Meetings

[glocke12]

A little bit of a vent here, but I am also curious because I am sure there are people here who are the opposite of me, that enjoy meetings.

In the past 2-3 years I have seen the amount of time I spend at meetings on a weekly basis increase many fold.

2-3 years ago I probably had 1 or 2 meetings a month, each last two hours.

So far this year I am now spending on average 6-8 hours a WEEK in meetings.
I work in a lab, as a bench scientist. I am not a manager, have no direct reports, my job is to produce results.

Many of these are two hour "formal" meetings. By formal I mean there are powerpoint slides, minutes that are taken, etc...

Most of what is discussed at these meetings are items that can be taken care of with either a short phone call, or better yet emails.

Im curious to hear from other people on either side, those that enjoy meetings and those like me, who think most of them are a complete waste of time.

 

[GoCubsGo]

I hate them and they're a waste of time 99% of the time. I don't need to discuss that ****ing e-mail you sent out last week. I have no feelings and I'm going to do whatever I'm told and I would expect as the **** rolls down hill that others follow my lead.

In the end, happy to have a job and I'm not going to **** on anyone's toes just because I'm cranky about meetings.

 

[iJohnHenry]

Save yourself some grief.

One rule, no agenda, no attendance.

If the ego calling the meeting cannot create an agenda, that tells me all I need to know.

 

[eljanitor]

A little bit of a vent here, but I am also curious because I am sure there are people here who are the opposite of me, that enjoy meetings.

In the past 2-3 years I have seen the amount of time I spend at meetings on a weekly basis increase many fold.

2-3 years ago I probably had 1 or 2 meetings a month, each last two hours.

So far this year I am now spending on average 6-8 hours a WEEK in meetings.
I work in a lab, as a bench scientist. I am not a manager, have no direct reports, my job is to produce results.

Many of these are two hour "formal" meetings. By formal I mean there are powerpoint slides, minutes that are taken, etc...

Most of what is discussed at these meetings are items that can be taken care of with either a short phone call, or better yet emails.

Im curious to hear from other people on either side, those that enjoy meetings and those like me, who think most of them are a complete waste of time.

Do you get paid while you are at the meetings? I worked at a place that would have after hour company meetings, and they were mandatory. There was no pay for these meetings, it was company time on your time. If you didn't attend you may be placed high on the chopping block when it came time for downsizing. Sometimes even though I could have thought of many other places I'd rather be on "my time" sometimes something good would come out of it.

I worked at other places where we had to attend meetings, however it could be rather nice. You get to stop what you're doing for awhile, get some coffee, water, perhaps a doughnut or pastry. You could sit back and just kinda go blank when it didn't pertain to you in anyway.

 

[MacNut]

It depends on the meeting, sometimes you can get more done with dialogue at a face to face meeting that you just can't do with email. Quick question and answer you don't need to hold a meeting.

 

[maflynn]

In an old job, 2 or 3 meetings a day to discuss why the project I'm working on is moving hint: because I'm in meetings every day all day

Another time, I had to have meetings to plan for meetings, which makes no sense at all. Lets have a meeting to plan and discuss the next meetings agenda.

No they're mostly uses and used only by people who cannot justify their existence in the corporate so they make up busy time, i.e., meetings.

In my current job, I avoid them like the plague and it works, I usually just decline them and work on the servers as is my job.

 

[iJohnHenry]

No they're mostly useless and used only by people who cannot justify their existence in the corporate so they make up busy time, i.e., meetings.

Fixed.

And you are late for your meeting.

 

[Don't panic]

A little bit of a vent here, but I am also curious because I am sure there are people here who are the opposite of me, that enjoy meetings.

In the past 2-3 years I have seen the amount of time I spend at meetings on a weekly basis increase many fold.

2-3 years ago I probably had 1 or 2 meetings a month, each last two hours.

So far this year I am now spending on average 6-8 hours a WEEK in meetings.
I work in a lab, as a bench scientist. I am not a manager, have no direct reports, my job is to produce results.

Many of these are two hour "formal" meetings. By formal I mean there are powerpoint slides, minutes that are taken, etc...

Most of what is discussed at these meetings are items that can be taken care of with either a short phone call, or better yet emails.

Im curious to hear from other people on either side, those that enjoy meetings and those like me, who think most of them are a complete waste of time.

is this a company or academia?

 

[glocke12]

is this a company or academia?

a pharma company...

 

[heehee]

Internal meetings are setup by peeps who has nothing better to do.

 

[vincenz]

Internal meetings are setup by peeps who has nothing better to do.

By people who hold meetings to discuss when to hold meetings.

 

[h1r0ll3r]

My meetings are nothing but pissing matches between heads of departments over who does the most work while trying to pawn off their work onto other departments. There is no real advancement that takes place in our meetings. We would take notes/minutes but it probably wouldn't take up more than a post-it note. On the plus side, free lunch is always provided

 

[joec1101]

In an old job, 2 or 3 meetings a day to discuss why the project I'm working on is moving hint: because I'm in meetings every day all day

Another time, I had to have meetings to plan for meetings, which makes no sense at all. Lets have a meeting to plan and discuss the next meetings agenda.

No they're mostly uses and used only by people who cannot justify their existence in the corporate so they make up busy time, i.e., meetings.

In my current job, I avoid them like the plague and it works, I usually just decline them and work on the servers as is my job.

This x 1000!

Most meetings are the biggest waste of time ever. They are typically initiated by corporate ******s who have nothing to do so they have "meetings" to look like they're actually earning their paycheck! Corporate America really blows anymore...

 

[ergdegdeg]

I guess I'm the opposite here. I work for a small, specialized software development group at a university and I have about two meetings a week, both of which I think are useful.

The first one is with the client and we discuss requirements and what to implement next. The second one is with my boss to discuss problems and other objectives not related to the current main project.

This all doesn't mean that I haven't sat through a fair amount of useless, boring and unproductive meetings, but I'm quite happy with my situation right now.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I have been multiple meetings that afterwards I felt like were a complete waste of time.
That being said some meetings I find are very helpful. Normally meetings were everyone gets together mostly to update everyone else on what they are working on and what is coming up in the next week. I find weekly staff meetings can be useful is done right. Those I feel should be done on Monday morning before the day really kicks off because it still in that wasted time space of Monday as you are getting back into the week and a good chance to figure out what everyone else is working on and what is coming up in next week.
But yes to many meetings are done for meetings and nothing really gets done and just a waste of an afternoon getting ready for the meeting followed by the meeting. Afterwards really not enough time to finish anything so the afternoon is shot.