in White Satin*

      It also sounds like the CEO is more interested in keeping Maggie happy than in retaining OP, other employees, or even clients.

      Reply ↓
  31. MtnLaurel*

    I worked with a Maggie. In her case, it was the tip of the toxic iceberg. It bears further investigation into what other issues she may be hiding.

    Reply ↓
  32. Keymaster of Gozer (She/Her)*

    I’ve encountered a lot of this type. They generally believe along similar lines to those sovereign citizen types who think anything they do is no business of anyone else.

    Malicious compliance works! You sort the meeting based on the availability of everyone else and then you ping them a message telling them that it’s at XYZ and if they want it moved THEY have to find a time suitable for everyone else.

    Depending on your calendar software this means they actually have to open up their view just to check availability. Sure they can block it after but given enough repetition they’ll decide it’s a darn hassle.

    Make IT annoyances work for you.

    Reply ↓
    1. Dasein9 (he/him)*

      Yes! It seems very reasonable to me for work to expect us to share how we’re spending the time they pay us for.

      Reply ↓
    2. Salsa Verde*

      Agree – this is your job, that pays you, and paid for a calendaring tool so they don’t have to spend money paying people to go through all this back and forth to just get a meeting scheduled.

      Reply ↓
  33. Wednesday wishes*

    Since when are work calendars private? If she wants to put her private info on a calendar she can make a personal one. Sheesh.

    Reply ↓
    1. niknik*

      Also, can any IT worth their salt not see everyone’s calendar anyway ? Might be a small company with not much infrastructure, but still…

      Reply ↓
  34. Zona the Great*

    I realize LW isn’t the CEO but the clear answer here is, “I expect your resignation or a fully shared calendar by EOD”.

    Reply ↓
  35. WellRed*

    I predict a full on meltdown if she is called to task on this. I also am curious how her work output is in general.

    Reply ↓
  36. UKAAM*

    This would be so massively annoying to work with but I do gotta respect the hustle of somehow having got to a place where you can just refuse to do stuff everyone else in work has to do but hates

    Reply ↓
    1. UKDancer*

      I dontvthink everyone hates open calendars. I mean everywhere I’ve worked people find they make arranging meetings very easy.

      Reply ↓
      1. Mad Scientist*

        I could be wrong, but I think the commenter above was referring to *meetings* as the stuff everyone hates, not open calendars. As in, this lady can just refuse meetings on the basis of not having time, when the other things taking up her time are not necessarily work related.

        Reply ↓
  37. NoFaceWhatsoever*

    This is interesting, because I had a consulting PM with whom I shared my full calendar and even with all the details he supposedly needed, he was double- and triple-booking me for meetings and scheduling things way outside my working hours despite my pleas to use the scheduling tool and be cognizant of people’s schedules. I ended up adjusting my calendar back to private because it ended up turning into him asking me to reschedule everything else I’d already booked for his projects, and it was a massive pain that caused huge amounts of unnecessary stress. He really complained a lot to me about it and it ended up being the case that he was doing the same to EVERYONE on many other teams as well. Why would I share my calendar when you clearly have no respect for my time?

    Is Maggie being a pain? Yes. Does it seem like this is should be a small issue that is easily resolved with either sharing the calendar or being more flexible with her time and responses to her colleagues? Also yes. BUT – if she’s had this issue before or dealt with difficult people on her teams, then this could be why she’s having such a visceral reaction to the request.

    Reply ↓
    1. Allonge*

      OK, but you cannot base your entire career on a bad apple you met in a previous job.

      Your PM was a total disaster. Most people are not.

      And if you based your calendar approach on this one person towards the whole world, you would be the one getting a bad reputation, not him. Just as Maggie is getting one.

      Reply ↓
  38. PixelPusher*

    I’m guessing she’s in too deep and if she had to clear all of her personal items off her calendar to share it, then everyone would see that she had availability all along an her busyness was manufactured.

    Reply ↓
  39. The Petson from the Resume*

    This a power play (mostly no openings on her calendar, but also not letting you know that most is blocked for personal tasks).

