Chat Thread 150: The End's Not Near

[TownieDeac]

I have a meeting on Monday to talk about a meeting later in the week at which we will be discussing another future meeting.

one of my two main clients right now is the absolute worst about meetings. i hate them.

i *literally* just spent the last 45 minutes scheduling meetings

 

[wfudkn]

There are a lot of people here who schedule meetings just to avoid doing actual work. They'll spend 3/4 of the time spent in the meeting not actually talking about work. It's maddening.

 

[WakeGal]

my whiteneck (is that a thing?) air conditioning isn't working in my car. need to find the time to bring it to a shop somewhere. also lots of other things are wrong with it and I need an inspection. goodbye money.

Have you tried the little freon can that you use to recharge it? It works on my husbands second car instead of spending a hundred or so to recharge. I think it's $10.

Any medical peeps know how long a single and double discectomy should take?

My brother was scheduled for one this morning and my parents said they were told they'd have an update over 3 hours ago and still nothing.

The little tracker thing they gave them says he's still in surgery.

My dads took about 5 hours the other year. They had to fuse one disc and clean the other two.

 

[DeacInVermont]

i *literally* just spent the last 45 minutes scheduling meetings

When new folks look at my calendar to check my availability, they always get confused/amused when they see all Wake football and basketball games entered in there.

 

[WakeGal]

i *literally* just spent the last 45 minutes scheduling meetings

A few months ago I adjusted some of the company practices. I found myself traveling nonstop for client meetings and never able to get work done. To get to a client meeting means a minimum of a 45 minute drive each way depending on where they are.

My new policy is the on Mondays I will do conference calls and then on Tuesday I will schedule the in person meeting that are out of office. The rest of the week is to accomplish work or they can come meet in my office. I have found my productivity to increase exponentially allowing me to actually take Friday afternoons off. It has resulted in more productivity and less hours. I haven't gotten any client pushback either.

I honestly think if more companies too this approach they would see the same results.

 

[TownieDeac]

We tried the standing meeting approach with our group (5 ppl) and we spent the first meeting just debating the merits of standing meeting, so we never did it again. I still maintain that if it were mandatory, we'd have some short ass meetings.

 

[buckets]

There are a lot of people here who schedule meetings just to avoid doing actual work. They'll spend 3/4 of the time spent in the meeting not actually talking about work. It's maddening.

are you still working for satan?

 

[WakeGal]

We tried the standing meeting approach with our group (5 ppl) and we spent the first meeting just debating the merits of standing meeting, so we never did it again. I still maintain that if it were mandatory, we'd have some short ass meetings.

You'd be amazed. That was part of my issue. These clients didn't have standing meetings. So when one would be it wasn't uncommon for it to be a 6 hour meeting. Now they have a weekly one hour conference call. Sometimes it goes an hour and sometimes only 15 minutes. Not only has my productivity increased but so has theirs. Plus we aren't having to track down everyone to give updates. It's all given every Monday morning.

 

[TownieDeac]

weekly or monthly status meetings are fucking worthless

if it's a meeting just for a meeting's sake, it needs to die

90% of meetings could be accomplished with the necessary people just emailing one another

 

[wfudkn]

are you still working for satan?

For now. Got a year, give or take, to find something new.

 

[deacphan]

this client that i hate just has no ability to get work done outside of metings it seems. like put together some documentation for wwhat you want. or mark up documentation i sent you. why do 6 people need to be on a call as you argue among yourselves about shit with me on the phone. at least its billable. then they wonder why everything is over budget. HELLO! its because you get everyone on the phone to talk about everything and so no one can ever get work done in a timely manner (they also then change requirements which makes it that much worse). fucking clients.

 

[deacphan]

weekly or monthly status meetings are fucking worthless

if it's a meeting just for a meeting's sake, it needs to die

90% of meetings could be accomplished with the necessary people just emailing one another

disagree

 

[WakeGal]

weekly or monthly status meetings are fucking worthless

if it's a meeting just for a meeting's sake, it needs to die

90% of meetings could be accomplished with the necessary people just emailing one another

That's not really what these are. These are boards and their executive director. So they aren't in the same office and there isn't the internal structure. These are by far the best option for the type of work they are doing.

Plus so many times people ignore emails with assignments. It's easier to get them on the phone and do a roll call thing where everyone updates on their projects and then you can follow up to see if they accomplished the tasks that they were assigned.

For now. Got a year, give or take, to find something new.

Be glad you aren't in a plant when NRC or NPO is about to come in. That is when the meetings suck and have little purpose. Then you have people getting anxious causing tempers to flare.

 

[TownieDeac]

this client that i hate just has no ability to get work done outside of metings it seems. like put together some documentation for wwhat you want. or mark up documentation i sent you. why do 6 people need to be on a call as you argue among yourselves about shit with me on the phone. at least its billable. then they wonder why everything is over budget. HELLO! its because you get everyone on the phone to talk about everything and so no one can ever get work done in a timely manner (they also then change requirements which makes it that much worse). fucking clients.

disagree

what is the disagreement between my points and yours

i'm not saying there can never be utility to a status meeting, just that they're mostly worthless

 

[TexasDeac10]

this client that i hate just has no ability to get work done outside of metings it seems. like put together some documentation for wwhat you want. or mark up documentation i sent you. why do 6 people need to be on a call as you argue among yourselves about shit with me on the phone. at least its billable. then they wonder why everything is over budget. HELLO! its because you get everyone on the phone to talk about everything and so no one can ever get work done in a timely manner (they also then change requirements which makes it that much worse). fucking clients.

This sounds like my wife's life.

 

[WakeGal]

what is the disagreement between my points and yours

i'm not saying there can never be utility to a status meeting, just that they're mostly worthless

I find that they often lead to more information shared than in an email, which is a positive. Plus sometimes they don't think that others need to know about something and when they give that update then you find out it does and that person is informed. This is much better than when they find out later and it messes things up.

 

[KickballDeac]

for reals

They're, uh, speed holes. They make the car go faster!

 

[dartsndeacs]

phan and wakegal and their #clients

 

[TownieDeac]

yeah i think it's different with clients vs in house issues where you can clear non-email stuff up with a quick phone call or visit

meetings lead to people taking conversations their own personal ways too often, imo, or the least knowledgeable people talking the most

 

[dartsndeacs]

yeah i think it's different with clients vs in house issues where you can clear non-email stuff up with a quick phone call or visit

meetings lead to people taking conversations their own personal ways too often, imo, or the least knowledgeable people talking the most

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So kinda like the chat thread