Thursday, March 17, 2011

Let's have a meeting.

We have expensive Microsoft applications that make it easy to check people's schedules and allot time to make a meeting. We have an entire layer of employees whose job it is is to monitor people and work and to make sure it is proceeding apace. They call meetings to check in. We have people who are plugged into headphones all day because of the cacophony of the open-plan workspace. The only way to communicate with them is to have a meeting.

So, we have meetings.

Work used to be about thinking about a client's issues. It used to be about creating communications that gave them an edge. It used to be about getting smarter than the other guy.

Today, it is about meetings.

The Red Wheelbarrow
by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

-
The Microsoft Meeting
by Ad Aged

so much depends
upon

a time suck
meeting

glazed with
posers

beside the white
chickens.

1 comment:

Laura said...

What about an "opt-out" option for meetings?
The other day an account person asked for comments back on something AND called a meeting about it.
When I and another person sent our comments, the meeting was then miraculously cancelled.
If we can do anything to avoid a meeting, we most likely will.