    So if she has no openings, treat it like everything is open on her calendar and just schedule meetings. If she doesn’t show up, report it to her boss.

    Reply ↓
  40. Reality.Bites*

    I for one, will not be satisfied unless her calendar, when eventually cracked open, has details of drug trafficking, illegal arms sales, and covert assassinations on company time.

    Reply ↓
    2. I went to school with only 1 Jennifer*

      Now see, this is why it’s important to set individual items as “private”. You can still collect all those important assassination details in the calendar entry, safe in the knowledge that everyone else only sees the time blocked out, with “private” listed.

      Reply ↓
      1. Reality.Bites*

        It’s also quite possible to have more than one calendar! You can have your personal time blocked off in the work calendar and the (literally?) gory details in your personal one.

        Reply ↓
  41. Hyaline*

    As others have said upthread, I feel like the problem isn’t just the privacy but the lack of availability. Honestly, the focus on privacy is weird compared to what I think the real issue is–being totally blocked off. Unless it’s made totally clear that one-woman blocks for seemingly personal things can be scheduled over, making her share the calendar doesn’t solve the issue.

    There could be legit reasons why she wants to keep a calendar item private (for example, recurring therapy appointments, AA meetings, etc), and it might feel more secure to her for them to ALL be private. That is–yes, she could only make her AA meetings private but she may worry that someone would start to wonder what that recurring private Tuesday and Thursday meetings were about. I’m not saying her preferences trump everyone’s need to schedule meetings, but if the focus were shifted from “make your calendar shared for all items” to “make sure you have 2-3 hours per day of time available to schedule meetings, with at least two hour-long blocks open” or whatever works–wouldn’t that solve the problem?

    Reply ↓
    1. HonorBox*

      Yeah, I think that’d work. I can totally see what you’re saying about those appointments and people reading into things (because they’re clearly doing that now). But if she kept everything private, but had space available for people to schedule time with her, it wouldn’t matter one bit what the rest of those appointments were because people could actually get to talk to her.

      Reply ↓
    2. Coverage Associate*

      I agree that “private” settings in Outlook, and Outlook settings generally, are not intuitive to everyone.

      My office is pretty good about “private available” v “private busy” and similar, but those details don’t seem to carry over to Teams, which will show me as red for any kind of Outlook appointment. Managers and even some senior solo contributors have assistants who usually know if someone is “really” unavailable, but that’s an informal work around to imperfect software.

      Reply ↓
  42. Susannah*

    OK, Maggie is a problem, since this is the office norm and her refusal to comply if affecting other people’s abilities to do their jobs.
    Having said that.. I’ve always been amazed by offices where people share what meetings/plans they have for the day with the entire office. It would make me feel stalked and micro-managed. I’d do it, if it were a requirement, but I’d resent it.

    Reply ↓
    1. Dasein9 (he/him)*

      The blocks of time just show up as “unavailable” to others when they’re trying to set up a meeting. Nobody’s looking to see that I have the TPS meeting at 9 and the team meeting at 11 and the accessibility meeting at the same slot I usually take lunch. Or if someone is, they don’t really have anything to say about it.

      I even set up two lunch breaks a week as “unavailable,” where the others are “tentative.” The reason is that I do use my lunch breaks for regular non-work appointments and that keeps people from scheduling a meeting during those slots. I do move lunch around to accommodate meetings on the other days.

      Problem is, Maggie is setting up the whole work day to read as “unavailable” to others and nobody can set up a meeting.

      Reply ↓
    2. Allonge*

      It saves time (fewer questions on where I am and how important it is that I am there), people know what I am working on and I can still designate any meeting I deem sensitive as private. What’s not to like? We have a daily standup about our plans for the day anyway, so it’s not like they are a big secret.

      But yes, the blocked / not blocked is enough to share also.

