Laptops in meetings?

[Mynametodaywillbe]

Not sure if this has been done before.

I know I've seen threads previously about people on their smartphones in meetings (overwhelmingly men in my experience), but now more and more people - in my line of work anyway - seem to think it's fine to bring a laptop into a meeting and tap away, not just taking notes but reading and responding to emails etc. Again, in my experience it's men who do this. Am I being old fashioned in thinking this is rude and unprofessional or is it now really acceptable?

Drives me nuts too!

Sorry I don't mean to be rude but have you been out of the workforce for the last 10 years?

No I haven't been out of the workforce, but I've worked in a couple of organisations led by women who would not accept such behaviour. Recently I've been in a more male dominated environment and the difference is stark.

If you turn up at the weekly management meeting at my place of work without your iPad it's assumed you've forgotten it. Given that all our papers are accessed through an app you'd be hard pressed to contribute to the meeting.

It's saved us over £3000 in printing costs a year and makes the meeting more efficient.

Rude and unacceptable. I actually set no laptops as a ground rule for meetings. The one person taking notes can use theirs but nobody else. No phones on table either.

Using an iPad to access documents is different from what I'm talking about. I regularly have my laptop with me to refer to documents, but I don't sit there thinking I am more important than everyone else and must read and respond to emails rather than focus on the meeting and the various contributors in the room.

It’s got nothing to do with men vs women

We use laptops as it saves printing and means we can take notes electronically to be saved. People do respond to emails etc. but having a laptop in meetings increases productivity generally. Obviously there are times when they need to be 100% focussed and a laptop is not appropriate but the majority of the time a laptop is completely acceptable.

I attend around 10 hours of meetings a week.

I often need to be there for questions but don’t need to contribute 100% of the time. No way am I spending an extra 8 hours odd behind after my working day each week to get the work done that I do while in a meeting room but not taking an active part in the conversation thread at that time.

If people are on their laptops in a meeting, it would initially make me query whether they needed to be there for that meeting... or whether they were being dragged in unnecessarily.

Yeah totally acceptable

I do this in one meeting a week because it is a big fat waste of time & an hour which I can use to reply to file & file a few emails.

I see very junior team members try and do this so they multitask to take notes.

I ask them to close the laptop and take notes so they fully understand what is going. It's incredibly rude so if they have to use their laptops I ask them to let everyone know in the meeting that they are indeed taking notes and not answering emails.

Maybe we should be thinking about planning meetings better and so those who are there contribute more and are not bored for most of the time.

I spend approx 1-5pm each day in meetings. If I didn't bring/use my laptop I would not get any work done. I tend to dial into some meetings from my desk so I can work at same time. Not ideal but it's that or working all evening. Pretty much everyone brings their laptops either to look at presentation on their own screen, check something if a question comes up etc. I can't go off Skype/laptop for 4 hrs a day.

neither rude, nor a "man" thing

very common in my workplace - especially in larger meetings when you are not involved in all parts of the conversation.

I have also dialled in whilst getting on with other work on my computer for certain meetings but I know I'm missing stuff when I do this and I think if you are presenting or leading a discussion it's very disconcerting to see those around you paying no attention.

I agree with PP who said we need to plan meetings better and ask why people who aren't contributing are there.

This is a sign that your organisation has too many bloody meetings.

I see it a lot too and have been bristling about the rudeness of it - but actually, Saints is right - if these people can spend the hour or half hour catching up on emails/reading documents, there's probably no reason why they should be in the meeting in the first place.

Yes, YABU.
It's got nothing to do with what sex you are either.
If it helps, I've been in a meeting for most of today - all women, and everyone has their laptop infront of them.

Long gone are the days when people have time to hand write notes, then type them up later - you do it as you do along. All then finished, as the meeting finishes. Of course it also has the advantage of you being able to have at your fingertips any data, or notes, or e-mails that you may want to refer to during the meeting.

Re the 'catching up with e-mails' - At today's meeting, two members of our Team weren't involved in every bit of every discussion, but it was a long day with them needed for most of it, and times were a little flexible, so it was pointless the two of them going out the room for 10mins whilst they didn't need to contribute then someone having to go and fetch them back in, they might as well get on with something useful there until they were needed for the next bit.
We are so short staffed no-one has the luxury of being able to do anything other than efficiently in my job. The very point of laptops are that they are transferable and can be used wherever you are.

I take my (own, as opposed to work) laptop to all meetings I go to in evenings with my volunteering now too. If it SO much more efficient - really liberating.

I once had an interview where the interviewer (my potential boss) was checking her emails on her blackberry during the interview. Bit rude if you ask me.

I often take my laptop in to meetings so I've got access to my emails and files for reference but agree, it's next to impossible to adequately concentrate and take notes if you're reading emails in a meeting. Even just seeing the alert pop up on the phone can be distracting. I've told junior members of the team to focus only on the one task at meetings, especially if they're in charge of writing minutes (a whole other thread! One colleague of mine was supposed to write minutes after a meeting, barely wrote anything down then had the cheek to ask for my notes )