to not be able to bear being in meetings any more?

[liltclassic]

I cannot take the sound of other people's voices going on and on and on any more. I've spent nearly all week stuck in meetings with people droning on about absolutely nothing and I honestly feel like weeping with boredom. I'm in one at the minute and someone has been speaking in the most monotonous voice imaginable for an hour and it's physically painful it's so boring. If he doesn't shut up soon I'm going to start crying.

AIBU to think that people shouldn't talk in meetings unless they've got something to actually say, and it's rude to keep going on and on and on?

I used to develop an itch everywhere: in my eyes, nose, ears, all over the face and have weepy eyes very often in meetings. Someone even asked "are you allergic to something?" and I answered "maybe meetings. I'm ok once we are back to the desks". Still don't know what it is.

I also realised there is no point taking apiece of paper to write down the crap. because there's nothing to write down. But I'd write a long word and try to make as many 4 and 5letter ones out of it, during meetings. It helped.

YA so not BU.
I think some people genuinely have meetings just to make themselves look busy.
I cannot stand pointless waffle.

The meetings at my company are simply chaotic.
Many are arranged last minute e.g. an invite will go out in the morning for meeting in afternoon. I’ve had one invite literally 2 mins before the start time.
There is rarely an agenda and if there is one it’s a few lines in the invite that rarely make sense/are of any substance.
No one takes minutes or record of actions and rarely get a follow up e-mail after meeting. Even then it is usually vague and includes actions not actually agreed on in meeting
No such thing as a chair person it’s usually just a free for all.
Meetings rarely start on time as at least one or more invitees are late or don’t turn up.
Meetings get cancelled / rescheduled frequently often just before due to start
Often there’ll be different groups of people meeting about the same thing and doing different things about it
On the plus side they don’t last too long!

I actually think crying in a meeting because it's boring and repetitive would be a fabulous and funny thing to do. Can you imagine it. You begin weeping and someone says "are you ok Duds?" And I respond with "this is all just so tedious I can't stand it". I want to be in that meeting when that happens!

I have several weekly mandatory meetings. The same things are mentioned each time, which strikes me as bad management. If you (manager) are still commenting on This problem then this method you're taking isn't a solution to the problem!

I currently have the best boss in the history of the world ever and the main reason I love him is his ability to cut through all crap at meetings. Meetings that used to be so long that outside the seasons would have changed now take half an hour tops. He's completely ruthless and it works.

I have sat through meetings where Item 1 (minutes of the previous meeting) and item 2 (matters arising from the minutes) could last an hour. Crying really does seem like the only option sometimes.

Omg, meetings. Always just before lunch at my last workplace so everyone was starving by the time the droning finished. You'd think it would've hurried them up but no such luck. Review of the minutes and the points discussed last time. People reading out endless figures and stats. Some passive aggressive comments about how staff are going about requesting training or addressing other people slightly inappropriately etc, nobody kneq what/who it would be in reference too and everybody glancing at each other to see if they know what has triggered it. The usual people waffling to get their name in the minutes/appear important. Usually a long, drawn out discussion, with load of repetition of the same points, relating to some ongoing issue but no actual decision or course of action reached - infuriating! The last manager would finish with a comprehensive list of all company documents up for review the following month - no matter how obscure or irrelevant.

Omg yanbu... meetings about meetings in my work place. Load of old shite

Anyone else find their eyelids sabotage their 'awake face' during meetings? My bloody lids start closing down. I have to drink strong coffee and excuse myself so I can do some star jumps outside. My eyelids are like a pair of rebellious toddlers.

I am having to look round secondary schools with ds and the head teachers go on a bit. I managed to trawl through the TK Maxx site at yesterday's headteacher talk and buy myself a very nice navy coatigan.

I swear to you that the world would function much better if we only had more talented Chairs.

I swear to you that the world would function much better if we only had more talented Chairs.

I agree. This is the fault of the chairs. I wonder if my place would take well to a chair training session. I’m going to ask for a meeting about it.

Settles into the thread

Yes. I go all Judd Nelson from The Breakfast Club when meetings go on for too long.

We used to have a department head whose mantra was "a good meeting is a short meeting" and would aim for 15 minutes tops. It was a beautiful thing. However he got transferred. So now we have Ms Pedantic who goes through every single slide, every spreadsheet and calls on every staff member to have their say.

