The Kevin Files · Story 021
A Wednesday Without Meetings
HIMstrata employees will no longer be required to attend routine internal meetings on Wednesdays after an automated scheduling conflict involving senior director Kevin accidentally cleared more than 400 recurring calendar invitations.
The problem began when a standing Wednesday processing reservation was imported into Kevin’s executive calendar as an all-day commitment. Because the scheduling platform treated Kevin as a required attendee on hundreds of recurring invitations, it automatically canceled Wednesday meetings it could not place around the reservation.
Because several departments had been inviting Kevin to meetings as an honorary attendee, the conflict affected employees throughout the organization.
Revenue Operations Manager Ron Kowalski initially requested that IT restore the meetings.
Then the weekly productivity report arrived.
"I won't pretend this was intentional," Kowalski said. "But people got an extraordinary amount done."
Employees had used the uninterrupted time to complete projects, review outstanding claims, and finish work that had repeatedly been delayed by internal meetings.
HIMstrata introduced Strategic Focus Wednesdays on a permanent basis, preserving necessary operational coverage while eliminating routine meeting invitations for the day.
Susan Sprigs welcomed the decision.
"I finished a report before anyone scheduled a meeting to ask how the report was going."
The policy was approved following a 90-minute executive meeting held Tuesday afternoon.
Kevin continues to decline Wednesday invitations.