Grumpy Coworker

Tag: meetings

  • Meeting double-tax

    Everyone’s favorite meeting is the meeting to prepare for a meeting. It’s like a double tax on your already overtaxed time.

    When our work is behind schedule, and someone calls a meeting to discuss creative ways to get back on track, why does our team need a meeting to prepare for that meeting?  Because it’s not about creative solutions, that’s why.  It’s about agreeing on who we can blame for sucking worse than we do.

    And when the project is done and the project manager schedules a “Lessons Learned” meeting, why does our team need a meeting to prepare for that?  You guessed it … it’s not about the lessons learned.  It’s about being prepared to deflect all criticism and prove that everyone else on the project sucked worse than we did. Thanks, but I’d rather have my time back, so I can do more and suck less!

    Here’s the point:  meetings to prepare for meetings always contribute to the suckiness of the workplace. Without them, people would have more time to do real work, and could actually have real discussions in the real meetings.  So please, stop double taxing my time.
    Hmmm… reminds me of the Types of Meetings.

  • Hot Potato Status Meeting Game

    [Amazon affiliate link]

    Originally posted at YouMightBe.com.

    Object of the game: Don’t be caught giving your status update when the potato goes off.

    Requires: Hot potato timer or random timer smartphone app.  If you know of a link to a good one, please leave it in the comments.

    Rules of the game:

    1. A different person starts the status meeting every week.
    2. The random “Hot Potato” timer starts when the first person begins his or her update.
    3. When an update is complete, the person picks a random person to hand/toss the “hot potato” to.
    4. Repeat giving updates and handing off the potato until updates are complete or the hot potato goes off.
    5. If the potato goes off during your update, you must buy coffee and donuts/bagels/etc. for the entire team the next morning.
    6. If the entire meeting goes off without the potato going off, the manager buys the food.
    7. Interrupting an update means that you get to hold the potato next, or if you’ve gone already, until the person giving the update is finished talking.

  • Stop the rudeness!

    It always seems to happen during the worthwhile presentation:  the ongoing “side-bar conversation” that is loud enough to be heard in the street-bar on a Friday night.

    There are 3 possible messages these people are sending with their rudeness:

    • “I am a higher level employee than the person presenting, and I wish to make it abundantly clear that I don’t have to respect them.”
    • “I am an equal level employee, but I know them, don’t respect them, and should be a higher level than them.”
    • “I am a lower level employee, and a moron.”

    In any case, you are being a disrespectful jerk. Do the rest of us a favor and stop it.

  • I want my crappy coffee; I need my crappy coffee

    A person might not be evil for planning a large team meeting in the break room. Or placing a makeshift sign on the door informing me that a meeting is in progress and I am not invited.

    But when said meeting occurs between 7:30a.m. and 9:30a.m. on a Monday morning … I know I am dealing with pure evil. Who in their right mind would place a barrier between dozens of Monday-morning workers and their crappy break room coffee? Too much of this, and a grumpy coworker uprising is inevitable.

  • Who here likes department-wide meetings?

    I know you’re out there.

    There are far too many companies who have them for there not to be millions of fans of them.

    Just admit it. The first step to being cured is admitting that you have a problem. It’s okay. We understand.

    Actually, we don’t understand, but we’d at least like to know that there is *someone* out there that is actually interested in these things.