11–20 of 55 posts
I've fought this battle, and it turns out that non-technical staff often have no other recourse. There is, in many orgs, no analog for the things that technical staff regularly use that make a meeting unnecessary. PR? GitHub discussion? ADRs? RFCs? Never heard of them.
Email threads?
This doesn’t capture the problem. How about:
“Meetings are like cancer — they metastasise, everywhere, unless you’re ruthless.”
Final thought - we need to be careful not to cut out all human interactions. COVID showed how isolating life can be without friends you see at work everyday. We shouldn't be using made-up-reason-meetings as an venue for mentorship, connection, and socialization, but sometimes that's exactly what happens. People hate meetings, but people get lonely...
* WARNING: 26 weeks parental leave will cost us $xxx,xxx
* WARNING: Buying team lunch this week will cost $x,xxx
* WARNING: Offering laid off workers 20 weeks severance will cost $xx,xxx,xxx
* WARNING: Offering your direct reports raises will cost the company money!
And while we're at it. Should we do performance reviews where a team sees how much income they personally generated vs how much the team costs the company? That would be super fun, that will probably stop most people from asking for a raise
Just ask people to limit meetings to the minimum, no need to flash numbers into a guilt trip for a bank account I do not own. If you asked me my employer should give me $100 for lunch every day, 4 day workweeks at 8 hours a day, 52 weeks parental leave, and other costly things I really don't mind them paying for. The cost of a meeting is the last thing I care about
If I see 2 employees talking about yesterdays football game in the kitchenette, should I report them wasting $1,500 of the companies time to HR?
Oh, and finally, im sure these calculations are based on 40 hour work weeks. Is this a good reason for an employee to tell their boss at Shopify they will not be online or answering any slack/email after 5pm every day?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Email threads?
If cc’ing me, please no. Threads with loads of people includes are one of the more gross big-org features. At least I can not turn up to someone’s stupid meeting.
I've fought this battle, and it turns out that non-technical staff often have no other recourse. There is, in many orgs, no analog for the things that technical staff regularly use that make a meeting unnecessary. PR? GitHub discussion? ADRs? RFCs? Never heard of them.
I’m sure Scrum has cost 50 billion or so in process bureaucracy.
This is pretty terrible, if I cared that much about my employers bank account, why don't we do * WARNING: 26 weeks parental leave will cost us $xxx,xxx * WARNING: Buying team lunch this week will cost $x,xxx * WARNING: Offering laid off workers 20 weeks severance will cost $xx,xxx,xxx * WARNING: Offering your direct reports raises will cost the company money! And while we're at it. Should we do performance reviews wh…
As you said "The cost of a meeting is the last thing I care about"
That's a pretty awful attitude to take in a business. I also think it's a pretty privileged position to take. If you NEED your job, and getting a new job would be difficult for you, you sure as heck should care about the financial health and stability of the business. If you don't care about the business you work at, alright, that's on you... never the less many co-workers likely do care about the health of the business.
This is pretty terrible, if I cared that much about my employers bank account, why don't we do * WARNING: 26 weeks parental leave will cost us $xxx,xxx * WARNING: Buying team lunch this week will cost $x,xxx * WARNING: Offering laid off workers 20 weeks severance will cost $xx,xxx,xxx * WARNING: Offering your direct reports raises will cost the company money! And while we're at it. Should we do performance reviews wh…
Thing is, a lot of staff just don't have a sense of how much things actually cost, this is a pretty easy way to get them in the habit of thinking that way. Doesn't have to be forever, just long enough to change the culture. As you said "The cost of a meeting is the last thing I care about" That's a pretty awful attitude to take in a business. I also think it's a pretty privileged position to take. If you NEED your jo…