I think the fact that this was actually made speaks to the fact that a lot of people are no longer able to do what they were actually hired to do. While I hope that not a lot of people will use the app, I do hope that i sparks some conversations about how our time is spent while at work.
For sure this will burn you at work eventually if you use it. That said, if you need this, maybe you need to actually brush up your CV and find a job that doesn't destroy your productivity with meetings :)
Any job where at least some of the work you do is so important that no one can justifiably tell you not to do it for any reason except to fire you. There are a variety of professional services fields where this is the case. IDK about the software world.
I know a couple guys working as quants on trading desks that never ever get bothered between market open and market close. The downside is that they can’t get lunch or anything, but the tradeoff is probably worth it. Research quants on the otherhand get bothered constantly.
I’d say 75% of requests for meetings I get conflict with something already in my calendar. Nobody bothers checking it before just flinging something in at a time that’s good for them, despite everyone’s calendar being visible to everyone else in the company, and having support for finding a free slot.
> everyone’s calendar being visible to everyone else in the company, and having support for finding a free slot.
As someone who is often trying to schedule C-level people in meetings, I can honestly promise there is no such thing as a "free slot". Eventually, one offers a decent meeting time and let the invitees sort out their own priorities.
Ha-ha, but am I the only one who thinks we've reached peak-passive-aggressive here? If you can't make a meeting, or don't think you have much to contribute, just decline like a grown-up and don't attend it. My calendar is usually booked 100% all days but I pick and choose which ones to attend, and it's never a big deal.
Almost all orgs will allow you to set your calendar to private, showing only "busy" or something similar. Just do this and make the fake meetings yourself.
Maybe there is no need to create fake items. Maybe one should schedule calendar items "Making X", "Implementing Y", "Researching Z"... for own best hours everyday and leave a couple of acceptable gaps for meetings?
I actually do this. I usually block out early morning for on hour at start of day for (Assessment and prioritization of projects), then I have one 2 hour block a day (that changes and is already scheduled for the week) thats assigned to dedicated project research. Other users simply see i'm booked during those periods and it makes it easy for me to plan around having a block of time for hard tasks.
No one has complained yet and in fact I even put down lunch breaks in there now to. It's cut down on excess meetings I have to attend and more importantly i'm able to have some control over time with projects where it may take an hour to get really into it.
This is brilliant and I love it. Fortunately, I'm in (U.S.) academia, so other than one colleague, nobody tries to use outlook etc. calendars at me, but if they did I'd buy this in a hot second.
Square’s appointment service has a similar feature where it can block off appointment slots so customers can’t book. Presumably a fake-it-til ya make it feature.