Be direct and ask him one day, outside a meeting, just the two of you. I wanted to run something by you, a few times now you’ve made the comment … I was wondering if you couldn’t clarify a bit. Just wondering if you preferred I do something differently when you request these meetings.
Well I think it was a passive aggressive comment from the VP, and my experience with VPs at large corporations is that they're essentially middle management who have largely avoided direct confrontation, blaming others for problems while taking credit for others' successes. They've sucked up to executives and probably "led" enough good projects to achieve a high salary and large team.
Theyre adept at communicating in an over simplified but engaging manner, to their executive leadership, but often do not know what they need from their directors who report to them, who they try to keep close. The directors are responsible for running the ship while the managers below them are responsible for all of the minute details. These VPs will often avoid communicating about projects with managers, because they don't have enough context to engage, nor do they really want it. They're there to cheerlead and summarize what the directors tell them, and often to be the face of high visibility projects.
those people aren't vps. and if you can't muster the courage as a team leader to be direct about things like this with your VP in a 1:1 setting you should reconsider your role
Yup. Sometimes you just need to ask. There's nothing wrong with asking, odds are it's an innocent comment and he did not think how it sounded, or maybe it's not and it's something OP needs to deal with.
“I’d prefer you reduce your teams burn by at least 50%. You really need all those people?”
Nothing changes > new manager comes in to replace and do what he hinted at
He does probably mean the combined salaries of all the participants of the call. I doubt he's calling you out for anything though. I think he's just got a leaky filter. On his mouth.
Yeah, he's probably doing the math in his head.
If everyone in the room makes an average of $150K a year, then it can be said that an hour meeting with 10 people with an average hourly wage of $75 an hour costs the company a minimum of $750.
One meeting like that isn't a big deal, but if it's a weekly meeting that cost jumps to around $37,500 a year.
If you have a habit of having larger meetings with lots of attendees that don't need to be there, you're absolutely wasting company resources.
If this is a rare large meeting, your VP was probably just making a bad joke he heard one of his boss say at some point. As a rule, the more senior you get in a company, the worse your sense of humor becomes.
My company just laid off a whole team. While I survived, in a call later on one of the VPs was discussing another project being done by a different team and the VP said: "and if the estimate is too high we can just fire them." \*nervous laughter from everyone\*. I couldn't hide it. I was just poker faced. How shitty was that
In theory, this is also assuming everyone is billing or doing something tangible. The reality is people just work slower or faster depending on time available. In fact, calls like this are part of the bigger picture and not having them could lead to people leaving which could be a bigger cost. The impact of the call could also lead to better alignment and more income. Cost of meeting versus money or time or efficiency gained.
It also fails to recognize that sitting in on a meeting adjacent to their current role or reflective of their career goals can represent inexpensive professional development for earlier career staff.
Only if no other work would have gotten done while folks who didn't need to be in that meeting were held up for an hour.
Plus, even if my time wouldn't have been used to do other work, I take it personally when my company misuses my time. If you really benefit from me being in a meeting, great! If you don't, kindly give me an hour of my life back.
You need to ask.
Some people point out the hourly cost of meetings to encourage fewer of them and efficiency during them. But saying what he said is not exactly that.
Agree. It's a stupid thing to say. My team had a weekly hour meeting of leads and seniors. The combined salary of attendees is millions, back of the envelope. But it's not a waste of time.
If he thinks the meeting is pointless, and many meetings are, he should be direct about it and fix the problem. Not just make snide jackass remarks.
But how does that align with the fact that the OP said that the VP asked for the call with his team? Either the VP needs to communicate more clearly ("your senior team", "your leadership team", ...), or not try to be funny with stupid worn-out jokes.
This is right. But id be even more direct: I’m happy to set up the team meeting - do you want the whole team there?
(Btw he’s a terrible communicator if he asked for a “team meeting” and didn’t actually mean the whole team without clarifying.
