Colleagues that won’t shut up in work meetings

In previous roles I had to take minutes, some at formal committee meetings. How I survived I do not know. Bores, wafflers, BS artists, sneaky creeps, the lot. Decent chairs made a bit difference but it was still torture.
I no longer have to attend ANY meetings and I love my job :).

I’ve just moved to a new team and there’s a bloke who seems incompetent in most tasks that seem assigned to him but drones on and on in our meetings. They’re also continuously posting unfunny GIFs etc relentlessly in the chat. Honestly it’s exhausting having to put up with it! 😬 In anything wholly work related where we all have to input to get a task done, he barely talks, quiet as a mouse lol and I wouldn’t care too much but it aggravates me knowing what he’s usually like 😅.

Could you ask for a facilitator to be present at future meetings, to keep it on track?

I don’t think in person meetings are any better to be honest. In fact, I prefer teams meetings cos I can do other things.

Ahhh yes I have come across a few of these over the years. You just know the meeting will last x time longer and they will repeat in a different order someone else’s point or go off on a tangent.

It’s all about learning how to manage them, if it’s a quick meeting I would set expectations at the beginning and say we need to stay on x topic and the aim to get x decision. Then reiterate when needed. It’s hard and normally everyone is very aware of these people.

Heaven forfend that middle aged women might actually know what they are talking about and want to take up airtime from younger employees.

A decent clerk or chair would respond with a 'Thank you, mindful of time, we'll return to that under Any Other Business/add it to the agenda for next week's meeting, now, moving on to the next item' or 'We do need to ensure that we cover everything on the agenda first - that's you Lisa, isn't it?' without missing a beat.

I have this with one person in particular, male late 40s. Will not stop piping up.

however, there are lots across most of the meetings both genders and all ages.

then I have one colleague who does nothing but moan to me. About everything. Very draining.

You would hate where I work OP. Big corporation full of people of all ages and gender who just won’t shut the fuck up!!

I take the minutes and even though I’m not chair, the chair likes me to keep it under control, or the minutes end up a mess. I have been known to write ‘Jessica rabbiting apropos of nothing again’ or sigh : Aaaand, moving on’
Post menopausal and take no more shit!

Women do it too!

Really annoying woman I work with does all those things. She’s early forties. Plus, when senior management are making points on TEAMS meetings she vigorously nods her head. I want to scream at her to fucking stop it!!!

I don't think it's anything to do with age it's people who like the sound of their own voices .
Full of their own importance.....YAWN
This used to piss me off in meetings myself .

There's one of these in the meetings my partner has every day. He likes to lord it over people and pipe up all the time, problem is that he's often incorrect and doesn't actually know what he's talking about. He also takes credit of other people's work too, insufferable prick.

He's 57.

The boss in the meetings often has to ask him to let others speak.

Most meetings are a bit of a waste of time anyway.

There is always one show-off on any committee, in any meeting, work-related or not. I avoid any sort of meeting like the plague these days.

Are your colleagues Lisa Stanfield?

Unless I was tasked to take the minutes, it wouldn’t really bother me. I have to take minutes regularly which I’m not much good at. I’d hate to get a really verbose person prattling on whilst I was trying to take notes.

I have a guy like this in my team. Clearly just speaking for the sake of "being visible" - no matter what the meeting topic is, he'll pipe up. I know I'm unreasonable but I find it insufferable.

The problem with online meetings is you can't feel the vibe. When you're physically sat together you can see people glancing at their watches, facial expressions, feel the silence in the room when others ramble on etc. It's important for the leader to keep reminding ok we've got a lot to cover, let's move on...

I'm afraid that in my experience these people have all been women.

I was at a meeting last week where I was SO close to telling someone to shut up. Middle aged woman in that case, in a meeting that was 70:30 men to women

It’s worse when there are meetings or learning events that no one speaks at. Perhaps 1 or 2 people pipe up and everyone else is totally passive. Then those 1 or 2 people get resentful as they are the only ones bothering to participate.

I have people in my current team & a previous team like this but they are all woman

Meetings need an end time as well as a start time. And it ends at the set time, not when the gobshites have finished.

We have weekly meetings with about 15 people and there are about 3 or 4 (male and female) who have to have an opinion on absolutely everything. It's very tiring.