Do you have to keep it green and respond right away? I put a meeting in my calendar as “focus time” and then turn off slack. People are usually quite understanding. It also helps to be regular so people know that you are never available around that time.
You might get away with not responding immediately but losing that green status means HR will be asking you to leave or sending you a box for your equipment by the end of the day. Managers (project, product, people) are notorious for demanding always green status icons.
Fake meetings are fine until it is discovered you did a fake meeting. Then you get told not to do that again. They want the appearance of productivity -- they don't want productivity.
> losing that green status means HR will be asking you to leave or sending you a box for your equipment by the end of the day
I genuinely never had that fear in any of the places I worked at (or heard of one!). If that is a cause for termination or being written up, I'd probably look for some place else.
> Fake meetings are fine until it is discovered you did a fake meeting
My meetings are titled "focus time". It’s purely there to communicate to other team members why I may be unavailable during those time. If people need me during that time, they just ask me beforehand and I’m happy to oblige.