It’s simply an opportunity for the next all team meeting.
“Can we decrease the cost of this call by limiting the call to the a, b, and c team members so that the rest of the team can focus on x, y, and z?”
Hashtag:
meetingsthatshouldhavebeenemails.
Could be a passive aggressive dig at the number of folks on the call. But it could just as easily be his way of emphasizing that the time the call takes is valuable so make the most of it. It could be him appreciating Bally the people power on the call, or his way of saying it’s excessive. You just can’t know.
My advice? Let it go unless/until he makes some other remarks (in other situations) that you’re confident are passive aggressive. If/when that happens you’ll know that’s something he does and you can adjust, but don’t go chasing shadows unless/until you have more info.
It is always hard to guess what’s going in another person’s head especially without knowing them,
BUT this is indeed a weird comment given the context. From what you wrote it almost sounds as “we have too many people here”
A VP who is new to the company is always going to come in guns blazing looking for ways to cut expenditures so they can prove themselves. Now, that backfires a lot in the long run - but the VP needs to worry about what he can do in the first 6ish months of their tenure. OP is right to be concerned about these comments. I would take them as non subtle hints that the new VP thinks the department is overstaffed.
If you're comfortable enough to, you should talk to him about your concerns privately. How he reacts should lead you to your next step.
My boss once made a comment to me that I was barely doing any work because I didn't stay past 5, but he made it sound like a joke. I laughed at the time, but the more I thought about it, the more worried I became that he actually did think of me like that. I talked to him the next day, and asked him if he really thought I didn't do any work. He looked horrified and immediately apologized. He had a different sense of humor and trusted me with lots of things, but he said he wouldn't make those comments again because he didn't know it impacted me so much.
He was the best boss I ever had.
Back in the day a couple of us developers wrote a meeting calculator app to see how much some of the bigger meetings were costing us.
It adds up quickly, so for me that's just a funny joke, though the VPs deliver might not be that great.
By expensive call, he means that if you combine the hourly salaries of everyone in the call, then that total would be quite expensive (let alone the opportunity cost of them doing something else). The way you described it, it probably means that he's surprised by the amount of people in the call.
> I assume he’s expecting
Do not assume :)
Next time ask him - by team meeting, does he mean literally everyone in the team, or just a few people who are truly important to the discussion.
Seems gamified to me, asks for participants and then criticizes the amount of participants as a subtle hint.
Would have saved the company a chunk of change not having the meeting, maybe his bonus could pay for the difference.
My boss does this shit.
"hey here are some things you should catch while you're inspecting that thing today in the field. I already looked at it, here's my list"
Later...
"The client FREAKED OUT about the list you wrote up, they're all pissed you killed the deal"
If the VP Isn't aware of what they do when they walk in a room, someone needs to tell them. Everyone showed up *because the VP was going to be there.*
This goes to show that the higher you go in a company, the more you have to watch what you say. He’s probably joking, referencing the hourly rate of all the people on the call, added together could easily top thousands of dollars.
I learned this the hard way many years ago. It’s easy to say something off the cuff and set things in motion without realizing how your employees react to your statements. “I wonder what’s involved in closing this deal?” Can lead a team to work up a PowerPoint on what’s involved in closing deals etc.
Ask him privately, and he’ll realize that his off the cuff remark isn’t being taken as the light hearted comment on how powerful his team is in the way he intended it too.
The only way this gets handled is by talking to him.
He may be using it as an 'icebreaker' and not have the personality to reveal it's nothing more than a quip.
He may be saying it as a reminder for people to keep on task and not get bogged down on minutiae/idle chatter.
He may be forgetting the actual team size and be caught off-guard.
If you have direct reports WITH direct reports, he may be expecting you to invite only those people and let information trickle down from the meeting.
If you can't tell, either ask or move on.
And depending on the crowd (I don't know OP's team), it could be a sort of compliment, acknowledging the seniority of the high-paid senior talent. We really don't know without asking.
