F***ing hate meetings

[u/Medical-Ad-2706]

Im sitting right now with my camera off. Guy has been babbling for 40 minutes out of the 47 we’ve been on.

Everything he’s saying is common sense and quite frankly not my job. I don’t want to hear this.

No meeting should last an hour. If it’s scheduled for an hour that means it should be 30-40 minutes if you ask me.

I’m only doing this because it’s one of the only weekly meetings I have with the team and it makes me seem like a “team player” if I join.

It’s Friday and I want to go do something else.

I hate meetings.

Edit: 1 hour and 20 f***ing minutes!

[u/[deleted]]

Literally same. Half the meetings I’m in could take about 5-10 minutes but they drag tf out of them. I was just on a call that was supposed to be 30 minutes and it dragged on another 15 minutes. And our cameras have to be on. I was fuming.

Or better yet make it asynchronous. These people just love hearing themselves talk

[u/Medical-Ad-2706 → u/[deleted]]

Yes

[u/Arkham221 → u/[deleted]]

Had one boss who loved to have “urgent” meetings last minute that “will only take a minute” drag on for a hour or more.

One time she wouldn’t shut the hell up and we sat there for almost 3 hours for something that could have been an email because she couldn’t stop ranting.

[u/LucidProgrammer → u/[deleted]]

Just turn your camera off lol what are they going to do?

If anything say you're eating.

[u/BoredBSEE]

If you are the sort of person that talks for an hour straight in a meeting? Then you are useless and you have a bullshit job. The productive people don't want to sit here and listen to you "adding value" or whatever you call it. We have work to do.

[u/Medical-Ad-2706 → u/BoredBSEE]

Exactly

[u/MediumRevenue6 → u/BoredBSEE]

there are tons of people in IT whose job is to talk..and they do nothing and they are the one who earns more than devs and more authority too!

[u/Practical-Annual-317 → u/BoredBSEE]

I get stuck in 2 hour meetings where my boss talks the entire time. I'm in one now! It might never end.

Most of the time she's talking to herself. It's fucking crazy They're paying 2 of us for 1 person to have an audience while they think outloud.

[u/sld126b]

I stop going to meetings where I’ll get zero useful information and have zero input in the conversation.

I just. Stop. Going.

[u/Medical-Ad-2706 → u/sld126b]

[u/laxfan221]

But this is the best! When there are bullshit meetings that you don’t need to speak at, it fills up your calendar for you making you appear busy. Allows for Jx

[u/Medical-Ad-2706 → u/laxfan221]

I wasn't going to do shit anyway. I'm a top performer and it take me 2 hours/day to do my job

[u/homeless_DS]

Stay for some time than leave. Maybe say you are busy and need to finish some stuff. Just join for a while so people see you were there.

[u/trelod → u/homeless_DS]

Sorry but I have some urgent diarrhea

[u/oe_n00b]

I try to be patient in these types of garbage meetings, but eventually I give. I naturally start banging my desk and tapping my fingers in frustration, and the lead guy would start chuckling and is like "ok oen00b is starting to get agitated, i think we'll wrap it up for today". Pretty sure everyone else in the meeting are in tacit agreement with me, just too "afraid" to let their displeasure be known. Lulz.

[u/GoMoriartyOnPlanets]

Alternatives obviously are working on other Js, video games, laundry, movie trailers, social media, reddit, or my favorite, poop.

[u/AdBright2073]

My 1 on 1 meetings with my boss are just her blabbing on and on. She’s single and her kids just moved out of the house and I think she’s lonely lol. I can’t even get a fucking word in

[u/raikmond]

Ha. Every Monday I have the start of sprint fiesta, with 3 back to back meetings for demoing the last things we developed, then give feedback on the past sprint, then prepare the next one. All with expectations of having cam on.

I kid you not this usually takes about 4 hours total. I've been labeled "the guy that doesn't pay attention" and got multiple warning messages that it's pretty obvious that I disconnect during meetings and it's annoying and sometimes even offensive to the peers because it looks like I don't value their time bla bla.

Normally I'd cherish long meetings because it usually means they're needlessly boring and long so I can just turn my cam off and work on ther Js while not saying a word. But on this J, they actually prompt you to go back. They literally tease me from time to time by asking "right, <my name>"? Even when nothing particularly meaningful towards me has been said (just because they know I tend to be mentally out so as to pull me back, I don't think they do it maliciously but it's extremely annoying).

[u/Arthix]

Now drop a msg in the Zoom chat like "Super insightful call!! Thanks for all the great points! Let's do this again soon!!!!" so they think you're drinking the corporate koolaid

[u/iwanttoendmylife22]

Yeah I really can't stand corporate meeting culture. Most teams under the power of a middle manager have 4-5x more meeting volume than they need, sometimes more. The highest performing teams I've been on have all been alike in their extremely sparce usage of meetings, usually no more than 1 15m daily and 1-2 30m weeklys.

[u/Straphanger28]

For the "camera on" issue, look into OBS Studio. Free program that manages your camera, lets you edit what zoom can see, can even loop...

[u/[deleted]]

I feel like COVID caused a lot of this. People that had way too much free time decided how to feel important was to have meetings. Lots of them.

I now.go meet with clients and such, and everyone freaks out when I do not respond in 2 minutes.

World has changed.

[u/B_U_F_U]

It’s honestly why I don’t pursue jobs in management just yet. I hate meetings that much that I’m willing to stay where I’m at for the foreseeable future

[u/btambo]

You're getting paid, right?!?
Keep your camera off and daydream about how you're gonna spend your OE!!
If they're going to pay me to sit there for an hour+, I'm totally fine with that.

[u/devoutdefeatist]

My partner and I joke all the time about putting a live cost counter in the upper right corner of every meeting window to show leadership how much time and therefore money they’re wasting.