to get hacked off with people who talk too much in meetings?

[cloudfall]

Just had the most tedious 3 hour long meeting that was at least twice as long as it needed to be, due entirely to the fact that people don't know how to be circumspect and waffle on and on making the same point in a really convoluted way.

I think the entire discussion could be summarised in one paragraph and yet it went on for 3 hours. AIBU to think some people love the sound of their own voice too much?!

They should be allowed an amount of time. It’s the only way to deal with it. When they’ve had their time then move on.

Its down to the person chairing the meeting. Never understood why meetings have starting times but not finishing times.

There's one woman on our team who, when the Chair asks 'any questions?', always bloody goes back to something that's been covered in the meeting and asks irrelevant questions about it.

I've come to believe that 99% of all meetings are just ways to waste time whilst 'looking busy'. It's always "Shall we meet to discuss X..." and "shall we get our heads together for Y..." when mostly, it's a simple request or job that could have been put in an email in 2 minutes flat.

@annonymousse you've hit the nail on the head there. I've always said people who can talk and talk always progress and sound knowledgeable but don't actually do any work. It's frustrating they get ahead. Those that get to the point and get on with their job get overlooked. So glad I don't work in the corporate world anymore.

Drives me insane.
My boss uses 100 words where 1would do, loves the sound of her own voice, and drones on endlessly, before coming to the point about half an hour after everyone has already got it.😤

@PurpleSky300 - I honestly had one boss who wanted to call a meeting to discuss what we were going to discuss at the team meeting. Not like strategy, planning, stats or anything. Literally discuss the agenda we were going to discuss that afternoon.

Exactly, it's so pointless isn't it. What purpose do these meetings serve, except to make a few people feel important.

In our team, it's the women who do this. Bloody annoying. I muted my microphone and hoovered the living room once while she was doing it. She was still droning on when I'd finished.

One has to question why the manager / person leading the meeting, doesn't politely stop them and ask them to summarise. "I'm so sorry to interrupt Paul/Brenda/xxx but I am conscious of time so ....".

It's not hard.

Exactly Oblomov. This is the Chair's responsibility.

I chair quite a few meetings; at one point I wasn't very effective. I allowed way too much discussion & tied myself in knots about being 'nice'. I'm over that now, and am efficient with time, and everyone, including me, needs to get to the point quickly.

No one is allowed to sit down in my meetings, everyone gets to the point quicky and they never take very long now.

I find it's the ones who don't actually do much work but are trying to convince everyone (and probably themselves aswell) that they do actually work hard, so make up lots of bullshit to say. What's worse is the amount of senior management who seem to fall for it.

I was recently questioned why I don't contribute much to meetings. I dont feel the need beyond saying that things have been done. I dont need to waffle lots.

Yes, this drives me mad. It’s rude, and in my work it’s always the men. Especially in the kind of meeting where each project is supposed to be giving a brief progress update, and certain people interpret this as “go into great detail about every aspect of it”. And they STILL do it when the Chair starts off by saying we’ve got a lot to get through so please can everyone be brief.

Christ. If someone told me I couldn't sit down I'd be mightily pissed off.

There's chairing effectively & then there's being ridiculous.

I work in a sector like this, and it's always the men. I know I am talkative, but I am aware of the people around me. I tend to go, "does anyone else have anything else to say" and that's how I tend to neutralise it because it gives time for things to move on.

Just got this Birthday card for my Brother

Standing up is ridiculous, unless the meeting is circa 10 minutes and even then for some people that would be impossible

Yes.

I have a standing desk, and personally, for online meetings, I stand up - my choice - and it helps me be efficient.

I wouldn't impose it on colleagues, of course!

I work in an all-woman organisation and pretty much always have so it's always women for me!!

Reminds me of being at uni when you'd be at the end of a lecture and they'd ask if anyone had questions. You'd always get one person who'd ask some ridiculously convoluted thing and then spend ages going back and forth with the lecturer while the rest of us were desperate to leave.

I sat in a meeting today listening to someone give a 45 minute presentation and at the end of it I have literally no idea what the purpose of it was.

I see it a a failure of the Chairperson - if someone is going on and on and wasting everyone's time they need to tell them to get on with it etc

I think this approach often disadvantages women - heels/low blood pressure/period pain/seem to get sore feet or legs faster. When we did this in my company invariably the men talked for just as long, the women talked for a lot less time and sometimes didn't come to meetings/left early/were so uncomfortable they couldn't participate fully.

This. Get a ruthless person, who is busy to chair. I still remember Noreen from my old work. Vicious with time she was. Meetings were short, useful and efficient.

I used to work with ‘’more of a comment than a question’ man, that was the worst.

Same here.

Utterly mind numbing. I partly blame poor leadership from whoever is chairing or facilitating though.

Yanbu. I used to be staff governor at a school and certain managers would go on and on and on - basically posturing, explaining what they’d done in unfiltered detail.
There’s also always someone who has an AOB isn’t there! Just as you think you’re about to get away.