      Reply ↓
    3. AvonLady Barksdale*

      At every job I’ve had, calendar blocks are visible but details are not. That’s a key distinction and one I would hate to give up. People can see if I’m available or not, but they don’t know why I’m unavailable. So my podiatrist appointment just shows up as “busy”, as does my 3pm client meeting or my 1pm team meeting. I also block time to work on projects. If there’s a block and I think it would help people to have details, I change the setting. I have some co-workers who make their entire calendar visible and ok, that’s how they like to do it.

      I once worked at a place that required us to share every detail. It was bad news, especially when my boss had “Discuss AvonLady’s performance” on his calendar and I had to tell him how embarrassing that was.

      Reply ↓
      1. Beth*

        Even in systems where you can usually see the title of a meeting, you can mark a specific meeting as private so that info can’t be seen. I use it for doctors’ appointments and other personal things. Managers doing sensitive things like performance sessions should absolutely be using it!

        Other than those sensitive or private things, though, I think it’s helpful to be able to see what most time blocks are for. My team has pretty booked calendars. We have a lot of customer calls, plus a handful of routine internal meetings which are hard to reschedule. Many of us also block focus time as a time management strategy–these are movable. And sometimes we also put blocks when we need deep focus time–we try to respect these unless there’s absolutely no alternative. Between all that, being able to see what’s on someone’s calendar is often the key to knowing what’s firm and what’s open to meeting requests.

        Reply ↓
        1. UKDancer*

          Yes, I have internal meetings, external meetings and events and set time aside for focused work and lunch, all of which are visible in the my calendar. So someone organising meetings can ask me if I can move a 1.1 with one of my team to another slot, but knows that I’m unlikely to be able to move a major external meeting or a conference I’m attending.

          Anything that I don’t want people to know about I mark as “private.” So thinks like doctors appointments, my manicure at lunchtime, lunches with friends etc are all marked private.

          Reply ↓
    4. Freya*

      One of the reasons my workplace does is so that boss can make sure there’s someone other than herself cross-trained on tasks that are time sensitive who can step in if someone is sick. Every client’s payroll has different quirks, and if you don’t know what they are then you can think you’ve done everything right and be wrong about that – and payroll can never be done late!

      I’m cross-trained on a bunch of co-workers’ clients’ payrolls, because my schedule has a lot of flex in it – I have things that can’t be moved from particular days, but it doesn’t matter where in the day I do a particular client’s weekly payrun as long as it’s done by close of business. Boss can see that I can probably make an hour or two available on almost any given day, so when she needs someone to take something off her plate so that she can do the things that only she can do, then that’s easy for her to arrange.

      Reply ↓
  43. Lisa*

    This seems like an actual invasion of privacy:

    **and more than once Maggie has forgotten to sign out of a shared computer and they have seen meetings on her calendar during work hours (10am-6pm) like “walk the dog,” “pilates,” etc.**

    Or is it OK for coworkers to take advantage of her forgetting to sign out this way?

    Reply ↓
    1. A. Lab Rabbit*

      There’s no invasion of privacy. Why on earth is Maggie putting personal items on her WORK calendar, which she should not be doing. And why is she forgetting to sign out of a shared computer? That’s data security 101. Maggie is probably in violation of data security policies, assuming this org has them. (And judging from the lackluster CEO, I’d put good money on them not having them.)

      Maggie is just trying to avoid working. She is all sorts of problems.

      Reply ↓
    2. Beth*

      Is it ideal? No, ideally they’d just log her out.

      Is it wrong? Eh. The letter doesn’t say they’re rooting around to pull up her calendar – for all we know, she left her calendar open on the screen and walked away with it fully visible.

      Even if they are prying, I think most employers would be more upset that she’s leaving her account signed in on a shared computer than that someone else saw things on that shared account. Leaving sensitive data open to people who shouldn’t see it is a huge data security issue–my security team would be pissed if we had a senior staff member doing this!

      Reply ↓
    3. HannahS*

      Well, it would be crossing a boundary to deliberately try to open someone else’s schedule (just as much as it would their email inbox) unless there was a bona fide business need to do so. But I’ve certainly logged onto a shared computer and belatedly realized that I’m in someone else’s email inbox. So it can happen without nefarious intent.

