Ask anyone what they think about having to attend meetings on the job. Everyone I have ever heard from tends to groan and complain about how stupid it is to waste so much time in boring meetings instead of actually getting anything done.
And yet from what I can see, meetings are being spawned all the time with ever increasing frequency.
In my experience, people hate meetings that are bad meetings. These would be meetings that are apparently unnecessary, or unproductive, or ones in which the participants do not feel valued. Unfortunately, many meetings are this way because many people don’t know how to give good meeting. Why are there meetings? Because it’s a way to try to communicate to people who apparently do not read memos, it’s a power trip for some people, it’s an attempt to build community, and a lot of other reasons. In many places, people actually look forward to meetings because they are rich sources of information, people feel that their ideas count, and stuff gets done. Such meetings can actually be fun. It takes a good leader and a setting that supports such things. That you haven’t experienced such events attests to something out of whack in the culture of the place you work. If you can’t change the culture, consider bailing. Life’s too short for your work to be an enormous pain in the ass. You spend too much time there. xo
First of all there is definitely the mindset “we always had weekly meetings, and we will always continue to have weekly meetings”. This establishes that meetings continue and very rarely die.
Management has a definite love/hate relationship with meetings. While they might say that they dread them as much as the employees, the fact is that they are the ones that need the information.
You also have employees that would rather spend a day in meetings than doing productive work. They love meetings because they can interact with coworkers and get away from their desks. Both management and their subordinates can fall into this category.
The real curse though would have to be the fact that there have been many productive meetings, and management often expands on this idea in their belief that if a few productive meetings are good that a whole bunch of meetings would be even better. Management fails to recognize sometimes that there isn’t a direct relationship to the number of meetings and productivity, there is actually a point where meetings take away from productivity. Although then the meetings are established, and become “that’s the way we always did it”…
For many pure management types, meetings, and preparation for meetings, is the the lion share of the work they do. That and reports. So if it weren’t for meetings they wouldn’t have a lot to do. Lest you think I jest, take for example a manager in a factory. He (typically) doesn’t run the lines, fix the lines, do change overs, order materials, balance the books, etc. (At least in my company these are all “technician” jobs; this can vary by firm) So what’s left to do? The manager must get information on what is happening in these roles and convey information to the people in these roles. One way to do this is to meet with people. You could do it individually, but this is inefficient, at least for the manager. Why talk to one person at a time when you can talk to several? Of course these meetings are often grossly inefficient for the non-managers (Sue doesn’t care about Bob’s update…) but many managers don’t take this into account or don’t care. This analogy applies to other work environments as well.
Another reason for meetings is for individuals to report to their management on what they accomplished. Of course this can be done in a one to one setting but political types often love an audience.
Plus someone needs to keep the Powerpoint and donuts people in business.
Rain over the ocean
Moonlight by day
Staff meetings
Three most useless things on earth.As per ShibbOleth, organizations live on reports and meetings. Which explains why organizations are so unproductive.
Remember, it really is Dilbert World out there. Most managers:
or
Want to improve productivity at your workplace? Order 1/4 fewer meetings and reports. Repeat in 6 months. Fire all managers that complain.
What excellent answers! I hope some wise Doper converts them to a bestseller.
Let’s not forget: power. The people in power like it when you have to sit and listen to whatever comes into their mind. It proves they really are in power. That’s why I doodle at all meetings.
Let’s not forget either: A big proportion of people enjoy holding a meeting. Somewhat obviously, any meeting those people hold they’re likely to enjoy. And they’re probably willing to sit in a few not-so-great meetings, just so they get their chance.
Dave Barry has it sussed.