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Manager thinks employee is lying about meeting attendance because Zoom kept kicking them out of the room: 'My manager, who is usually lovely, thinks I’m a liar now anyway, and my anxiety is shooting through the roof!'

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  • A worker attempts to join a remote meeting from their laptop
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  • Manager thinks I'm lying because someone doesn't remember me being in a meeting. FML.

    I was in a long online meeting earlier this week - group discussions, break-out rooms, the works. For some reason, the break-out function was having issues and kept booting me out, so I only caught snippets of the conversations going on in my group. I was working through a
  • migraine that day, as well, and I did not want to be the weirdo with sunglasses on inside, so I kept my camera off. I listened to the conversation, but did not contribute since the people dominating the conversation has far more experience on the topic than I do, and it was hard to participate anyway when I kept being kicked out and then pulled back in several minutes later each time.
  • My manager and I spoke after the meeting, and I did mention some of the points of the discussion that I caught and the fact that I had technical issues, so I thought that was that.
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  • But nope! Apparently not contributing made me invisible in that meeting, because someone who was in the same breakout room told my manager that I was not there, and my manager then told me and proceeded to give me the third degree to verify that I was, indeed, there. I ended up
  • saying that, while I cannot prove that I was there since there are no meeting records, I did learn a lot from the conversation that I witnessed and will make sure to loop her in if I have technical issues during a meeting again to avoid confusion.
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  • Pretty sure my manager, who is usually lovely, thinks I'm a liar now anyway, and my anxiety is shooting through the roof! Mind you, I have been with the company for 10 years and with this team for seven; my
  • performance has been nothing but stellar and I never miss a deadline, and though I am the only remote employee in the team due to a dis lity that requires WFH as an accommodation, they have never had any issues with me. I guess from now on I'll have to say random stuff that doesn't add to the conversation even when I have nothing significant to share, just so I get noticed by other people. Great!
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  • Anyone out there with advice on how to handle this? Or should I just never mention it again and hope nothing comes of it?
  • In the background, a laptop sits open to a remote Zoom meeting. Plant in the foreground
  • Commenters came through with their advice and takes.

    mumwifealcoholic I'd never mention it again. But I'd also make sure to pipe up at least once every meeting. But that's me. I got a mortgage.
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  • Old_Still3321 You were there, and there's a digital footprint. They need to get over it.
  • cardlackey You can prove it. Whoever made the zoom can go into the zoom web portal Reports > Usage Reports > Usage and download the one for that meeting. Good luck.
  • Lynx3145 request the digital attendance log. it might show multiple connections on your end from the tech issues. the creator of the event would have access to download that file.
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  • satans_wafflemak... I use Teams almost every day for meetings. The meeting organizer will be sent an attendance file at the end of every meeting in the meeting chat. This won't be something they'll have to look for, it will be the very last file sent in that chat.
  • Absolutely request this from the organizer and copy your boss on the email. I know it feels weird harping on this but having your boss give you a bad review or deny a raise because they think you're a liar will feel worse.
  • TheCrimson Steel Message your boss over Teams or whatever "I just remembered, you can pull attendance logs. You want me to reach out to X and request the logs?" Odds are they won't, and simply offering to prove it goes a long way
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  • The other thing I'll do is take notes. Mostly it helps me pay attention, but I've used that multiple times to go "yeah, I was in it. Want my notes?"
  • SatinFlowers That's such a dumb situation to be put in after ten solid years. I've had breakout rooms glitch on me too and it already feels chaotic without having to defend your existence afterward. If it were me, I'd just send a quick follow-up summary next time so there's a paper trail and then move on like it's no big deal.
  • Shadowpriest Oh if they want to be that petty despite electronic verification you were there, create one continuous running email to send after each meeting everyone that attended, everyone that was invited, and cc the managers thanking them for
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  • their time and adding in one little snippet of the meeting with a time stamp of 'Oh Bob brought up a great point about XYZ' or 'that graph was super helpful and great visual too on slide 13l' or 'thanks for the reminder/update report' and keep doing it over. And over. And over again. off just enough. them
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