      Also, Maggie shouldn’t be using her work calendar for personal appointments anyway, because it risks this kind of privacy slip. I rigidly use an online calendar to organize myself: every single work meeting and deadline is in it, along with my husband’s work schedule, any social plans, my doctor’s appointments, my kid’s doctor’s appointments, my mom’s birthday… There’s nothing wrong with using a calendar that way. It’s my private google calendar, not my work outlook one. That one has work stuff only. This is such a solvable problem; the real issue is Maggie.

      Reply ↓
    4. BeyoncePadThai*

      IANAL but I don’t think there’s a reasonable expectation of privacy for your work accounts. Maggie has likely broken the IT policy here (1) by not logging off a shared computer and (2) walking away from any computer without putting it to sleep.

      Reply ↓
  44. Really?*

    Or the CEO should be able to require her to leave open blocks for collaboration with other teams on say from 11 to 1Pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday… it sounds like the issue isn’t so much that she’s not doing whatever work needs to be done, as no one else can schedule a meeting with her within a reasonable timeframe. Other option is, could somebody else in her department be delegated to do the cooperative work with other departments?

    Reply ↓
    1. Keymaster of Gozer (She/Her)*

      The notion that any woman acting badly at work must be shagging the boss is a deeply harmful stereotype.

      Reply ↓
      1. Observer*

        It’s not just that she’s acting badly, it’s that the boss is protecting her.

        I can think of three broad sets of reasons for that part of it.

        1. “special” relationship (and “special” does not have to be romantic.)
        2. She know where the “bodies” are
        3. Boss is wimp and a really bad manager.

        All three apply equally to men as women.

        Reply ↓
        1. Keymaster of Gozer (She/Her)*

          I believe in option 3 myself, I just have a visceral dislike to comments that imply that a woman must be engaging in affairs in order to get away with anything at work at the first assumption. I didn’t mean to offend.

          Personally I’d call her bluff and let her go. Less headaches.

          Reply ↓
          1. Hroethvitnir*

            +1. “Boss is a wimp” is usually Occam’s Razor, and there’s way too much baggage around women having “special relationships” for me to read that suggestion as neutral.

            Reply ↓
          2. Observer*

            Personally I’d call her bluff and let her go. Less headaches.

            I agree.

            I think that the reason that so many people are thinking either 1 or 2 is because the behavior is just so ridiculous that people are finding it hard to wrap their heads around it unless there is something else going on.

            But, based on what we are hearing so far, my leaning is 3 as well.

            Reply ↓
  47. Boof*

    It sounds like your employee is essentially unavailable to work. The problems with “privacy” would go away if they had more times unblocked for scheduling; then no one would care if they could see what was happening with the blocked times if there was plenty of open time to see.
    — is maggie doing all their work appropriately otherwise? (don’t know if employees are salary, gig – freelance, or what)
    — stress to the CEO that this is causing major work problems and what to do for any employee who is not meeting core job functions – ie yes fire/maggie can quit over this if it’s their hill to die on, it’s a core function that can’t be ignored.
    — if necessary, the job function is really availability, not exactly letting everyone see what you are doing at a given time so the alternative is if there was some way maggie could unblock more time and/or mark what blocks are flexible – I hesitate to suggest the latter to avoid putting a bunch of extra work on schedulers but some calendars may have a way to make this obvious/easy.

    Reply ↓
  48. Lemons*

    Hmm I dunno, I think the PMs are being way too accommodating. At this point, I’d just start scheduling meetings that work for everyone else and assume her blocked time isn’t legitimate business stuff, particularly if they can see what she labels things, like yes Maggie, we are scheduling the meeting in the middle of your pilates block, no, we won’t accommodate you for that.

    Reply ↓
  49. ElliottRook*

    This is one of those posts where I already want the update even though it just went up. What in the bananacrackers makes Maggie think this is just a fine and normal thing to do?

    Reply ↓
  50. Dancing Otter*

    Where is your network administrator? Why can’t the “private calendar” setting be defaulted out at the enterprise level?

