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"Me: You've been invited to a meeting with 3 department heads to hash out their differences on Project 249. Boss: I hate meetings." A couple of the boss res

"Me: You've been invited to a meeting with 3 department heads to hash out their differences on Project 249. Boss: I hate meetings." A couple of the boss responses listed here are totally reasonable and their head-scratch-inducing inclusion weakens the piece. Meetings are a (sometimes) necessary evil, but I'm pretty skeptical of anyone who doesn't, at some level, hate them. I mean, fuck, who wouldn't hate the idea of going to a meeting of 3 department heads to hash out differences? Sounds DREADFUL.

raganwald 15y ago
It’s perfectly rational to hate meetings. But if you hate meetings, you should not be a Boss. In our business, part of the Boss job is going to meetings in order to protect your team from insanity. If you hate something that is a core part of your job... This is a recipe for unhappiness. Now, I do not enjoy many of the meetings I attend. But I do enjoy some, and I get satisfaction out of doing the meeting part of my job well. All that being said, I’m pretty sure I’ve said those exact words myself: “I hate meetings.” So yeah, it’s reasonable for a Boss to say those words. But not to believe them 24/7/365.
- georgemcbay 15y ago
  "But if you hate meetings, you should not be a Boss." I disagree. If you cannot tolerate meetings to the point where you avoid them, you shouldn't be a boss. But if you hate meetings -- be a boss. Be my boss. Because I want a boss that only calls me into meetings when it is absolultely necessary.
  - raganwald 15y ago
    Oh, I hate dragging you into meetings. That’s why I go, and that’s why I make sure that they are productive enough that we don’t need to have ridiculous conference calls with ten people on each side that range from grand visionary pronouncements to discussing individual tickets with developers :-)
    - gbog 15y ago
      Ok, everyone and his dog hates meetings, am I the only one hating not being part of a meeting?
      - matwood 15y ago
        Hah...you only think like that until you're a part of every meeting. That's really the issue. There are good meetings that I need to and should be a part of. Then there are the other 90% of my meetings that are a complete waste of my time.
      - mentat 15y ago
        Depends on if things are being decided that will impact my ability to do my job.
- megablast 15y ago
  Sure, and if you wish long enough, and dream hard enough, you can fly. But in reality, we all deal with stuff we do not like, we all go to meetings.
mediaman 15y ago
Maybe, but getting organizational buy-in -- and preemptively clearing potential political damage to the project -- is part of the job, especially for 'the boss'. The boss might not like it, but it's part of the job. And pretending that all meetings are terrible does not solve the problem. That's just a technical knee-jerk response to pretend that people problems will go away on their own, or that negotiations don't need to happen because it involves 'one of those meetings'. And if it's part of the boss's job -- which negotiating peer buy-in is -- then it's not really appropriate to go around complaining to subordinates about how he hates doing his job, especially when doing that job protects the technical work his team will be doing.
- gaius 15y ago
  Exactly. The truth is, no-one points a gun at your head and promotes you. The only people who become managers want to be managers, or they'd turn it down, or quit and go find another tech job.
ArbitraryLimits 15y ago
I couldn't disagree more. In day-to-day programming life, having people want to invite your boss to a meeting instead of you is practically the only upside of having a boss at all.
zem 15y ago
yeah, the "i hate mornings" one was even more bizarre

raganwald 15y ago

It’s perfectly rational to hate meetings. But if you hate meetings, you should not be a Boss. In our business, part of the Boss job is going to meetings in order to protect your team from insanity. If you hate something that is a core part of your job... This is a recipe for unhappiness. Now, I do not enjoy many of the meetings I attend. But I do enjoy some, and I get satisfaction out of doing the meeting part of my job well. All that being said, I’m pretty sure I’ve said those exact words myself: “I hate meetings.” So yeah, it’s reasonable for a Boss to say those words. But not to believe them 24/7/365.

georgemcbay 15y ago
"But if you hate meetings, you should not be a Boss." I disagree. If you cannot tolerate meetings to the point where you avoid them, you shouldn't be a boss. But if you hate meetings -- be a boss. Be my boss. Because I want a boss that only calls me into meetings when it is absolultely necessary.
- raganwald 15y ago
  Oh, I hate dragging you into meetings. That’s why I go, and that’s why I make sure that they are productive enough that we don’t need to have ridiculous conference calls with ten people on each side that range from grand visionary pronouncements to discussing individual tickets with developers :-)
  - gbog 15y ago
    Ok, everyone and his dog hates meetings, am I the only one hating not being part of a meeting?
    - matwood 15y ago
      Hah...you only think like that until you're a part of every meeting. That's really the issue. There are good meetings that I need to and should be a part of. Then there are the other 90% of my meetings that are a complete waste of my time.
    - mentat 15y ago
      Depends on if things are being decided that will impact my ability to do my job.
megablast 15y ago
Sure, and if you wish long enough, and dream hard enough, you can fly. But in reality, we all deal with stuff we do not like, we all go to meetings.

mediaman 15y ago

Maybe, but getting organizational buy-in -- and preemptively clearing potential political damage to the project -- is part of the job, especially for 'the boss'. The boss might not like it, but it's part of the job. And pretending that all meetings are terrible does not solve the problem. That's just a technical knee-jerk response to pretend that people problems will go away on their own, or that negotiations don't need to happen because it involves 'one of those meetings'. And if it's part of the boss's job -- which negotiating peer buy-in is -- then it's not really appropriate to go around complaining to subordinates about how he hates doing his job, especially when doing that job protects the technical work his team will be doing.

gaius 15y ago
Exactly. The truth is, no-one points a gun at your head and promotes you. The only people who become managers want to be managers, or they'd turn it down, or quit and go find another tech job.

ArbitraryLimits 15y ago

I couldn't disagree more. In day-to-day programming life, having people want to invite your boss to a meeting instead of you is practically the only upside of having a boss at all.

zem 15y ago

yeah, the "i hate mornings" one was even more bizarre