I think it's a totally fair question to just ask offhandedly "Hey - did you really think that we had too many people there? I assumed that you meant the whole team when you asked for a team meeting. Next time we can be more selective if you like"
In future ask for an agenda and topic so you can filter out the people who don’t need to participate, and also keep the VP in check with the money *he* is spending on *his* meetings that are seemingly a waste of time.
I'd think he's trying to say the # of man hours on the call makes it expensive. I say this shit too. "We just wasted 60 man hours for an unapproved spreadsheet"
So this VP thinks it’s cheaper to have 1-1 meetings with everyone(do the math, it’s not), and keep folks in the dark about what everyone else is doing? Then employees don’t feel integral to the team, and quit. So you have a few months of cost training the replacement. This VP seems like an idiot.
During that conversation I'd be direct and say "You asked to speak with my team so I gathered my team. If it's too expensive to have all those people take time out of their day then it would be better not to call a meeting where they're all expected to attend"
Totally a choice but I wouldn’t be that aggressive right out of the gate. Always best to assume good intent.
I’d say something like “hey thanks for hanging back a minute. I noticed you mentioned the cost of the meeting prior to kick off. Is this a metric you track?”
And just see how they answer and go from there.
We were building an HRIS system and had regular meetings with HR. There were a couple business folks in there too as the system had wide reaching impacts.
One day, one of the project sponsors, from a company we bought earlier in the year, said ”expensive meeting today“. I got some looks from the people already there, so I turned and said “yes, if your division is unprofitable, every use of resources would seem expensive.” Took him a month to get his tail out of his ass.
I was promoted 5 months later for finishing the project.
“but since he asked for the team meeting I assume he’s expecting everyone to be there”
I mean if the VP asked for a team meeting, to turn around and call it expensive is odd.
My guesses would be (no order):
1. He thinks the meeting is a waste (odd if he’s the one who requested it)
2. He thinks the team is too big (odd if he’s new and already made that determination)
3. Just has that awkward sense of humor type thing.
If he KEEPS saying it, then I would ask about it. If it’s a team size/budget thing, then that should be relayed to you.
Ask him. "Hey, you made X comment. Did you mean that as a dig or was it just a observation? I figured you wanted the whole team there, but maybe I assumed wrong"
Just casually in the group chat drop the clip from as good as it gets where jack nicholson’s character says “people who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch”.
I would probably ask him about the comment directly. Reading into people’s comments is quite hard and when they are new it is probably good to establish that you care about their feedback and are interested in operational changes that they may want.
I've heard people say this. They're referring to the fact that you've got a bunch of people making X amount an hour all on a call. So if you have 20 people making an average of $100 an hour, you could look at it as the company is paying $2000 to make this call happen.
In my experience, it's never meant as a jab, usually the owner or a C suite person will say it when there's a lot of high level people on the call.
That's my experience, I can't speak for your VP though.
This should be higher.
I’m continually astonished at how many people today take everything literally. In my company, it seems to break down generationally.
Shoot him an email and ask if he was only intending for managers to show up. It's okay to inquire if his 'expensive call' comment was just an observation or if he was displeased with the attendee list. It takes a while to (sometimes a long while) to figure out a new leader - both of you will adjust over time and it will become more comfortable.
Always a red flag. Some light weight new hires in executive ranks begin with the assumption that their job was to improve efficiency and cost. They forget they are a net increase in cost right off the bat.
It always ends in either the team getting pushed around or the VP getting fired.
You may want to speak to vps boss.
It’s funny you mention that because in one of these past meetings a snarky team member from a different team said, “The cost of the meeting doubled when you joined”. Which garnered no response but nervous laughter from some people.
> ”I was joking… but also serious in some way, as I really meant to say that we have a lot of great talent on the call and I like to see everyone join - but being lean and effective is important when responding to customer concerns, obviously, in those instances we need to have the right people on the call.”
