# Do you have regularly-scheduled meetings at work? Are they worthwhile or worthless? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 25, 2021, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-regularly-scheduled-meetings-at-work-are-they-worthwhile-or-worthless/942902 "2021-05-25T19:04:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-regularly-scheduled-meetings-at-work-are-they-worthwhile-or-worthless/942902/41 "2021-06-06T01:46:00Z")
I do about four to seven meetings over the course of a month. total time maybe 3-6 hours a month (some get canceled if there isn’t anything to discuss) honestly yeah they’re useful. meetings at my previous job were useless and more about manipulation tactics on the part of management. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-regularly-scheduled-meetings-at-work-are-they-worthwhile-or-worthless/942902/42 "2021-06-06T01:57:40Z")
I have a 30 min one-on-one and a 1 hr group meeting every other week. They’re both reasonably useful. I work on long-term projects and 2 weeks is a reasonably good interval for keeping the boss up to speed, and for him to relay what’s coming down the pipe. As for the group meetings, it’s about half stuff that could be covered with emails, but the other half is people talking about the latest on their various bugs/projects in case it’s of group interest. It rarely actually goes the full hour and there’s almost no chitchat. Occasionally there are urgent issues that need an update more frequently than 2 weeks, but they’re rare. We try to spend most of our time on longer-term things. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-regularly-scheduled-meetings-at-work-are-they-worthwhile-or-worthless/942902/43 "2021-06-06T02:05:19Z")
Yes – at least one utterly useless meeting every other week (oh, if only they were “every other week” in the sense of [“jam every other day”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_tomorrow)). The saving grace of the meetings moving online is that I can get some work done in another window. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-regularly-scheduled-meetings-at-work-are-they-worthwhile-or-worthless/942902/44 "2021-06-06T06:07:22Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > Then we had to make slides that same evening because the big boss was presenting our plans to improve work-life balance to the Even Bigger Bosses the next morning. So we were working until past midnight. > > The irony of this was lost on Big Boss and Even Bigger Bosses. A perfect example of a real life thing that you couldn’t put in a book or a movie, because readers/viewers would think that no boss could be that totally clueless. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2021, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-regularly-scheduled-meetings-at-work-are-they-worthwhile-or-worthless/942902/45 "2021-06-06T13:24:54Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > The saving grace of the meetings moving online is that I can get some work done in another window. So, can people on a Zoom meeting tell if you’re doing stuff in another window? (I mute myself and try to look toward the people and my camera occasionally, but I dread someone saying “Hey, what’s digs doing? I’ve been watching his eyes, he’s been reading… I think it’s the Straight Dope!”) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-regularly-scheduled-meetings-at-work-are-they-worthwhile-or-worthless/942902.md?page=2)