Hell on Earth

We all have our own personal hells. For some, it's being stuck in traffic. For others, it's going to the dentist.

For me, it's going to meetings. As a reporter, I went to a lot of meetings - city council, school board, planning commission ... all with a purpose, even if they did tend to drag on a bit too long. Since I was an observer and not a participant, I could pull out my cell phone at anytime and fake a call to leave. Now that I'm working in an office, skating out of a meeting is not so simple.

Meetings here tend to go very long and, as expected, accomplish very little. This morning, there was a 2 1/2 hour management meeting. The first hour or so - interesting and on-topic. The last hour and a half ... not so much. I spent the time drawing pictures on a piece of paper and digging my fingernail into my hand to stay awake.

One member of the management team was asleep during the last part of the meeting. (No one seemed to be paying attention to that, though.) I was excited when the "does anyone else have anything" portion started around the table. Sadly, two of the managers actually thought that was a cue to give lengthly monologues on what they had been doing for the past week. I thought for sure everyone knew that was the time to say, "Nope, I'm good," so we can all leave the coma-enducing meeting.

Here's how I schedule meetings. Fifteen minutes to discuss business - if you can't get the discussion done in that time, then we'll have to bring it up at a later meeting. The last fifteen minutes are spent discussing television programs. The end.

I hope to roll this plan out as a new Standard Operating Procedure for the division. I'll let you know how that goes.