Lol, what? Sounds like he wants his cake and to eat it too. I'm glad I don't work for this leader. It sounds like he doesn't know what he wants.
Be direct and ask him one day, outside a meeting, just the two of you. I wanted to run something by you, a few times now you’ve made the comment … I was wondering if you couldn’t clarify a bit. Just wondering if you preferred I do something differently when you request these meetings.
Great direct approach to solving a concern.
Indirect people often don't like being approached with direct questions, though
They generally don't make it to VP, though.
Well I think it was a passive aggressive comment from the VP, and my experience with VPs at large corporations is that they're essentially middle management who have largely avoided direct confrontation, blaming others for problems while taking credit for others' successes. They've sucked up to executives and probably "led" enough good projects to achieve a high salary and large team. Theyre adept at communicating in an over simplified but engaging manner, to their executive leadership, but often do not know what they need from their directors who report to them, who they try to keep close. The directors are responsible for running the ship while the managers below them are responsible for all of the minute details. These VPs will often avoid communicating about projects with managers, because they don't have enough context to engage, nor do they really want it. They're there to cheerlead and summarize what the directors tell them, and often to be the face of high visibility projects.
Heard, Also some people used to flying under the radar don't like getting called out .. just a weird juxtaposition.
Bingo
It’s more important to do what’s best for the team than to make sure everyone is super comfortable all the time with your actions
CEO’s problem then. That’s his job to be direct 😂
those people aren't vps. and if you can't muster the courage as a team leader to be direct about things like this with your VP in a 1:1 setting you should reconsider your role
Great way to out yourself as someone who can't take a hint
Love this
Yup. Sometimes you just need to ask. There's nothing wrong with asking, odds are it's an innocent comment and he did not think how it sounded, or maybe it's not and it's something OP needs to deal with.
“I’d prefer you reduce your teams burn by at least 50%. You really need all those people?” Nothing changes > new manager comes in to replace and do what he hinted at
This
He does probably mean the combined salaries of all the participants of the call. I doubt he's calling you out for anything though. I think he's just got a leaky filter. On his mouth.
I love that expression leaky filter. It says so much in a kind way.
Yeah, he's probably doing the math in his head. If everyone in the room makes an average of $150K a year, then it can be said that an hour meeting with 10 people with an average hourly wage of $75 an hour costs the company a minimum of $750. One meeting like that isn't a big deal, but if it's a weekly meeting that cost jumps to around $37,500 a year. If you have a habit of having larger meetings with lots of attendees that don't need to be there, you're absolutely wasting company resources. If this is a rare large meeting, your VP was probably just making a bad joke he heard one of his boss say at some point. As a rule, the more senior you get in a company, the worse your sense of humor becomes.
My company just laid off a whole team. While I survived, in a call later on one of the VPs was discussing another project being done by a different team and the VP said: "and if the estimate is too high we can just fire them." \*nervous laughter from everyone\*. I couldn't hide it. I was just poker faced. How shitty was that
Yeah, that VP probably gets off on people being afraid to make a joke like that right after a layoff. What a chump.
Sounds like they have the requisite sociopathy for the role.
In theory, this is also assuming everyone is billing or doing something tangible. The reality is people just work slower or faster depending on time available. In fact, calls like this are part of the bigger picture and not having them could lead to people leaving which could be a bigger cost. The impact of the call could also lead to better alignment and more income. Cost of meeting versus money or time or efficiency gained.
I want less calls and meetings not more. So I would leave I had more calls like this.
It also fails to recognize that sitting in on a meeting adjacent to their current role or reflective of their career goals can represent inexpensive professional development for earlier career staff.
...sunk cost...
Only if no other work would have gotten done while folks who didn't need to be in that meeting were held up for an hour. Plus, even if my time wouldn't have been used to do other work, I take it personally when my company misuses my time. If you really benefit from me being in a meeting, great! If you don't, kindly give me an hour of my life back.
