Excusing Yourself from a Meeting

This past week I wrote a response on how to get out of a meeting on the website Quora. Actually, the person asked how to cancel or flake out of a meeting. You can click here to read the answer.

While many people would consider that, at times, even though they have to attend a meeting, they feel that it is a waste of their time. It is true that some meetings are, in fact a waste of time. And if you feel that you cannot attend (due to valid reasons or a made-up reason) you need to take some steps to avoid any backlash.

Here are the three things you need to do:

1) Contact the chair and other participants stating why you will be "absent" from the meeting.
Here is where you insert your white lie.

2) If there are any materials, information, etc... that is needed for the meeting,
send it directly to the chair or a member that will attend to relay the materials
to the participants.

3) When you "return" request a copy of the minutes and talk with attendees to
get information pertaining to the meeting. If there is any input you feel could
benefit others, you can provide your information to them, as if you actually
were in attendance at the meeting.

For additional reference to this situation, you can click here to read another submitter's answer also on Quora.