So, given my first three days on the job and my outlook for the rest of this week it seems that I will be averaging between three and four hours of meetings each day. This is insane! See, our group is currently dealing with a LOT of different projects for DOE and our philosophy is that incorporating more brainpower into the planning process for each project will make it more successful. The result is that I am going to lots of meetings and accomplishing very little in the way of work.
I used to work with a guy who said that companies should eliminate all chairs from conference rooms and that would make meetings shorter. I think that would just make everyone resent their coworkers that much more for making them stand around. Personally, I think we should develop a computer program that calculates the per-minute salary of everyone attending a meeting and then displays a running tally of meeting cost on an electronic banner in each conference room.
Meanwhile, I just pushed back for the first time and informed my boss that I will NOT be going to DOE's staff update meeting tomorrow. I don't need more information - I need time to put what information I've been able to assimilate to good use. Once I've produced a some value, then maybe I'll consider heaping more meetings onto my plate. For now, I'm gonna keep my head down and try to eek out some productivity. Wish me luck.
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1 comment:
you know there's a book called death by meeting? and not only has mike read it, but he enforces it big time. you should give your boss a copy for christmas :)
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