It happens to all of us, sometimes by accident, and sometimes by a conscious decision made about ten seconds after our alarm goes off. Everyone in a networking group will miss a meeting due to oversleeping at some point. Whether it is deliberate or accidental, what should you do about it?
Depending on how late you wake up, you have two options. One, go and be late, or two, take the hit of the absence, curl back under the duvet, and enjoy the guilty pleasure of playing truant. My advice: take the duvet.
It may seem odd that in a book dedicated to helping you make the most of your attendance and participation in your group, I recommend a day off. Networking is important, but to be honest, if you are late and rush to get there, the chances of you making a valuable contribution are slim. However, you can use the lateness and absence to your advantage if you wake up while the meeting is still in progress.
The following advice will work if you are rarely absent, like the infrequent appearance of Halley’s Comet, or if your absence is as surprising as a politician telling the truth.
If you are very rarely absent, your fellow Chapter members will sympathise with you. If you are habitually late or absent, these techniques will not work to promote you; they will merely highlight your absence and lack of dedication to the Chapter.
First, send a text message to one of your Chapter members who will deliver your message in a jovial or light-hearted way. Do not send it to members who are serious or unlikely to treat it as fun. The message should be short, explain your absence (admitting to oversleeping), and then add your Memory Hook. For example:
“Not coming today, overslept – ps remember to buy your tyres from me” or “Oops, overslept, won’t be there today, tell the Chapter to remember to buy alarm clock batteries...”
By keeping your message light and short, the recipient will want to read it to the Chapter. Do not be surprised if a few members of your Chapter text you back with their funny messages. They may try to disturb your sleep-in, or as I did when running one meeting, I stopped the meeting and got every member in the room to send the absentee a text at the same time. All sending the same message, “Get up, you lazy toad.” It was all good fun. Remember that your group is a great organisation to be a part of and should be taken seriously, but there is always room for a laugh.
If you wake up very late and the meeting has finished, firstly, you are late for work, and secondly, the text message approach will not work. This is when you turn to email. As soon as convenient, call your Chapter President and Vice President to say “Oops, overslept,” and ask if anything important happened at the meeting that you need to be aware of.
This will not stop you from being absent but will allow you to catch up on anything you missed. It will also show these two members that although you were away, you are still thinking about the meeting. You might also want to arrange to meet with the person who did the 10-minute presentation that you missed.
You should send an email to all the members of your Chapter to apologise for missing the meeting and invite them to let you know of any specific requests they had in their one-minute presentations. Do not include any plugs for your own business in the email. You missed your chance this week by oversleeping, but by asking about their needs, they will see it as a one-off, and many will respond positively.
The final part of dealing with an oversleeping absence is at the next meeting you attend. Be prepared for good-natured ribbing and having your absence referred to by almost every member there. If you think about it, this is a good thing. It means your fellow members care enough to tease you and remembered you were absent. Do not be surprised if the President takes the opportunity to welcome you back and makes a joke about your attendance. You, in turn, should mention your absence in your one-minute presentation, make light of it, or use it as a serious point in your presentation.
Let’s go back to the morning you woke up late. What are you going to do now? Turn over and enjoy an extra hour in bed, or are you going to get up and use the time for productive networking at home?
Think about it. Even if you are slightly late for the real meeting, it does not mean you cannot make use of the time you allocated for networking. You could spend the time writing out a schedule of what you intend to speak about for the next nine weeks or plan what props might enhance those talks. If your ten-minute presentation is looming, you can start planning that, or even spend the time reading a couple of chapters of this book. Although you are missing a meeting, this extra time can be put to good use.
Absence due to oversleeping happens to us all, and if you just shrug your shoulders, turn over, and go back to sleep, you are missing a great opportunity to use this ‘bonus time’ to your advantage.