We had a meeting at work yesterday. It was the first “large” meeting I’ve been to in the four months that I’ve been here. By “large” I mean seven people were in attendance. A coworker, my boss and I meet every couple of weeks to discuss production. Those meetings are usual where bossman says “This is what needs to be done”. Then we go back to our desks and do what needs to be done. Those meetings take anywhere from five to thirty minutes.
I enjoyed yesterday’s meeting because bossman discussed the company’s finances and operations. He shed light on how the company operates and that made me feel like a member of something good – not like some cog in a corporate machine.
I thought about my last job at that one place in Temple and the countless meetings I had to attend. I spent so much time in meetings that I didn’t have any time to do any work. If I tried to get started on some project, I’d have to go to a meeting before I got my hands dirty and come back not knowing what I was doing. I would say I spent 75% of my time in meetings. I would sit there and listen to people talk about perspectives, objectives and strategies and write on whiteboards with their fancy dry-erase pens or stare blankly at a Powerpoint presentation. Well, I used to listen. It didn’t take long to realize that there was no point, so I would practice on my drawing skills. I came up with some real humdingers. I wonder what I did with those drawings…