My Boss Always Cancels Our Meetings: How to Handle It and Other Tricky Workplace Situations
Few things are more frustrating at work than carving out time on your calendar for an important meeting — only to watch it disappear with a last-minute cancellation notice. If your manager, especially a high-level executive like a CEO, is constantly canceling your one-on-one meetings, performance reviews, and briefings, you're likely wondering: is this normal? Are you being unreasonable for feeling overlooked? And what, if anything, can you actually do about it?
This guide walks you through how to handle a boss who chronically cancels meetings, how to navigate the awkward reality of a smelly coworker you don't even know well, and other common workplace dilemmas that can feel surprisingly difficult to address.
When Your Boss Keeps Canceling Your Meetings
If your manager is a CEO or another senior executive with eight or more direct reports and a packed schedule full of key clients and critical projects, canceled meetings are, unfortunately, part of the territory. That doesn't make it less inconvenient — but understanding the dynamics at play can help you stop taking it personally and start addressing it strategically.
Important vs. Urgent: Understanding Your Boss's Priorities
One of the most important distinctions to internalize is the difference between what is important and what is urgent. Your weekly one-on-one with your manager is absolutely important — it's how you align on priorities, get feedback, discuss roadblocks, and maintain a productive working relationship. But from a CEO's vantage point, a crisis with a key client or an unexpected board issue will nearly always register as more urgent in the moment, bumping your standing meeting off the calendar.
The busier your manager, the more often you'll experience this. Choosing to roll with it — rather than internalizing each cancellation as a personal slight — will genuinely improve your day-to-day experience at work. That said, rolling with it is different from accepting a complete absence of manager access.
The Key Question: Are Meetings Being Rescheduled?
Here's the real diagnostic question you need to ask yourself: when your boss cancels, do those meetings actually get rescheduled? There's a meaningful difference between these two scenarios.
- Meetings get canceled but rescheduled: This is inconvenient, but it's a fairly normal feature of working under a very busy executive. Adjust your expectations and build flexibility into how you think about your schedule.
- Meetings get canceled and never rescheduled: This is a legitimate problem. If your performance reviews, pre-client briefings, and one-on-ones simply vanish without being rescheduled, your ability to do your own job effectively is being undermined — and you have every right to address it.
If it's the latter situation, raise it directly but professionally. You might say something like: "I've noticed our one-on-ones have been getting canceled frequently and I want to make sure I'm staying aligned with your priorities. Is there a better format or time that would work more consistently for you?" This frames the conversation around their needs and your effectiveness, rather than as a complaint.
How to Protect Your Access to Your Manager
If canceled meetings are becoming a pattern that's genuinely impeding your work, there are a few practical steps you can take beyond simply waiting and hoping.
Shorten the Meeting to Make It Easier to Keep
A 30-minute standing one-on-one is much easier for a busy executive to protect than a 60-minute slot. Consider proposing a condensed format — even 15 to 20 minutes — with a tight agenda sent in advance. The easier you make it to attend, the less likely it is to become a casualty of a packed schedule.
Leverage Asynchronous Communication
When synchronous time is hard to come by, lean into asynchronous tools. A brief written update shared before or after a canceled meeting — via email, Slack, or a shared document — keeps your manager informed and demonstrates your initiative. Over time, this can actually build more visibility than a meeting that gets rescheduled perpetually.
Identify Other Moments of Access
With a CEO-level manager, informal moments — a few minutes before a team meeting starts, a walk between offices, a brief Slack message — can substitute for formal one-on-one time when necessary. These shouldn't replace structured check-ins entirely, but they can help you stay connected and visible when calendar time is scarce.
Navigating the Smelly Coworker Problem
Another surprisingly common and genuinely awkward workplace situation: what do you do when a coworker has a noticeable body odor issue, and you don't even know them well enough to have an established rapport?
This is one of those situations where most people freeze because all available options feel uncomfortable. Saying something feels invasive. Saying nothing feels unkind in its own way, especially if the person is unaware of how they're being perceived. And going to a manager feels like tattling.
Should You Say Something Directly?
In most cases, a brief, private, and kind word is the most respectful approach — both to the person's dignity and to their professional reputation. The closer your working relationship, the more appropriate it is to say something directly. If this is someone you genuinely don't know, the calculus shifts. In that case, flagging it quietly to HR or a manager who knows the individual — framing it as concern for the person rather than a complaint — may be the more appropriate path.
How to Frame the Conversation
If you do decide to say something yourself, keep it brief, private, and compassionate. There is no perfect script, but leading with good intent — "I wanted to mention this privately because I'd want someone to tell me" — acknowledges the awkwardness and signals that your motive is consideration, not cruelty.
The Bigger Picture: Advocating for Yourself at Work
Both of these situations — the canceling boss and the awkward coworker dynamic — point to a broader workplace skill: knowing when and how to advocate for yourself and others without creating unnecessary conflict. Whether you're pushing back (diplomatically) on a pattern of canceled meetings or navigating a sensitive conversation about a coworker's hygiene, the underlying principles are similar.
- Address the issue with the person closest to it first, when possible.
- Frame concerns around impact and solutions, not grievances.
- Choose private, direct communication over group settings or passive avoidance.
- Accept that some discomfort is unavoidable — and that tolerating brief discomfort now often prevents much larger problems later.
Working relationships are rarely frictionless. The people who navigate them most successfully aren't the ones who avoid every awkward moment — they're the ones who've developed the confidence and communication skills to address small problems before they become big ones. Whether it's a canceled meeting or a sensitive conversation, leaning in is almost always more effective than hoping the issue resolves itself.