    Reply ↓
    2. Keymaster of Gozer (She/Her)*

      In small firms there’s very unlikely to BE a network administrator. Or even an IT department.

      Enterprise level software for a firm with 25 employees would be frankly an expensive waste.

      Reply ↓
  51. Ugh*

    Oh, just stop inviting Maggie to meetings at all. It’s easy enough to say “We assumed your time was blocked because we could not view your open times on the calendar.” Or “Because we can’t schedule time with you the way all other employees, do, we thought it best to move forward with the people who are available for this project.”

    Maggie seems to be wasting 90% of her time on personal things, and getting paid a full salary.

    Reply ↓
  52. Justin*

    I have a colleague who has a fully private calendar, so it just says “busy” during all her calls. But even our CEO’s calendar is visible, so it’s definitely not because she’s senior.

    I wouldn’t care, except, on the rare occasion I need her help with something, she always says she’s swamped, but even her private calendar events (many of which are company-wide calls because they’re at the same time as those) are few and far between.

    I dunno, you can’t really do much if the people above them won’t push. It just does become frustrating to the rest of us.

    Reply ↓
  53. Third solution*

    I’d like to offer a third solution that I’ve seen used at places I have worked – if Maggie’s calender is not open and a particular time is good otherwise, the meeting gets scheduled and the ball is now in Maggie’s court to have to apologize if that doesn’t work and offer alternatives (or politely decline to attend if it’s a meeting that doesn’t truly require their presence)…most people at that point either make the original time work or quickly learn that an open calendar saves them time. Even if Maggie doesn’t change, it keeps her from being the rate limiting step in setting up meetings.

    Reply ↓
    1. umami*

      Yes, that is my thought. If she keeps missing important meetings, you have a clear record of that, vs. arguing about her calendar habits.

      Reply ↓
  55. Elbe*

    Let. Maggie. quit.

    It’s outrageous to regularly refuse to attend necessary meetings because you have personal plans during the day. Whether or not the calendar is public is a bit of a red herring – the real problem is that the calendar is completely booked with non-work items.

    It’s plain as day that she’s refusing to share her calendar because she doesn’t want people to realize how little of the workday she’s actually allotting to work. Even if she made her calendar visible, someone would eventually have to have a conversation with her to say, “It’s not your coworkers’ responsibility to work around your Pilates classes.” If you are mostly unavailable during work hours, then you can’t have that job.

    Having a few personal appointments hasn’t been a problem at any workplace I’ve had so far. What would be a huge problem is working so little that no one can find time in your calendar to have a work meeting. Maggie’s entitlement is off the charts.

    The LW (and the CEO) should be blunt here. Tell her that they know why she’s hiding her work calendar and why it’s so hard for the team to find time when she is available. Let her know that she is not allowed to make everyone’s life harder just so that she can only work a portion of the day. And then let her quit.

    Reply ↓
    1. Peon*

      I was typing at the same time as you! My work place functions just fine with private calendars, because no one is booking up whole days with personal stuff without being called out. The few people with really full calendars are some of the most approachable and easy to schedule with IF you really need them

      Reply ↓
  56. Peon*

    Where I work, all of our calendars are private; you can’t tell whether I’m in a meeting or a “meeting”. I can see each block of time on my boss’s calendar, when it starts and ends, but not the topic. We have shared group calendars I can use to show that I’m out of office for some reason.
    And it isn’t a problem, because the people who are fully booked, are ACTUALLY booked and we all notice it. It’s obvious, even with most of us WFH 60%. When we really need them in a meeting, they’re often the ones calling the meeting.
    This isn’t a calendar problem, it’s a Maggie doesn’t want to work problem, and she’s not being called on it.

    Reply ↓
  57. Michelle*

    We have a shared team calendar and then each employee has a personal calendar. All vacations/PTO and meetings are on the team calendar, so we know who is where and if they are out of office, when they return, etc. If you have something that would prevent you from being available, it has to be on the team calendar, but it can be vague “Jane out of the office/unavailable”.

    I think the CEO should call her bluff and let her quit.

