[Vocabulary] Conference Calls Vocabulary

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nk91

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Hi!

I've been having a lot of conference calls lately and people often tend to discuss things beyond the scheduled time. How should I politely tell people that we are going beyond the stipulated time and its time to wind up.

Thanks,
nk
 

emsr2d2

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Hi!

I've been having a lot of conference calls lately and people often tend to discuss things beyond the scheduled time. How should I politely tell people that we are going beyond the stipulated time and it's time to wind up?

Thanks.

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

I think that by the time you're already over the allotted time, it's a bit too late. What I recommend is that when there are ten minutes to go, you should say something like "I just need to let everyone know that the meeting will end in ten minutes. Let's start to make our conclusions and prepare to wind it up". You can give a similar warning with five minutes to go, and another with one minute to go. You can say it aloud and/or put it in the chat box (if you're on Zoom). If I were the host, I would allow perhaps two minutes over the allotted time and then I would simply end the meeting. People need to learn time management.
 
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nk91

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Haha. Wouldn't it be too harsh to abruptly end the call without any warning? Can I say "we are well over time, so I think we should wind up for now."?
 

emsr2d2

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The problem with that is "I think we should wind up" doesn't make it clear the meeting is over. If you've given three warnings (10 mins, 5 mins, 1 min), I don't think it's unreasonable to simply say "I'm now ending the meeting". You could add "If anyone has anything to add, please circulate it by email".
 
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