Alibi Encyclopedia · mundane
I Was Trapped in a Meeting That Would Not End
It was scheduled for thirty minutes. It is now ninety. There is no end in sight.
The scenario
What was supposed to be a 30-minute check-in has now been going for ninety minutes and is being held hostage by one extremely thorough product manager.
It started small — a clarifying question, a related sub-topic, a pivot to 'while we're all here, let's also discuss…' The deck has 47 slides. You are on slide 11. Two attendees have visibly given up. One has muted their video to eat lunch. You no longer fully remember what the meeting was about.
You will join the next meeting late. You will be quiet for the first ten minutes. You will not be okay.
Why it works
This one is the rare alibi that is mostly true. The relatability does all the work.
How to deliver it
- ★Use 'still in the prior meeting' as your status.
- ★Send the Slack from your phone, under the table.
- ★Apologize in the next meeting with the haunted look of someone who has seen too much.
- ★Decline the recurring invite later. Quietly.
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