    Reply ↓
  58. umami*

    What if you all just scheduled meetings to the best of your ability and invite her when needed? If she then can’t make the meetings, you have somerthing actionable to address . I wouldn’t keep letting her control the setting of meetings if everyone else is making themselves available. It will be obvious soon enough that she isn’t cooperating vs. letting her hold meeting times hostage until she agrees to a time.

    Another option would be to just have some standing team meetings so that projects can be discussed, rather than trying to schedule ad hoc meetings all the time.

    Reply ↓
    1. Bike Walk Bake Books*

      I like the standing meeting approach if that can work for everyone else. Maggie sounds like a piece of work but this has a chance of working without taking on everything about how she deals with her time and software.

      The CEO needs a spinal transplant, although finding a donor is awkward.

      I also wonder if the “return awkward to sender” and “make it the boss’s problem if they won’t act” solutions Alison has recommended before might work. Every time Maggie can’t be scheduled because her calendar is private, send an email. “Maggie, as we’ve mentioned before we’re not able to schedule meetings with you because you don’t show any time available and don’t show enough information for us to know what might be flexible on your end. This is a reminder that we’re meeting on the XYZ project at date/time” (and she’s already been included on the meeting invitation). And cc the CEO. Every time.

      Reply ↓
  59. Heffalump*

    I wonder what Maggie would say if the CEO pointed out that no one else minds having their calendar open.

    If she does quit over this, fine, she shouldn’t let the door hit her in the ass.

    Reply ↓
  60. Creative Manager*

    I dreamed of doing what Maggie is doing here when I lead a creative team in a corporate setting. Our PM team would look at meetings on my calendar, decide they weren’t as important and what I already had scheduled and double book me, causing me extra work. I can see Maggie making her calendar private as a way to be able to do head down creative work and set her own priorities. There has to be a better middle ground though.

    Reply ↓
      1. Creative Manager*

        There was no real satisfactory solution as it was a meeting heavy culture. I tried declining and asking for a reschedule, or delegating where possible. But that only solves the conflict not the meeting culture issue. This among other issues influenced my decision to eventually leave.

        Reply ↓
    2. fhqwhgads*

      But were there available slots in your cal, and that person was scheduling over booked slots anyway? Or were you completely booked like Maggie appears to be?

      Reply ↓
      1. Creative Manager*

        Yes there would available spots on my calendar or the ability to book things out a week or two in advance. However it was a meeting heavy culture so aligning schedules on tight (actual or imagined) timeframes was an issue. Also there were of course lots of meetings that could have been an email.

        Reply ↓
  61. I Have RBF*

    Stuff like “clean the house”, “walk the dog,” “pilates,”, etc should not be done during work hours. Sure, one or two might be scheduled during her daily lunch hour, but that should be one hour, scheduled daily.

    Crap like that makes it harder for those of us who actually work when we WFH. Because if she’s taking up three hours with BS on top of her lunch hour, no wonder no one can get her to do anything. She is abusing her flexibility to the detriment of the work of others. This is bad.

    The only time I schedule personal appointments as “busy” or “OOO” is when I will literally be away from my desk for a prolonged period of time, like driving to a medical appointment. I make an effort to do the majority of my personal crap outside of work hours so I am available to, you know, work when people need me.

    Reply ↓
  62. Ari*

    Work calendars are so wild. I ran a team with w direct report who refused to show times they were unavailable (think PT or similar), even though I suggested just putting DNS (do not schedule) so as not to divulge personal info. I’ve run open forums for hundreds of people, several of whom expected me to move one if they couldn’t join.

    My tactic here would be to find a spot when most people are open and just schedule it. If Maggie can’t join then she needs to send a delegate. And I would send attendance to everyone each week so it’s obvious how often or little Maggie is skipping. Or, if feasible, make everyone give one day/time they are nearly always available and put a standing meeting on the calendar that can be canceled if not needed. Either way, one person (no matter their title) shouldn’t be holding everyone in the company, including a peer, hostage when it’s affecting work flows and project completions. It’s one thing to not share calendar details. It’s another thing to ignore requests for available times or say she’s too busy to meet.

