How do people deal with meetings all day 15

[geotechguy1]

I've reached a career stage where it's not uncommon for me to have 4-6 meetings a day, at least for 2 or 3 days a week, often one hour each. How do people manage this? How do charge your time? It seems like people generally only budget for the meeting time (i.e. 1 hour meeting so they budgeted 1 hour of everyones time), but with meetings stacked up like this I basically find that (if I'm lucky to have gaps between the meetings) I basically have 15-20 minutes to prepare for a meeting before hand and 15-20 minutes to try and relax a bit afterwards, but certainly not enough time to actually do any productive work on another task.

I've been trying to decline meetings but then annoying PMs re-invite me or try and dial me in anyway.

Edited to say depending on the context of the meeting people also frequently try and have impromptu after meetings which fill up all the gaps between meetings (eg. if the meeting was between our team, a contractor, and a client, there might be an impromtu our-team only meeting immediately afterwards)

 

[Sparweb]

I wish I had a better way to deal with things other than by using meetings.

I'm often in meetings where:
people finally reveal that they have a roadblock of some sort (why didn't they speak up earlier?)
people that are supposed to be working together finally talk to each other (which one doesn't know how to use a phone?)
people haven't looked at the project outline in so long they forget what they're doing (how do you open a PDF?)
people wait 4 business days, until the next weekly meeting, to ask me a question (what are they waiting for?)

And please for the sake of everyone's sanity STOP reading the agenda word-for-word in front of everyone. If the audience didn't read it before coming, serves them right.

 

[geotechguy1]

WindRight - half the meetings I go to don't get past the first point or two on the agenda before devolving into discussion about nonsense. The ones that do stick to the agenda are the meetings that are the most pointless I've found: typically they consist of a PM asking for information / updates that can only be answered by one person (i.e., the entire meeting could have been replaced with a series of 3 minute phone calls to the individuals, or a series of emails)

 

[TheTick]

There are organizations that have good meeting culture (and generally good communication culture). I've been fortunate to have worked at a couple.

Most have written or unwritten but still-enforced ground rules such as:
[ul]
[li]Enough with the "FYI" already.[/li]
[li]Only invite who you need.[/li]
[li]New topic = new agenda = new meeting. See you then.[/li]
[li]Settle things in as small a circle and as low a level as possible.[/li]
[li]Call a meeting for help. Attend a meeting to help.[/li]
[/ul]

 

[dik]

Excellent points, Tick... the first two being the big ones, and the third one, if the 'right' people don't attend.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Do you feel any better?

-Dik

 

[Ron]

Be an ass! Speak up and let them know that the meetings are more of a waste of time than a complement to production.

 

[CWB1]

"anyone can make a gantt chart" certainly fits in with my theory that project manager / director type people could all be replaced with a python script

JMO but sounds like your PMs suck. PMs should be the most efficient meeting organizers a company has bc their primary role is to be the data-analytics nerds studying the process to ensure everyone is working fast and efficient, they're a far-cry (a MS really) from a glorified secretary puking out Gantt charts. If your company has an issue with wasteful meetings then their dept should be jumping on desks waving statistics showing the cost of poor efficiency, they shouldn't be a source of the problem.

 

[ACtrafficengr]

One office I worked in held meetings around a large drafting table, with no chairs. It helped keep them short and to the point.

My glass has a v/c ratio of 0.5

Maybe the tyranny of Murphy is the penalty for hubris. -

http://xkcd.com/319/

 

[JStructsteel]

I find meetings are like phone calls. Sometimes you can ignore them, decline them, and they just go away without you. I get 10-15 calls a week, from known people that I usually let goto voicemail because Im in the middle of something. Amazing how few actual voicemails I get.

Same with meetings, just decline a few. If they really want you there, they will reschedule.

 

[jagad5]

Two of the most important reasons to have a meeting are 1) review the progress the attendees made since the last meeting and then plan the next steps, especially those that are connected or 2) to communicate something everyone needs to hear at the time (with Q&A.)
Insist on an agenda for every meeting you attend. If you arrive and there is no agenda, leave.
The agenda should have start/stop times for each item. Stick to that.
If you are the meeting organizer, make sure you model the right behavior of creating an agenda.
Working meetings are effective if you have a small number of attendees who are knowledgeable on the topics.

Most management books, advice, podcasts, blogs, etc., are nonsense. But Manager Tools.com has some excellent advice on a variety of topics, including how to plan and run effective meetings.

Doug