Protected Time

We often find that managers will arrange meetings when everyone appears to be free, but they don’t consider if it is actually a good time. So they often arranged meetings during lunchtimes. After our Head Of Development announced that he wanted to ban the practice, many managers seemed to ignore this and carry on. It eventually got flagged to HR who then declared it was going to be a group-wide process, and we can no longer have meetings between 12-1. 

I know many people who like to have their lunchtime at 1, but I guess they should adapt for convenience. I guess you cannot block meetings between 12-2 to cover all possibilities.

Our new CTO arranged an hour-long training session 12-1. It wasn’t that he wasn’t aware of the policy; he declared that he knew the policy – and was deliberately violating it.

“We have deliberately scheduled it within protected time as this is exactly what we should use our protected time for – a chance to learn and develop ourselves.”

CTO

I stated to a colleague:

“I thought the protected time was protected so we can actually eat… I’m currently developing myself with a sausage and egg sandwich”

Me

I don’t get why he thinks the protected lunchtime should be used for training. It was specifically to ban meetings during this time. If we had food ready, we could eat while listening. However, others may need to cook, want to go out for food, or like to eat with their family.