    Reply ↓
  63. Notsurewhattoday'snameshouldbe*

    I was recently on a team that asked us to make our calendars fully available, and the one or two people who didn’t drove me bonkers. It also drove me a little mad that the manager would highlight it was a requirement but not actually enforce it (to Alison’s point you also have a CEO problem). I’ve recently moved to a new team, and just set mine as fully available and mark “private appointment” when I’m out. This isn’t required on the new team but I just find it much easier to schedule and plan that way. When I have any authority, I make it a requirement for my team.

    Reply ↓
  64. Exile*

    if Maggie isn’t in a supervisory/ management position, I’d start just sending out the meeting requests without contacting her first to check on the schedule. Include in the invite something along the lines of “After review this appears to the time where most people can attend, if this is unsuitable please suggest alternative or supply thoughts for this prior to meeting. Notes will be forwarded to all participants following call for input if unable to attend”

    Reply ↓
  65. HonorBox*

    I think concern over the contents of someone’s calendar is generally problematic. But I also think what OP knows now could be helpful when they talk to the CEO. I wouldn’t advocate for going in with that evidence first, but I think as OP highlights the delays and business-related problems caused by people not seeing Maggie’s calendar and her delays in replying to emails, they have extra information that could be shared if CEO is not willing to make Maggie change how she manages the calendar. For instance, if CEO is going to drag his feet again, I think it would be fair for OP to point out that people saw her calendar and saw a number of personal-appearing appointments, which is leading to some frustration because on top of the delays, people have information that now makes them question what she’s doing. That’s bad, but an easy fix is forcing her to share her calendar AND insist that she cannot completely block her days because she’s part of the process and needs to be accessible for that process to move smoothly.

    Also, if CEO worries about Maggie quitting, OP has opportunity to share that if she’s spending a good amount of time cleaning, walking her dog, or exercising during the day, Maggie may not be as valuable as she appears, so if she’s unwilling to follow the CEO’s instructions and decides to quit, it might not be the worst thing in the world.

    Reply ↓
  68. MBK*

    Regarding Alison’s list of other potential infractions the CEO would need to address: I’d argue that in some offices, refusing to share one’s calendar would be a way worse transgression than walking around pants-less.

    Reply ↓
  69. Coverage Associate*

    I understand what everyone is saying about making private entries, but I don’t know that I have ever had training in scheduling in Outlook. It seems like most offices seem to expect most employees to have just picked it up as new features are added, which has long seemed strange to me considering the importance of Outlook. It’s something that I actually asked for training in during my recent review.

    So maybe this employee doesn’t understand about private meetings? She’s not expressing that in a helpful way, but I would hope someone could show her. You can’t know how to use features you don’t know are there.

    Also, every office is a little different about these things. I recently had an external who wouldn’t forward a meeting invite within her own team. All changes to the meeting had to come from the account that set the meeting.

    Also, I tried separate personal and work calendars, and it means checking both before agreeing to any appointment in either. I’m sure some people manage to schedule everything like dentist appointments outside their work hours and even outside commute and possible overtime hours, but I don’t. When I tried to have separate calendars, I ended up with conflicts and missed appointments. A separate calendar would also slow this office even more, because the problem employee would have to check both to set any meeting, and so her responses would be slower even if she were trying to cooperate.

    Anyway, any hammer contemplated here should come with an offer of formal training.

    Reply ↓
    1. umami*

      And this is why my EA doesn’t allow me to schedule things myself! He has a color-coding system based on priority, adds travel time when needed, and … just manages the calendar in ways I didn’t even know could be done! I’ve never had time to actually sit down and ‘learn’ how to use Outlook, and it wouldn’t be a good use of my time. But if I didn’t have someone to do it for me, having a short training would be SO helpful!

