3 ms·

Honestly, i think the main reason a lot of managers love meetings is that they are extroverts and mainly exert influence through their social skills which gives

by zmmmmm 4y ago

Honestly, i think the main reason a lot of managers love meetings is that they are extroverts and mainly exert influence through their social skills which gives them a huge leg up in face to face encounters (whether virtual or in person). Meanwhile most of the "workers" are introverted or less socially skilled so much less able to or likely to argue against whatever dumb proposition is on the table. Managers repeatedly experience this as "when I talk directly with people I get what I want more easily" and conclude that meetings are very productive. Meanwhile technical people repeatedly experience utterly moronic outcomes happening in meetings (usually which they end up committed to and having to clean up) and learn to despise them.

xwolfi 4y ago
I disagree with this simplification, and I m a ticket churner who hates meetings. Usually the requests presented at meetings come from a need to solve for a paying customer. What we re all struggling with, and I did a lot of work on myself to embrace it, is that there s no beautiful elegant scalable flexible solution to 20 client variations of the same problem which change every year. There simply is not. So we get sent "completely ridiculous" requests or change in design, but what s the alternative ? Only do the right thing and disappear in uselessness ?
charcircuit 4y ago
>and learn to despise them. If they hate them that much they must be useful else they wouldn't attend the meeting.
- saurik 4y ago
  As someone with the privilege to be at a company where no one expects I will ever be at a meeting under almost any circumstance, I will note that most engineers--including myself!! (though I've managed to negotiate everyone down to one meeting per QUARTER, which maybe honestly does feel like an acceptable balance? I still have to attend meetings once in a while, and have a big one scheduled tomorrow)--aren't in a position to simply NOT attend meetings without being seen as an uncommunicative obstacle who needs to be replaced/fired.
zeroth32 4y ago
There is also plausible deniability. Speech on meeting is not recorded, is vague, can be misinterpreted etc... Easy to spot, if there are no meeting minutes, transcript or any other document as result from meeting. Doing this sort of manipulation over email or slack is way more difficult.
- tinalumfoil 4y ago
  This is a positive if you're doing meetings correctly. You can have open discussions without people worrying every dumb thing they say will be written, and then at the end you write down your action items and takeaways and everyone takes ownership.

by zmmmmm 4y ago

xwolfi 4y ago

I disagree with this simplification, and I m a ticket churner who hates meetings. Usually the requests presented at meetings come from a need to solve for a paying customer. What we re all struggling with, and I did a lot of work on myself to embrace it, is that there s no beautiful elegant scalable flexible solution to 20 client variations of the same problem which change every year. There simply is not. So we get sent "completely ridiculous" requests or change in design, but what s the alternative ? Only do the right thing and disappear in uselessness ?

charcircuit 4y ago

>and learn to despise them. If they hate them that much they must be useful else they wouldn't attend the meeting.

saurik 4y ago
As someone with the privilege to be at a company where no one expects I will ever be at a meeting under almost any circumstance, I will note that most engineers--including myself!! (though I've managed to negotiate everyone down to one meeting per QUARTER, which maybe honestly does feel like an acceptable balance? I still have to attend meetings once in a while, and have a big one scheduled tomorrow)--aren't in a position to simply NOT attend meetings without being seen as an uncommunicative obstacle who needs to be replaced/fired.

zeroth32 4y ago

There is also plausible deniability. Speech on meeting is not recorded, is vague, can be misinterpreted etc... Easy to spot, if there are no meeting minutes, transcript or any other document as result from meeting. Doing this sort of manipulation over email or slack is way more difficult.

tinalumfoil 4y ago
This is a positive if you're doing meetings correctly. You can have open discussions without people worrying every dumb thing they say will be written, and then at the end you write down your action items and takeaways and everyone takes ownership.