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What is the deal with corporate America and meetings? There are meetings to discuss previous meetings, and more meetings to discuss what meetings might need to occur in the future. The number of meetings you attend on a daily basis is directly proportional to your hierarchical position in the company -- if you are a director, you can pretty much expect your entire week to be filled with meetings.
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Originally Posted by e130478
What is the deal with corporate America and meetings? There are meeting to discuss previous meetings, and more meetings to discuss what meetings might need to occur in the future. The number of meetings you attend on a daily basis is directly proportional to your hierarchical position in the company -- if you are a director, you can pretty much expect your entire week to be filled with meetings.
So true. Vast majority of meeting(s) end in an "agreement" to a "follow-up" meeting to discuss what occurred in the last meeting.
It depends on the group/corporations and the leadership. I have worked in large corporations (a Fortune 25 company) where 25+ members from across the teams would meet 3-4 times a week and the project didn't move by an inch over 8 months. And I have worked at places (again, a Fortune 25 company) where there are infinite number of meetings but each meeting has a set agenda, a good moderator and only necessary folks are invited. Action items and meeting minutes are documented and followed-up aggresively.
It all depends on the project/program manager and the top leadership. Meetings can only be as meaningful as the person moderating and leading it.
It happens in higher ed as well. My wifes boss (a Dean) literally does nothing but hold meetings. I didnt believe her until she showed me her outlook calendar. It was ENTIRELY meetings. The best part was the description of some of the meetings was "To collaborate on next Monday's meeting's topics."
It's part of management. As you move higher, you do less actual grunt work, and more over seeing and managing others doing the grunt work. The meetings are to discuss and communicate larger picture stuff, direction, and agreements. I've had meetings with managers and management teams to educate them and get agreements on projects/programs. They then use this information to direct their departments to what we agreed on.
It's not like you need the CFO to balance a spreadsheet. That's what the staff accountant does. It seems stupid and pointless until you actually take part in it. Most people hate going to meetings.
You get a little of both and meetings are just a break from the grunt work!
Yup, there's the silver lining!
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