God, why are people so freaking meeting-happy?

[StageLeft]

I just blew 1:37 in a meeting which I didn't need to be in. I actually have work to do to. I lose about an average of an hour/day in freaking meetings. One lady who calls them actually likes to - gasp - get things done, and have us out of there, but often I find myself in a meeting about something that revolves around 2 of the 5-6 people there discussing something and the rest of us sitting there like dicks wasting time and money. The part is the wasted time. Especially when a person has a deadline the last thing they want to do is sit in a meeting totally unrelated to them. Grr.

 

[melly]

I bet you waste more time on the forums

 

[UNCjigga]

My boss is the worst. He calls an early meeting at 8:30am so it doesn't interfere with our regular workday. Then he shows up late, doesn't have an agenda, answers his phone in the middle of speaking, ducks out to check his email (leaves us smirking and sighing) and wastes over 2 hours of time. At least our conference room has comfy chairs.

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
I just blew 1:37 in a meeting which I didn't need to be in. I actually have work to do to. I lose about an average of an hour/day in freaking meetings. One lady who calls them actually likes to - gasp - get things done, and have us out of there, but often I find myself in a meeting about something that revolves around 2 of the 5-6 people there discussing something and the rest of us sitting there like dicks wasting time and money. The part is the wasted time. Especially when a person has a deadline the last thing they want to do is sit in a meeting totally unrelated to them. Grr.

I am sick of meetings here at work. Have a 2.5 hour meeting tomorrow and we will probably get absolutely nothing done.

 

[waggy]

yeap. i hated meetings. we woul dhave meetings every morning to talk about what we got done the day before.

it was silly. i spent on avarage about 3 hours a day in a meeting. sheesh.

at least we either got lunch or breakfast for free!

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: xmellyx
I bet you waste more time on the forums

That's MY time, and I Need it to stay "productive".

 

[CraigRT]

LOL, Dude.. I hate that soooo much
my biggest pet peeve is when I get an email saying that it's about to start in 5 minutes... I usually try to scramble and get really busy just before the meeting so that I don't have to go in (since it's USELESS ANYWAYS) but sometimes it's to no avail, and I still have to sit there for 2 hours and practically fall asleep...

SUCKS!!!
bah!

 

[Saulbadguy]

Our boss calls an 8:30 meeting every thursday. He shows up at 9:00 usually. He talks very...very...slow. Meetings usually last 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Pointless. I'd rather sit here and do nothing.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: waggy
yeap. i hated meetings. we woul dhave meetings every morning to talk about what we got done the day before.

it was silly. i spent on avarage about 3 hours a day in a meeting. sheesh.

at least we either got lunch or breakfast for free!

Holy crap what a waste of time. We have a status meeting every week. They don't happen 1/3 of the time. But, this morning I had a status meeting for my current project, so it was relevant to me and took about 15 minutes. Then I had to sit in on the general status meeting and listen to where everybody else is. How relevant is that to me? It's not.

 

[new2AMD]

I cant even begin to explain the time wasted at meetings where I work. I just blew one off because I knew I wouldnt be a contributor and I have things I need to get done.

 

[Bryophyte]

My husband gets fed up with those type of meetings. His response is to wait through the first of the meeting (maybe 10-20 mins tops) to find out if he's wasting his time, then to stand up and walk out. Sometimes they ask why, and he tells them that he has work to do and the meeting does not involve him. Nobody has been offended yet...

 

[PatboyX]

i had a meeting today to discuss the possibility of more meetings.

 

[CChaos]

I'm incredibly lucky in this regard. We have a weekly group meeting on Monday mornings that has been cancelled for the last 3 months running. I pretty much just have a couple of projects to work on and then I'm on my own. I'm as close as I can be to a man of leisure and still be at work.

