Time-wasting Meetings

One night while I was doing OT at my workplace, I saw one of my favourite Manager from a neighbouring department. I casually asked why he was still at work, so late at night.
His reply was "Work hours are for meetings, After-Work hours are for doing work".

How true to an extent. meetings are hard to avoid in corporate lives. What amaze me is how time-consuming and unproductive most meetings are.

I shall just state some of my common observation of time-wasting meetings.

(1) Chinese Wedding problem
Meetings hardly start on time, especially for departments that are busy fighting fire. Waiting for the rest is a waste of time, and people normally end up chatting.

(2) Going off topic
Every meeting should have a clear agenda. As with chatting, it is easy to lose focus on a topic and stray away from the topic. This is why the chairman of the meeting MUST help to get all the stray sheeps back on track.

(3) Its none of my business
In big meetings, where attendees are potentially from different departments, chances are that certain people will only be interested in certain agendas. They can't POOKING bother with the other agenda. Its impossible to capture everyone's interest in EVERY item, so some things could be taken offline if discussion on the topic takes too long.

(4) Grandmother's story
Everyone should go for a course on public speaking. Or maybe join the Toastmaster's club. Go to the point. Its not how long you talk, but how you focus our attention. The more you say, the less I remember, and the more I will curse at you after the meeting. ^_^

I always believe that OT are in most cases unneccessary.
Late-stayers are either
(a) slow at work
(b) genuinely overwork
(c) unproductive at work, partly due to attending long meetings.

The next time you attend the meeting and the chairman doesn't seem to be doing a good job at controlling the length of the meeting, ask yourself.
Is there something you can do without appearing as a career suicider?



Go home early.
Your family miss you.