Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Meeting overload – how many do you have daily/weekly?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 111 posts

Re: Ask HN: Meeting overload – how many do you have daily/weekly?

#61

Post by jedberg »

> For OP, it's a twice monthly 4 hour meeting with ALL product and engineering sr. mgrs and directors - FML

This sounds pretty dysfunctional. Is that a productive meeting?

I was involved in an "all leadership" type meeting that was heading in that direction, and then we switched to a memo based meeting.

Everyone wrote their update in a Google Doc, each team had a section. The expectation was that you read the memo before coming to the meeting.

Then we had an agenda with specific time blocks for each topic, and the expectation was that you came for the topics that were relevant to you, and it was totally acceptable to come and go in the middle.

The meeting was scheduled for three hours, but almost no one came for the entire three hours, and usually we didn't have enough topics to fill it all anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Meeting overload – how many do you have daily/weekly?

#63

Post by flancian »

I'm an engineering manager with a team of six and a cross-functional project. I seem to average 15 hours of scheduled meetings a week, plus impromptu one offs (firefighting, escalations). I find it quite draining: meetings and email don't leave a lot of time for project work. I like my job, though.

Re: Ask HN: Meeting overload – how many do you have daily/weekly?

#64

Post by mccolin »

I'm a technical project lead at a small consulting firm. I manage the engineering efforts of two independent projects with team sizes ranging from two to eight engineers.

I have about 8 hours of regularly scheduled meetings (standups, sprint reviews, delivery meetings) with 2-4 hours of "as needed" meetings (client sync, etc.) in a given week, with 1-2 hours of company meetings, too. This does not count one-off help sessions and "fire fights."

Re: Ask HN: Meeting overload – how many do you have daily/weekly?

#65

Post by castillar76 »

It's pretty horrendous. It got to the point in the fall that I had a couple days a week on average that were 100% meetings, wall to wall. I finally went through and blocked out my lunch hour and all of Friday, shoving meetings around to crowd the rest of the week so that I could have some uninterrupted time at least once a week to catch up on all the stuff I couldn't do while sitting in meetings. Even then, I still have to make exceptions into that for last-minute meetings, although at least then it's my choice to do it.

One thing I'm trying to get better about is not attending all of the weekly/bi-weekly "let's just check in with each other" meetings. If I'm not attending I let them know so they can pull me in if needed, but otherwise I make those meetings more of the "if I'm not actively engaged in deep work, I'll be there" priority level. FOMO is real, but I'm combating it with the satisfaction of seeing servers up and code running. :)

Re: Ask HN: Meeting overload – how many do you have daily/weekly?

#66

Post by nilkn »

Jemaclus wrote: post #58

I'm a director at my company. I spend all day, every day in meetings, with the exception of Friday afternoons. I typically spend that time just thinking about everything that happened in the week and writing down thoughts and things to deal with for the next week. I'd say 75% of those are pre-planned a week or more in advance, and the rest just pop up as people want to talk to me. I often just have to reply "If you c…

Many companies criminally underhire talented technical PMs and team assistants. The latter in particular are fantastic and you’d be amazed just how much can be handed off to them. You can completely transform how much time you have for people by investing more in these areas.

The phrase “executive assistant” is just one huge mistake. It makes the role sound like a secretary to one person, which makes people think they shouldn’t have one until they’re overburdened to the point of being completely ineffective at their job. In fact, even small- or medium-sized teams can benefit immensely by having a team assistant who can handle tons of logistics and odds and ends for everyone on the team.

Re: Ask HN: Meeting overload – how many do you have daily/weekly?

#67

Post by Redsquare »

lbruder wrote: post #25

Infrastructure architect: Five 20 minute "standups" per day, plus a seven hour meeting once a month. Add about 20 hour-long ad hoc meetings a month. Just let me do actual work dammit.

Five 20 minute "standups" per day....#fragile

Re: Ask HN: Meeting overload – how many do you have daily/weekly?

#68

Post by castillar76 »

Jemaclus wrote: post #58

I'm a director at my company. I spend all day, every day in meetings, with the exception of Friday afternoons. I typically spend that time just thinking about everything that happened in the week and writing down thoughts and things to deal with for the next week. I'd say 75% of those are pre-planned a week or more in advance, and the rest just pop up as people want to talk to me. I often just have to reply "If you c…

This was what my old boss had to deal with a couple years ago. With 18 direct reports, there simply wasn't enough time for 1:1s with everyone regularly, and he had some entry-level folks that really needed the weekly attention. He finally got management to fund the structure underneath him, divided the org into service groups, and added managers. It was a difficult transition for the people being moved into those groups. My advice: handle your transition sensitively, especially with people who have worked for you for a long time. It's hard not to perceive a move like that as a demotion, so be gentle and receptive, and involve them as much as you can in picking the new managers.

Re: Ask HN: Meeting overload – how many do you have daily/weekly?

#69

Post by castillar76 »

nilkn wrote: post #66
Jemaclus wrote: post #58

I'm a director at my company. I spend all day, every day in meetings, with the exception of Friday afternoons. I typically spend that time just thinking about everything that happened in the week and writing down thoughts and things to deal with for the next week. I'd say 75% of those are pre-planned a week or more in advance, and the rest just pop up as people want to talk to me. I often just have to reply "If you c…

Many companies criminally underhire talented technical PMs and team assistants. The latter in particular are fantastic and you’d be amazed just how much can be handed off to them. You can completely transform how much time you have for people by investing more in these areas. The phrase “executive assistant” is just one huge mistake. It makes the role sound like a secretary to one person, which makes people think the…

Too right! Having a good XO (2i/c) can make a huge difference, whether it's a PM or an executive assistant. My old boss was able to hand off a lot of the "figure out the budget and manage our spend" tasks to his right-hand PM and it made a HUGE difference. Not only was he a lot more relaxed knowing that was in good hands, we were all suddenly a lot happier knowing the budget was getting someone's regular, undivided attention!

Re: Ask HN: Meeting overload – how many do you have daily/weekly?

#70

Post by dahx4Eev »

nilkn wrote: post #66
Jemaclus wrote: post #58

I'm a director at my company. I spend all day, every day in meetings, with the exception of Friday afternoons. I typically spend that time just thinking about everything that happened in the week and writing down thoughts and things to deal with for the next week. I'd say 75% of those are pre-planned a week or more in advance, and the rest just pop up as people want to talk to me. I often just have to reply "If you c…

Many companies criminally underhire talented technical PMs and team assistants. The latter in particular are fantastic and you’d be amazed just how much can be handed off to them. You can completely transform how much time you have for people by investing more in these areas. The phrase “executive assistant” is just one huge mistake. It makes the role sound like a secretary to one person, which makes people think the…

Who will be assigning tasks to a team assistant?
Post reply on HN