      Reply ↓
  70. Mamma Mia!*

    I wouldn’t actually do any of these things (or ever recommend that someone do), but I would be VERY tempted to let my petty flag fly and be as annoying as possible about it. Like (and obviously not literally these exact words since OP isn’t Maggie’s boss, but you get the gist):

    “Oh, it seems like you have a lot of meetings. If you’re unable to make meetings with us because you’re so overworked, can I help you submit for a new position that will come out of your team’s operating budget?”

    “Given that you have the most difficult schedule to find meeting time with, I think it makes sense that you take on the responsibility of scheduling admin. Also X meeting needs to happen in the next two hours with Y people.”

    “I’m really surprised your calendar is so full, I thought we were in similar roles and therefore thought we might have similar schedules. Can you help me figure out what I’m missing so I can make sure I’m covering everything? I’m concerned I’m inadvertently slacking on work when I see how I busy you are!”

    etc etc

    Reply ↓
  71. British IT Guy*

    So this is a shot in the dark, but do you have an IT Team? Assuming you’re using something like Outlook, then your “Outlook” (Exchange, AD, Entra etc) Administrator can set calendar sharing defaults and restrict a user’s ability to change it back.

    Someone with authority over the user – i.e. their line manager, should raise a ticket with IT and request the change. The user doesn’t need to approve it – it’s not personal information or data, it’s a work resource and tool provided to the user for work.

    If they want to quit over it, then good luck to them. Your work calendar is not for personal appointments, and if it inteferes with an entire team’s workflow then it needs to change.

    Reply ↓
  72. Office Drone*

    What I don’t understand is the presumption that Maggie owns her calendar and can use it for whatever she wants. It sounds like this is work equipment. If so, the calendar is company property. It’s helpful for employees for the company to give some leeway in using the calendar—such as putting the reasons blocks of PTO on private—but ultimately the calendar is supposed to serve the business’s needs, not the employees. My response to Maggie would be “It’s not YOUR calendar.”

    Reply ↓
  73. Schnapps*

    My calendar is wide open to anyone in the org. If I need to make a meeting or appointment private, I make it private (like if I have a medical appointment in the middle of the day – it’s marked Private and not available/out of office)

    I agree with Office Drone above – it’s not her personal calendar, it’s the organization’s.

    There is also the idea of being reasonably available during working hours. If she has no availability, then she’s not doing a core part of her work. If it’s impacting the bottom line of the business, that’s a problem.

    There are, of course, things that come up, and that is understandable. She just needs to have reasonable availability. My suggestion would be just to send her meeting requests once you get a majority of people required settled on a time. And keep the “declined” receipts. If it’s a 1:1, do the same.

    Reply ↓
  74. DJ*

    I get blocking out times for the occasional personal thing and marking this Private. And also get blocking out time slots for certain work. But other staff need to be able to see this and yes she needs to keep much of her work time available for meetings etc!

    Reply ↓
  75. Rev Bayes*

    I had a very similar issue with a co-worker (let’s call him Ted) some years ago, and we were all quietly told to just put meetings in without worrying about conflicts with Ted’s mystery time. When he complained, he was told to reschedule to a time that worked for everyone. After a while the penny dropped, and he realised that he was making far more work for himself and his calendar mysteriously freed up.

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  76. CLC*

    I don’t think the problem is she isn’t sharing her calendar it’s that she’s blocking all her time as busy. I work in a large organization and we can only see calendar details for people who report to us. I schedule meetings all the time without seeing *what* people are doing in each hour, and I frequently have to ask people when they are free because they have all their time spoken for in their calendars.

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  77. Dmal*

    Maggie would quickly become either an optional attendee or just has to deal with the time chosen and move her stuff around.

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  78. AuntAmI*

    Time is money. That’s something the CEO should ensure is clear in this communication.

    The running around and waiting and checking in about availability is a huge waste and is not efficient for running a business, regardless of collaboration needs, etc.

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  79. stunner266*

    If you know all of the meetings are fake anyway, id just schedule the meeting at a time that suits everyone else.
    She can then answer to the CEO when she is consistently not turning up to meetings.
    Although if the only other things on her calendar are “clean the house” she may just turn up to the meetings anyway.

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