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Is Calendly Rude?

calendly.com

11–20 of 31 posts

Re: Is Calendly Rude?

#11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was recently in the job market and there were a few instances where a recruiter would reach out to me, ask if some job opening sounded interesting to me, then ultimately send me their calendly link to book a meeting. It was a little off-putting at first, but that was ultimately resolved with a “get over yourself” internal dialogue moment.

Yeah in that situation, I like to think it really is more efficient and it makes sense to give up preconceptions about etiquette. It seems to me (and I know it's silly) it's fine to use it for more impersonal stuff, but more touchy for scheduling amongst notional peers or people of similar standing, where it sort of automatically signals the requestor is more important than the time picker. One thing to add, I've act…

I like that. Ask them for their scheduling link.

Re: Is Calendly Rude?

#12
I have used Calendly at work, everywhere I've been, for the last 3 or so years. It's a lifesaver. I've also used other peoples calendly links, or teams scheduler, or chilipiper or any number of calendar scheduling system. When you're talking about scheduling two or more people of moderately busy schedules a "booking tool" like this is totally worth its weight in gold in any number of situations.

When I work with outside sales teams, from vendors, they often want to include other people (sales engineers, whatever). My calendar often gets chopped up into a few hours here and there of free time as most. I can sit down and write out what my schedule is for the next week but I'm not going to include every moment of free time, probably one or two big blocks per day - at most - if that's even available. They may be unavailable, or it might be late for them (West/East coast). However that one 30mn section I neglected earlier one day might have worked perfectly. But they don't know that. I send them a calendly, then they can look over all my free time and pick exactly what they want.

As a hiring manager, it's also great. People have jobs and lives. Calendly lets me say "here, pick anything that works for you". It gives them the control to not only pick a time that is convenient, but a time that they are comfortable with. Sure, maybe they could meet at 10am but they'd have to stand in a stairwell to take a call. However at 7pm East, they can be at home - and I'm totally ok with a 4pm call, my calendar is free after all.

The entire goal is to make the process of calendaring as convenient as possible for everyone involve. No more emails threads back and forth and back and forth and back and forth trying to find the best times. Especially when half the time you write out your availability to someone, 5 minutes later another meeting will appear in one of those open slots and throw everything for a loop.

Maybe there are ways that people send out these links that other people find offensive. Communication is always hard. But the goal is to reduce friction and make life easier. I will never be upset by someone trying to make my life easier by saying "Here, pick whatever works best for you on my caelendly".

Re: Is Calendly Rude?

#13
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t use calendly but do feel the current “organic” way is broken (manually eyeball and type out times) I did like the last approach the most though. Have something like calendly spit out your available times and you paste it into your email message. They can click on what may work for them. This way it feels like you’ve done some work. The other thing maybe could be that calendly can generate out your availabilit…

Yeah, I feel like the sender should do the extra work of embedding the times in an email. I like your idea of a script that's auto-generated.

But what happens when a person is busy and only has 30mn here and there? A huge blob of text for available times? What about when they get scheduled for a meeting 5 minutes after they send out that auto-generated blob? You could very well pick a time, set it aside, create calendar invites, etc... just to find out they _aren't_ actually available at that time.

Re: Is Calendly Rude?

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was recently in the job market and there were a few instances where a recruiter would reach out to me, ask if some job opening sounded interesting to me, then ultimately send me their calendly link to book a meeting. It was a little off-putting at first, but that was ultimately resolved with a “get over yourself” internal dialogue moment.

Yeah in that situation, I like to think it really is more efficient and it makes sense to give up preconceptions about etiquette. It seems to me (and I know it's silly) it's fine to use it for more impersonal stuff, but more touchy for scheduling amongst notional peers or people of similar standing, where it sort of automatically signals the requestor is more important than the time picker. One thing to add, I've act…

> it sort of automatically signals the requestor is more important than the time picker

This is precisely the problem with Calendly and why I'd never recommend it.

Re: Is Calendly Rude?

#17

It's honestly funny to me that people think it's so rude to send a Calendly link first than a whole new app was made to solve that sole pain point, https://SavvyCal.com

How does this solve the rudeness angle? I’ve read everything and I can only see that they think their UI is pleasant enough that people won’t mind. Which may be true, but that’s not a direct solution.

Re: Is Calendly Rude?

#18
We use Calendly all the time (and love it) and usually present it as 'grab a time that suits you' (or words to that effect). I think that makes it sound like please choose what you'd like, rather than please fill in this form and maybe I'll speak to you. I think that also allows you to avoid the 'or just send me some times that suit you', which I try to avoid because it just ends up in several rounds of diary tennis which is exactly what Calendly solves!

Re: Is Calendly Rude?

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah in that situation, I like to think it really is more efficient and it makes sense to give up preconceptions about etiquette. It seems to me (and I know it's silly) it's fine to use it for more impersonal stuff, but more touchy for scheduling amongst notional peers or people of similar standing, where it sort of automatically signals the requestor is more important than the time picker. One thing to add, I've act…

> it sort of automatically signals the requestor is more important than the time picker This is precisely the problem with Calendly and why I'd never recommend it.

This is a stretch. How does scheduling a meeting turn into an emotional battle?

Re: Is Calendly Rude?

#20
I know it's by the brand, but mentioning "my Calendly link" to your direct family is so stilted it hurts. Just adding a link and saying "this link should show when I'm usually free" is a bit more human. Doesn't spread brand awareness, but your own family is probably not the politest place for doing that.

The language as written in the post implies the recipient has any idea who Calendly is or should care. I don't and I don't, so it comes across rude as now I have to figure out what this thing is you're asking me to do, just to be graced with your presence.

But really, don't treat your family like a business problem.

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