COLUMBUS, OH—The Workplace Calendar Style Consortium, a standards body that governs how meeting invitations are worded, ruled Tuesday that any meeting marked Optional is mandatory.

"Optional describes the invitation, not the attendance," said Consortium Chief Terminologist Dana Hurlbutt. "Attendance is optional. Absence is not."

Under the new guidance, employees who click Decline will receive a short form asking them to explain their decision, a follow-up from Human Resources asking why the form was not more detailed, and a calendar hold titled "Optional: Discuss Declined Optional Meeting."

Calendar systems that follow the standard will also re-add declined meetings automatically, in a new color the Consortium calls Reconsidered.

"I declined a Thursday optional sync four times," said logistics analyst Marcus Telfer. "By Friday I had been promoted to organizer."

The Consortium says the change brings calendars in line with long-standing office practice, in which optional meetings were already attended by everyone afraid of what would be discussed without them. Attendance at optional meetings is now tracked. Employees who skip three will be placed on an Optional Performance Plan, which they may also decline.

The guidance also clarifies the Tentative response, which is now counted as Yes, and the Maybe response, which is now counted as Yes with a note in your file.

Some members questioned whether Optional still means anything. Hurlbutt said the word stays in use for meetings where attendees may choose whether their cameras are on.

"We are not taking choice away," Hurlbutt said. "We are simply making sure everyone chooses to be there."

At press time, the Consortium had scheduled an optional all-hands to discuss the ruling, with a 100 percent confirmed attendance rate.