There are some things which an office worker will dread in the office and meetings have to be among one of the most dreaded. Meetings are scheduled for a wide range of reasons and no matter the reason, they almost always fall into one of the following dreaded categories :
Talk only, no action
All too often, meetings come across as ‘talk only, no action’. In plain terms, it means such meetings serve no purpose because months after the meeting, everything remain status quo. Nothing will change and it simply feels like it was meeting for the sake of meeting. Imagine the amount of work you could have completed if you had not attended such a meeting. (Well, that’s what everyone says but the truth remains elusive and unknown.)
Open table discussion
In some meetings, participants are expected to be engaged and ideas, objections, opinions are expected to be thrown around freely - no holds barred. Come on, would people really engage freely without fear of repercussion? It’s worse when you are being arrowed to give your opinion of the matter - or to put it in another way, your politically correct opinion of the matter. The thought of attending such meetings? OMG…
Full day meetings
I guess some meetings can’t be avoided. But when a meeting lasts an entire day, it is best to avoid it. Think about the work to be done for the day and the backlog that will pile up. If one day isn’t bad enough, such meetings usually go on for consecutive days. Because you won’t be able to touch your work while you are in the meeting, when these occurs, you know you’re expected to put in a shift and work overtime. How is that not dreary?
Meetings outside working hours
There are times when you have to arrange a meeting with your overseas colleagues and in cases like the US, it’s either you stay up late or pick yourself up early in the morning to attend such a meeting. So, it’s either you lose those precious minutes of sleep in the morning or bring yourself home early after work. Neither sounds nice especially if it’s a regular thing.
Not applicable
This is probably the worst of the lot. You attend this meeting because you are required to show up for reasons unknown. The thing is, the meeting has nothing to do with you. Like an episode on Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, this happens all the time. Why the hell do people get asked to attend a meeting when it doesn’t concern them?