Joined a small company at the start of the pandemic and have enjoyed it, great bunch of people and the small nature of the company meant there was flexibility and involvement in different roles.
The company has since been bought by a huge multinational, and of course our employment contracts, HR etc is now all centralised.
As part of this we all got a million invites to “lunch and learn” throughout the year (at least one a week), which are dial in via teams. Now, firstly a pedantic point, I thought a lunch and learn is where an employer provides lunch and is another way to bullshit more training in over your lunch break. Obviously this isn’t happening remotely.
Secondly, my lunch break is unpaid (1hr a day), and I usually take it away from my desk to go for a walk, and you know enjoy my life where I can.
Now my main gripe is we all got an email from our CEO (who just sold) strongly suggesting that we attend these, they’re trackable and they know how much each person is doing training wise. Basically turning it into a mandatory meeting.
While working from home I plan to just take my lunch hour afterwards but the ones that fall in the office, how should I approach this. Personally I think it’s total bs.