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Comment by greenail | Hacker News Reader

if you flip the script you'd never ask an exec you don't know for a meeting without giving context. This is common courtesy if you do it without seeming demanding.

"Looking forward to our discussion. Can you give me a bit more context for the meeting and an agenda? This way I can be sure to have enough time to properly prepare. Thanks..."

would you say no to that?

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No, but I'd likely say "I haven't met with you in several months, and I just would like to check in with you how things are going. What are your concerns, what makes you happy, what are we missing. This is intentionally freeform, with a focus on whatever is important to you".

There won't be an agenda, because it predetermines possible outcomes.

But it's probably worth considering that even skips for exec-level folks are usually quite senior and should be able to handle an ad-hoc conversation. It's not an approach I'd choose with more junior folks.

The hypothetical reply you gave is still useful, IMO. It's important to distinguish between "there is an agenda, but it hasn't been communicated" and "there's no agenda, just an open free-form conversation" cases.

It would also be good to ask your manager for insight into the meeting since they may already know, and if not then they should be able to find out.

This is a perfectly reasonable email to send, with the expectation that the EA may well ignore it.

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