Meetings....

What i dreaded most while working is meetings. I don't understand why some of the companies like to have meeting very frequently. Some daily, some weekly and some monthly. Some of them even can have up to 4 - 5 meetings per day like meeting marathon. Are those meetings necessary? Can we really come out with better solutions or conclusions after the meetings? I don't think so.

To me, meetings are just a waste of time. Unless you have nothing to do in the office and have a lot of time to spare then it's alright. You can sit in the meeting room from morning till afternoon. What about those that have a lot of things to do in the office ? It's really frustrating while you are struggling to complete your work, suddenly your boss or your superior call you and said "It's time for meeting." Arghhh.... !!

Some meetings can drag for hours until you feel like you are attending a seminar. Firstly, meetings do not follow the agenda. Secondly, the chairperson does not talk straight to the point. Then, worst, out of topic. Instead of talking about issue A, he/she talks about other thing that does not relate at all or not in the agenda. Next, there are arguments between attendees due to different point of view and the chairperson does not know how to control them. He/she just sit there and listen to their debates. Hey! come on, we are not attending a debate competition. Do something about it !. In the end, no solution is found and time is wasted. Everyone just walk out from the meeting room. "Phew, alas the meeting is over. We can continue with our work". By the time the meeting is over, it's time to go home.

I know many of us who attend the meeting are mostly passive attendees. I, myself is one of them. Most of the time, the passive attendees just sit in the meeting room looking around, fidgeting at our own sit or some of us even quietly take out our phone and start sms-ing under the meeting table. Some who brought their laptop along will start surfing the net and make some typing sound to show that they are listening attentively while jotting down the important points but the actual fact they are reading some mails and msn-ing...

What i can say here is, do not make it a compulsory for all the staff to attend the meeting unless they are actively involved in it. Else, their time are wasted. With all the workload waiting for them to finish, do you think they are able to finish it on time without working extra hours to cover up the time they have lost in the meetings.

I still remember i attended a very stupid in a company. The boss asked all the staff in that particular department to attend a emergency meeting without any agenda for some so-called critical issues. He kept talking about our problems for hours and start pointing fingers at some of us for not able to solve them. Most of us just sat there listening to his lecture. In the end, did we get the solution we want? Nah... absolutely not. We wasted 2 hours in the meeting room looking at one another and idling around. If we made use of the 2 hours instead of listening to his crap, we might have already come up with some solutions.

If meeting is really necessary. Please come out with an agenda and follow it closely. Stick to the time frame given. Then, everything will be all well ends well.