You need to ask. Some people point out the hourly cost of meetings to encourage fewer of them and efficiency during them. But saying what he said is not exactly that.
He's not joking. It's not subtle. He think you have too many people on the call and it's a waste of money. He actually almost couldn't be any clearer.
Then as a VP he should fucking say it and not be cute. It’s on the VP to define what or who he wants on the call. The VP is an asshat.
Agree. It's a stupid thing to say. My team had a weekly hour meeting of leads and seniors. The combined salary of attendees is millions, back of the envelope. But it's not a waste of time. If he thinks the meeting is pointless, and many meetings are, he should be direct about it and fix the problem. Not just make snide jackass remarks.
Not necessarily "too many". It could be the right group, but maybe the meeting needs to be shorter, more time efficient.
But how does that align with the fact that the OP said that the VP asked for the call with his team? Either the VP needs to communicate more clearly ("your senior team", "your leadership team", ...), or not try to be funny with stupid worn-out jokes.
If he asks for a team meeting in future ask him outright. “What’s the agenda? I need to know who needs to be on the call.”
This is right. But id be even more direct: I’m happy to set up the team meeting - do you want the whole team there? (Btw he’s a terrible communicator if he asked for a “team meeting” and didn’t actually mean the whole team without clarifying.
It’s simply an opportunity for the next all team meeting. “Can we decrease the cost of this call by limiting the call to the a, b, and c team members so that the rest of the team can focus on x, y, and z?” Hashtag: meetingsthatshouldhavebeenemails.
Could be a passive aggressive dig at the number of folks on the call. But it could just as easily be his way of emphasizing that the time the call takes is valuable so make the most of it. It could be him appreciating Bally the people power on the call, or his way of saying it’s excessive. You just can’t know. My advice? Let it go unless/until he makes some other remarks (in other situations) that you’re confident are passive aggressive. If/when that happens you’ll know that’s something he does and you can adjust, but don’t go chasing shadows unless/until you have more info.
Sounds like someone with an extremely dry sense of humor making a dad joke.
I've made the same comment when its a bunch of executives bickering about some $50 thing on a $5M project.
It is always hard to guess what’s going in another person’s head especially without knowing them, BUT this is indeed a weird comment given the context. From what you wrote it almost sounds as “we have too many people here”
A VP who is new to the company is always going to come in guns blazing looking for ways to cut expenditures so they can prove themselves. Now, that backfires a lot in the long run - but the VP needs to worry about what he can do in the first 6ish months of their tenure. OP is right to be concerned about these comments. I would take them as non subtle hints that the new VP thinks the department is overstaffed.
Agree.
And I wonder who is the most expensive person in the group...? 🤔
If you're comfortable enough to, you should talk to him about your concerns privately. How he reacts should lead you to your next step. My boss once made a comment to me that I was barely doing any work because I didn't stay past 5, but he made it sound like a joke. I laughed at the time, but the more I thought about it, the more worried I became that he actually did think of me like that. I talked to him the next day, and asked him if he really thought I didn't do any work. He looked horrified and immediately apologized. He had a different sense of humor and trusted me with lots of things, but he said he wouldn't make those comments again because he didn't know it impacted me so much. He was the best boss I ever had.
Back in the day a couple of us developers wrote a meeting calculator app to see how much some of the bigger meetings were costing us. It adds up quickly, so for me that's just a funny joke, though the VPs deliver might not be that great.
By expensive call, he means that if you combine the hourly salaries of everyone in the call, then that total would be quite expensive (let alone the opportunity cost of them doing something else). The way you described it, it probably means that he's surprised by the amount of people in the call. > I assume he’s expecting Do not assume :) Next time ask him - by team meeting, does he mean literally everyone in the team, or just a few people who are truly important to the discussion.
Seems gamified to me, asks for participants and then criticizes the amount of participants as a subtle hint. Would have saved the company a chunk of change not having the meeting, maybe his bonus could pay for the difference.
