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Pointless work meetings 'really a form of therapy'

bbc.com

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Re: Pointless work meetings 'really a form of therapy'

#51

Post by altacc »

Nokinside wrote: post #36

Since this is Swedish study, I just want to point out that Swedish organizational culture is very meeting and consensus oriented. Nordic cultures may seem very similar, but their organizational cultures are different even within the same company. Others are often frustrated about Swedes and their endless meetings. Finns in the meeting are 'OK. lets do this.' and Swedes reply 'But Jan-Erik has not shared his point of…

So true! I work across Scandinavia and there are definitely more consensus forming meetings in Sweden than elsewhere, even. Having previously worked in US & UK companies I'm still not used to it and I often feel like banging my head against the table and crying out "Will somebody please make a decision!". But of course this is Sweden, no single person will make a decision. I'm sure they think I'm terribly rude.

Re: Pointless work meetings 'really a form of therapy'

#52

Post by WhompingWindows »

asaph wrote: post #5

People should decline pointless meetings.

An interesting idea...supposedly at Tesla and SpaceX, Elon recommended that anyone who found a meeting to be pointless should get up and leave immediately. I don't know if that's still the practice, maybe someone from those companies can chime in.

Re: Pointless work meetings 'really a form of therapy'

#53

Post by throwaway68AC2 »

I feel fairly alarmed and skeptical at the idea of managers being therapists, not because I think it’s a bad idea — in fact I think it ought to be a good one — but because in my experience, most of the folks asking for your vulnerability in the business world aren’t willing to off any in turn.

Re: Pointless work meetings 'really a form of therapy'

#54

Post by tomrod »

bloopernova wrote: post #16
lukethomas wrote: post #3

There's some truth to this, but holy smokes, another meeting is not the cure. There is value in "venting" at work. A few years ago I built a software tool that pings people at the end of the week asking how their week went. Some of the quietest people in the company had the most to say when they were behind a screen. In fact, some people literally called it therapeutic. It turns out that writing things down can serve…

> Some of the quietest people in the company had the most to say when they were behind a screen. This is very much me. I am an introvert, and despite being a team lead, will get run over by louder more assertive folks. I'm learning to stick up for myself (only been a lead for 2 months) but it's a long road. With an email or chat, I can reformulate what I mean to say multiple times. Refine my message and make it clear…

You sound similar to me a few years back!

Here is what I did (suggested by a boss who was magic with meeting effectiveness), YMMV:

- Come to meetings with a short list of decisions to be made or expected contributions

- Bring suggested resolutions if I owned the meeting / was primary technical resource / team lead and had some to suggest -- and communicate that these are the default in absence of consensus or buy-in

- Put discussion time allotted stacked to each decision to be made (moderately flexible)

- Always end meetings early if no more content is to be discussed

Meeting agendas can be powerful.

Re: Pointless work meetings 'really a form of therapy'

#56

Post by xxs »

cabraca wrote: post #32
holstvoogd wrote: post #14

I call BS. Meetings make me lose the will to live & drove me to quitting my job multiple times. If you want to make sure I don''t do anything during the day, put in a meeting in the middle of it. Perhaps it helps people who have pointless jobs that create no value?

I call your BS call :) There is nothing better than a day with nicely spaced meetings My current Project on every second wednesday: 10:00-10:30 Daily Standup 11:00-12:00 Architect Jour Fix 12:00-12:30 Lunchbreak 13:00-14:00 Sprint Retro 15:00-16:00 Sprint Planning Most of the gaps have a reason (conflicting meetings, etc) We use those gaps to "transfer knowledge". That basically means we sit in the cafeteria chatting…

>12:00-12:30 Lunchbreak

Too short. An hour or bust. Actually, I am quite serious about. It's great to have time, go out and eat - business lunch in the area are decent to put it mildly.

Re: Pointless work meetings 'really a form of therapy'

#57

Post by jka »

eeZah7Ux wrote: post #27
jka wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is, in part, suggesting that it's exactly those kind of status-conscious people who benefit from 'meeting therapy': "Academics from the University of Malmo in Sweden say meetings provide an outlet for people at work to show off their status or to express frustration." But yep, that might not be ideal for a participant who would prefer to be making progress on something else. I've seen a bunch of tech comp…

"outlet for people at work" hints that benefits everybody, or the majority. "outlet for management" sounds quite different.

Yep; I'd imagine that's an intentional distinction by the author. Some people might act this way regardless of whether they move between a management or individual contributor role.

Re: Pointless work meetings 'really a form of therapy'

#58

Post by arkitaip »

cabraca wrote: post #32
holstvoogd wrote: post #14

I call BS. Meetings make me lose the will to live & drove me to quitting my job multiple times. If you want to make sure I don''t do anything during the day, put in a meeting in the middle of it. Perhaps it helps people who have pointless jobs that create no value?

I call your BS call :) There is nothing better than a day with nicely spaced meetings My current Project on every second wednesday: 10:00-10:30 Daily Standup 11:00-12:00 Architect Jour Fix 12:00-12:30 Lunchbreak 13:00-14:00 Sprint Retro 15:00-16:00 Sprint Planning Most of the gaps have a reason (conflicting meetings, etc) We use those gaps to "transfer knowledge". That basically means we sit in the cafeteria chatting…

When do you do actual work?

Re: Pointless work meetings 'really a form of therapy'

#59

Post by sargram01 »

There’s also the class of pointless meeting where nontechnical managers don’t understand what they’re responsible for so use them to as a way to “manage by feel”. They call them to see what people’s reactions are to fishing questions to judge the situation, and to use them as training sessions. These I find to be the most counterproductive meetings.

Re: Pointless work meetings 'really a form of therapy'

#60

Post by Nursie »

> Academics from the University of Malmo in Sweden say meetings provide an outlet for people at work to show off their status or to express frustration.

Yup, see this all the time, and it's one of the reasons I try to avoid most of them. Nothing gets done, half the people aren't really prepared, and the usual outcome is the guys with the biggest egos sound off and make themselves feel important and everyone else just has a good old moan.

It may be therapy for them, but I'd rather not be there, thanks!

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