How to keep engineers out of meeting hell
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How to keep engineers out of meeting hell
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Re: How to keep engineers out of meeting hell
#2So.. uhh, I’m just.. D-Do we need a meeting for this? Do we want something weekly or?
Re: How to keep engineers out of meeting hell
#3So.. uhh, I’m just.. D-Do we need a meeting for this? Do we want something weekly or?
My favorite is "I hate to add another meeting to our calendars, but..."
Re: How to keep engineers out of meeting hell
#4“An engineer’s impact during a meeting is less tangible compared to coding”
The common disdain to meetings is that in many meetings no one has a tangible impact while an engineer can create tangible value in their “regular” stated mission. If reading this makes you feel offended then don’t worry, it’s surely not your meetings… only those organized by functionaries whose sole contribution is organizing open ended meetings with no impact.
Re: How to keep engineers out of meeting hell
#5“How do we know when we’re finished” is the most important question maybe ever.
Re: How to keep engineers out of meeting hell
#6Have weekdays where booked meetings are not allowed. This gives you a ground truth to compare meeting heavy days against.
Re: How to keep engineers out of meeting hell
#7One of the first things I do as an IC when joining a team is establish whether law of two feet applies. That is, if you're in a meeting which you can't contribute anything to you get up and leave. Even better is to have this conversation at a time when everyone's present so there's no ambiguity. When the answer's not yes it's almost always a signal of bad things over the horizon.
Re: How to keep engineers out of meeting hell
#8Isn't pair programming just one, endless meeting?
Re: How to keep engineers out of meeting hell
#9I actively fight against meeting hell. If I get a meeting request without a specific agenda (I don't split hairs with the definition of "agenda" or "outcome" like the article though), I ask for one and don't accept it otherwise. If the agenda makes it clear that this can be answered via email, I answer it and decline.
If I'm in a meeting that seemed reasonable for me to attend, but I'm not adding/receiving value, or the meeting is straying from the agenda topics, I'll ask what input is needed from me or leave a message in the chat that I'm dropping and to ping me when needed.
I also decline meeting requests outside of my working hours (unless it's with someone too many time zones away for our workdays to overlap). My favorite was when someone set up a meeting with me on Friday after I went home for the weekend and when I didn't attend, they added me to a meeting on Monday morning before my work day started. They were angry at me for not attending either meeting. Of course, I never even saw the invites.
I think most people get is, but the point it, we have to set these boundaries for ourselves, and I'm sure it's not just engineers who want to avoid meeting hell.
Re: How to keep engineers out of meeting hell
#10Title says “engineer” but article is solely about computer programmers? Isn’t that computer science? I don’t remember there being a coding engineer at my college…