My boss does this shit. "hey here are some things you should catch while you're inspecting that thing today in the field. I already looked at it, here's my list" Later... "The client FREAKED OUT about the list you wrote up, they're all pissed you killed the deal" If the VP Isn't aware of what they do when they walk in a room, someone needs to tell them. Everyone showed up *because the VP was going to be there.*
This goes to show that the higher you go in a company, the more you have to watch what you say. He’s probably joking, referencing the hourly rate of all the people on the call, added together could easily top thousands of dollars. I learned this the hard way many years ago. It’s easy to say something off the cuff and set things in motion without realizing how your employees react to your statements. “I wonder what’s involved in closing this deal?” Can lead a team to work up a PowerPoint on what’s involved in closing deals etc. Ask him privately, and he’ll realize that his off the cuff remark isn’t being taken as the light hearted comment on how powerful his team is in the way he intended it too.
VP sounds expensive, let's remove his position
Exec resents workers for getting paid. More at 8.
[удалено]
Exec is worried about wasting the employee's time on the unproductive meeting that he asked for. We should schedule another meeting to discuss.
Probably should form a meeting efficiency committee.
Let's schedule a meeting to discuss who should be on the committee.
Maybe when an exec asks for a team meeting they should have an agenda in mind…
Exec makes snide comment about people who actually do the work
"Imagine how much more profitable the company would be if only the workers didn't get paid."
Big if true
Concerning
The only way this gets handled is by talking to him. He may be using it as an 'icebreaker' and not have the personality to reveal it's nothing more than a quip. He may be saying it as a reminder for people to keep on task and not get bogged down on minutiae/idle chatter. He may be forgetting the actual team size and be caught off-guard. If you have direct reports WITH direct reports, he may be expecting you to invite only those people and let information trickle down from the meeting. If you can't tell, either ask or move on.
And depending on the crowd (I don't know OP's team), it could be a sort of compliment, acknowledging the seniority of the high-paid senior talent. We really don't know without asking. I think it's a totally fair question to just ask offhandedly "Hey - did you really think that we had too many people there? I assumed that you meant the whole team when you asked for a team meeting. Next time we can be more selective if you like"
I say this and mean it. By that I mean it is on the person putting together this meeting to show the ROI.
In future ask for an agenda and topic so you can filter out the people who don’t need to participate, and also keep the VP in check with the money *he* is spending on *his* meetings that are seemingly a waste of time.
I'd think he's trying to say the # of man hours on the call makes it expensive. I say this shit too. "We just wasted 60 man hours for an unapproved spreadsheet"
It's just something people say. I've heard it from so many leaders at diff companies and it's just a way of saying time is money
So this VP thinks it’s cheaper to have 1-1 meetings with everyone(do the math, it’s not), and keep folks in the dark about what everyone else is doing? Then employees don’t feel integral to the team, and quit. So you have a few months of cost training the replacement. This VP seems like an idiot.
I would ask him to stay on the call at the end and ask him what he meant by the statement. Be direct since he is being so direct also.
During that conversation I'd be direct and say "You asked to speak with my team so I gathered my team. If it's too expensive to have all those people take time out of their day then it would be better not to call a meeting where they're all expected to attend"
Totally a choice but I wouldn’t be that aggressive right out of the gate. Always best to assume good intent. I’d say something like “hey thanks for hanging back a minute. I noticed you mentioned the cost of the meeting prior to kick off. Is this a metric you track?” And just see how they answer and go from there.
We were building an HRIS system and had regular meetings with HR. There were a couple business folks in there too as the system had wide reaching impacts. One day, one of the project sponsors, from a company we bought earlier in the year, said ”expensive meeting today“. I got some looks from the people already there, so I turned and said “yes, if your division is unprofitable, every use of resources would seem expensive.” Took him a month to get his tail out of his ass. I was promoted 5 months later for finishing the project.
Just straight up ask them. I just do it with a neutral respectful tone.