 

[trmiv]

Sounds exactly like my work, they looooooooooove meetings here. We have our weekly staff meeting in which I sit there and say nothing, while the sales people ramble on and on about sh!t I couldn't care less about. I have no clue what my purpose is in the meeting, because I rarely even say anything. I'm just glad I'm not in sales, they have like 5-6 meetings a week. Staff meeting, sales meeting, product meeting, reseller meeting. I'd go nuts.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: Saulbadguy
Our boss calls an 8:30 meeting every thursday. He shows up at 9:00 usually. He talks very...very...slow. Meetings usually last 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Pointless. I'd rather sit here and do nothing.

i stopped going to meetings if they start earlier the 11am or end later then 5:30.

if i get a direct invite i just decline them.

 

[ElFenix]

we should have a meeting to discuss why meetings suck

 

[azazyel]

Half the time I just want to yell STFU! They talk endlessly about something that isn't even an issue or about how to fix things that aren't even broken.

 

[andylawcc]

God, why are people so freaking meeting-happy?

maybe you will have to ask yourself why are you so freaking meeting-unhappy...

I bet you waste more time on the forums

BAM! u = wONEnner!




and yeah, Meeting sucks royal cocks.

 

[trmiv]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: waggy
yeap. i hated meetings. we woul dhave meetings every morning to talk about what we got done the day before.

it was silly. i spent on avarage about 3 hours a day in a meeting. sheesh.

at least we either got lunch or breakfast for free!

Holy crap what a waste of time. We have a status meeting every week. They don't happen 1/3 of the time. But, this morning I had a status meeting for my current project, so it was relevant to me and took about 15 minutes. Then I had to sit in on the general status meeting and listen to where everybody else is. How relevant is that to me? It's not.

That's how our "staff" meetings are. People updating on how their projects are going. I'm in technical support, I could give a rat's ass how the sales people are dealing with their resellers, or hearing an update about the number of sales leads we picked up this month.

 

[GasX]

Often, my most productive part of the day is in meetings - the more useless the meeting the better.

I pull out my notepad and put together to-do lists, prioritize the rest of my day, etc... It's kind of a zen experience doing work while people drone on in the background about vendor problems, lack of resources and slipping timelines...

 

[freegeeks]

I have these weekly meetings that take 2-3 hours

My tactic is simple, when the meeting begins, I push the points that involves ME to the top of agenda
My points normally only take 15-30 minutes and when they are discussed I just stand up and leave. The first time they look a bit weird at you but now they are getting used to it.

I also NEVER accept a meeting - the Tentative and Decline buttons are your friend

 

[bunker]

My boss is forever pissed at me. I never go to meetings. My excuse? I was doing something that sucks a lot of my cpu so I shut down Outlook and didn't get the reminder.

I actually do something like that maybe once a month.

 

[Mr N8]

My boss has decided recently that her meetings should start at 7am, so they are done earlier in the work day. :|

The meetings still last 2-3 hours, because she can't stick to an agenda or sometimes forgets to even make one. Then we end up rehashing everything that has already been discussed in the last two meetings. I've now recommended she use her laptop and the projector, so she can walk through an agenda and have it visible to everyone. We'll see what happens with that.

 

[kranky]

Meetings - The practical alternative to work!

I'm another person who walks out of poorly-run meetings. Luckily I have enough clout to get away with it, and it brings embarrassment to the meeting organizer.

There are a few of us at work who got fed up a couple years ago with interminable, rambling, incoherent meetings and we started emailing the CEO about it. He asked us which regularly-held meetings had problems, and he started occasionally "sitting in" unannounced. That really shook people up, and those of us who had complained behind the scenes started passing the word that he only does that with meetings which he thinks aren't being run well.

He never had to say a word. If he shows up at a meeting, the organizer already knows the CEO suspects it's a poorly-run meeting, and generally there is instant improvement. But I still don't hesitate to walk out.

On those occasions when I don't rank high enough to leave, I bring my Tablet PC with WiFi, and get to work at about 75% efficiency anyway by working on reports, answering emails, etc. That's the way to go!

 

[CaffeineAndStuff]

Take the chairs out of the meeting rooms - that limits meeting length.