When I got my first "real job" (the one after I graduated from college is the one I count, though I've been working since I was 15), I was introduced to the Friday Staff Meeting. Normally, this was a large gathering of all the editors and writers in the building inside the company's cavernous breakroom. For about half of the meeting, important things were discussed face-to-face with our bosses. The other half, though, usually consisted of one or two people using the gathering as an platform from which to bitch about something that only they cared about while the rest of us struggled to stay awake. (Of course, the sleepiness factor probably would have been easier to avoid had the meetings not been scheduled just after lunch on Friday.) Fast forward to now, where my bi-weekly staff meeting usually consists of the participants you see above -- me, my notebook, and the speakerphone. On the other end of the phone, of course, are about 12 other people. . . but they're all in Sweden. These meetings are at 9 in the morning (or just after lunch in Sweden), and, while I find the idea of staff meetings unproductive, these at least stay slightly more on-topic than ones I've been forced to sit through in the past. No one really hijacks the meeting with personal agendas, and we actually discuss what we say we're going to discuss in the time we've allotted -- then we get the hell out of there.
I find it fascinating that a staff meeting across the Atlantic actually ends up being more efficient than one when all of the participants are in the same room. Perhaps it's just the Swedish mindset about the whole thing (though they do looooooove having meetings), or perhaps it's not wanting to waste time on a long-distance line. Or perhaps it's the knowledge that, if I do fall asleep, no one will really notice (unless, of course, I snore).
Still, I don't dig on the whole concept of periodic staff meetings. Got information you need to get to the entire department? Email. Have a question for one or two people? Email (or, if possible, just get up and walk to that person's office). Need someone in the department to explain what they're working on to the rest of the group? Send that person an email, and have that person email the rest of the department.
Meh. It's probably just my antisocial personality.
2 comments:
my staff meetings are usually where i get a lot of writing done. the bosses think i am being a prodigious note-taker....but i'm not really even in the room. Thank god for Auumn, who actually lstens. If it's important, she'll tell me...but rarely ever needs to ;)
You're the lucky one who only had to sit through those meetings for a paltry two years. Thankfully, we stopped having them a few weeks ago.
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