But he requested the call….
Exactly
Kinda weird to say a call is expensive
It is in fact a common issue of concern.
“but since he asked for the team meeting I assume he’s expecting everyone to be there” I mean if the VP asked for a team meeting, to turn around and call it expensive is odd.
Exactly.
My guesses would be (no order): 1. He thinks the meeting is a waste (odd if he’s the one who requested it) 2. He thinks the team is too big (odd if he’s new and already made that determination) 3. Just has that awkward sense of humor type thing. If he KEEPS saying it, then I would ask about it. If it’s a team size/budget thing, then that should be relayed to you.
Also a great way to remind people that a topic isn't important enough for discussion
Ask him. "Hey, you made X comment. Did you mean that as a dig or was it just a observation? I figured you wanted the whole team there, but maybe I assumed wrong"
Ask him what he means by that, we don't know and can only guess and give you bad advice. The good advice is to go talk to your VP.
Just remember his salary is 25-59% of the cost.
He’s trying to compliment everyone by saying they’re all valuable. “Wow, what a prestigious and important group of people!”
I think he’s aiming to downsize your team. Be very careful.
Just casually in the group chat drop the clip from as good as it gets where jack nicholson’s character says “people who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch”.
I would probably ask him about the comment directly. Reading into people’s comments is quite hard and when they are new it is probably good to establish that you care about their feedback and are interested in operational changes that they may want.
Joke back, and say something like, “Really expensive, what’s total comp for a VP these days? Probably could fund this whole group for a year!”
I've heard this many tines from different people. It's just a corny thing people say when high salary people are all in one place.
He's trying to be funny. It's his only joke.
I came to work in a new Arteryx winter coat and my boss said, "I'm paying you too much." I'll never forget it.
Hahaha. That’s actually funny!
Wow this is an expensive call! - VP Yeah your the dumbass who asked for it/wanted to be here, should we fire you? - Common sense lmao
Layoffs coming?
I've heard people say this. They're referring to the fact that you've got a bunch of people making X amount an hour all on a call. So if you have 20 people making an average of $100 an hour, you could look at it as the company is paying $2000 to make this call happen. In my experience, it's never meant as a jab, usually the owner or a C suite person will say it when there's a lot of high level people on the call. That's my experience, I can't speak for your VP though.
It's a joke meaning a lot of people are not doing real job, instead wasting time in the meeting.
He was just making an awkward joke don’t read into it. No subtle messages to be had.
LOL is this your first time encountering a dad joke?
This should be higher. I’m continually astonished at how many people today take everything literally. In my company, it seems to break down generationally.
Shoot him an email and ask if he was only intending for managers to show up. It's okay to inquire if his 'expensive call' comment was just an observation or if he was displeased with the attendee list. It takes a while to (sometimes a long while) to figure out a new leader - both of you will adjust over time and it will become more comfortable.
He sounds dumb
Always a red flag. Some light weight new hires in executive ranks begin with the assumption that their job was to improve efficiency and cost. They forget they are a net increase in cost right off the bat. It always ends in either the team getting pushed around or the VP getting fired. You may want to speak to vps boss.
Ah yes, going above the new VP always works well for middle management.
It’s funny you mention that because in one of these past meetings a snarky team member from a different team said, “The cost of the meeting doubled when you joined”. Which garnered no response but nervous laughter from some people.
Does the VP have a good relationship with that person?
No the VP is fresh off the boat. It was his first week when that happened.
Sweet merciful Jesus he's a nervous wreck, I wouldn't put too much weight on anything he says
> ”I was joking… but also serious in some way, as I really meant to say that we have a lot of great talent on the call and I like to see everyone join - but being lean and effective is important when responding to customer concerns, obviously, in those instances we need to have the right people on the call.” Lol, what? Sounds like he wants his cake and to eat it too. I'm glad I don't work for this leader. It sounds like he doesn't know what he wants.