We also have someone who comes to meetings with the express purpose of turning it into Fight Club. He walks in and my heart sinks, knowing he will create some kind of argument over just about anything. Meeting then goes on forever with management trying to placate him.

Ms Pedantic: So we are going to order some stationery with the brand on it.
Mr Argumentative: Why? I would like to see a survey done to get staff input into this. Why do you never listen to us? Don't you know your staff are your greatest asset? Why do you dismiss our opinions as if they don't matter?
And on and on.

Ms Pedantic: So we've decided to do x on Fridays rather than Thursdays because of these reasons....
Mr Argumentative: Are we working under Stalin here? You can't ask us to do that. It's too much pressure and far too onerous and I completely refuse.
And on and on.

The thing is, you would not believe me if I told you what Mr Argumentative's job was. Think along the lines of meditation teacher, wellness coach, that kind of thing... You'd think someone with that job would be super relaxed and easy going. But no.
It's a big relief when he is on leave.

Meetings are the bane of my job. I despise them.

I hate hate hate meetings so much that i have just negotiated an earlier start and a 4.30pm finish each day because of "childcare issues"!! It's not true, it just gets me out of going to meetings! I am emailed the minutes and can ask if i have any questions- i never do!

Genius! I relate to this so much @user1483390742. I actually took a step down in seniority in my last job to avoid the endless meetings.

DD has long meetings in her role. I observed her once and she looked incredibly alert. I asked her how she did it and she said she "goes to Hogwarts" . She has a brilliant imagination and has all kinds of adventures with Harry and Hermione while the meetings drone on around her.

I hate meetings too, people droning on an on. I once decided to go to a few parish council meetings in the village, and noticed that quite a few people cannot speak clearly, they mumble all the time.Also there were always quite a lot of pretentious people in the church hall, the ones with the best ideas and thoughts about everything, not.

Newcomers did not seem to matter at these meetings, as some of the people have been on the parish council for about a hundred years ha ha, so they seemed to rule ok.

Argh I hate meetings I get so impatient with people constantly going off topic about something that should be taken outside of that meeting.
My coworker also constantly comes over and says "we need to have a meeting about xyz then after we say when he'll stay there and talk about the meeting . I've started to call him out now and say "oh are we having the meeting now?"
Same guy also always schedules meetings but then takes a call and has a different lengthy phone call. It's so disrespectful especially if more than one other person is involved and had it in their calendar
Inevitably the meetings don't happen since when he's finally ready no one else is free anymore

Love this thread. A colleague is obsessed with meetings. She regularly suggests to me we should have a meeting. I ask her what she wants to chat about so then she goes on and on. I will then say I see what you mean so we don't really need a meeting I will get on with it. Or such like.
Could someone please explain the Theresa reference as I am in the dark.

I hate meetings that are scheduled for more than 2 hours, badged as a Workshop. It just gives people an excuse to steal a large chunk of time, but no planned agenda.

Argh I hate meetings I get so impatient with people constantly going off topic about something that should be taken outside of that meeting.

If I'm chairing the meeting, I have a "Parking Lot" (a whiteboard to jot down any points that go off on a tangent)

It shuts the offender up and often they don't bother to discuss their point outside the meeting, it was all just a load of hot air.

I introduced standing meeting for this exact reason!
So effective at making that a short meeting

There is truly nothing worse than meeting that drones on. I chair at meeting every few months and you can guarantee it will be short and to the point because I hate them!

@Monty27 your Prime Minister.

Unless you’re not in the UK like me. Our PM goes by the moniker ScoMo. Seriously.

catastic thank you, silly me! I am in the UK

I feel the worst meetings are actually those where questions need to be asked and things need to be said , but nobody dares put themselves forward to speak out. I find that much more frustrating.
Although to be honest, when you get to the end of a presentation and the person says “any questions?” it’s not really giving people chance to process what they’ve just been told and formulate the questions they might want to ask.

There is nothing worse in meetings then a weak chairperson. I am so glad I have changed careers and don’t have to put up with boring cooperate meetings anymore

I suggested standing up meetings at my last place because I thought it might unnerve the Drony Git into shutting up.

no luck.

the meetings were a set day of the week and every week, that day I think "thank goodness I don't work there any more" - and that's mostly because of one out of control guy.