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?!

I feel your pain. I have loved having these meetings remotely because at least I could get on with other things while they drone on. We have a guy in our team who is utterly incapable of getting on with a task. He always has to broaden it to some convoluted "strategic thinking" in an effort to make himself look clever. So tedious!

It's a skill to chair a meeting well and most aren't.

I remember being in a training meeting once
was meant to be about an hour/hour and a half ish
7 and a half fucking hours due to one woman picking over every single point in minute detail with questions on top
i staggered home just as my dp walked in
i was fuming but very grateful she left not long after
ive never met anyone who loved the sound of her own voice as much as she did and talk about a real teachers pet-I really thought I’d live to the end of my days in that room

I remember being in a training meeting once
was meant to be about an hour/hour and a half ish

Those facilitators must have been dreadful then.

I facilitate and timing is all-important. Not in a billion years would I go even an hour over, never mind hours.

I remember being in a training meeting once
was meant to be about an hour/hour and a half ish
7 and a half fucking hours due to one woman picking over every single point in minute detail with questions on top
That is bad management of the facilitators. When it became apparent she was a serial questioner they should have asked her to email any questions to them as time was running out.

I was in an online meeting this morning where someone from marketing (I don't know who he is: nobody bothered to introduce him) talked for over five minutes and I had no idea whatsoever what he was talking about. His first five sentences must have contained twenty undefined abbreviations, so no meaning conveyed at all.

Its always the same people. And it’s always men.

Seriously? Where do you work? In my experience, love of one's own voice in meetings is entirely gender-neutral.

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

You should try academic conferences. After every presentation there will be someone who stands up, talks about his/her own work for several minutes (with no reference to anything in the presentation that's just been given) and then says "Would you care to comment on that?"

And God save us from "Devil's advocates". Anyone who uses that phrase should be put in a furnace and have pitchforks shoved up his/her bum.

Meetings aren’t inherently bad.

But there’s real skill in chairing them well and making the most of the time together.

If people waffle on with technical terms and unknown acronyms I always ask what they mean (if I’m interested anyway). Partly because I often need to know, and partly because I think it’s on the speaker to make sure the audience understands.

Sometimes it has the added bonus of backfooting the speaker too.

It's whoever is chairing the meeting to manage this. Why are they not moving it on and sticking to a time limit?

Also I have no hesitation in leaving meetings that are dragging on… ‘sorry, but I really do need to go at 10.30!’ Or whatever the original end time was!!

Its always the same people. And it’s always men
It really isnt!!🤣

Love this! Know exactly what you mean (and guiltily may be this person myself at times)

Oh YY to the 'more of a comment than a question' man (person). There's always one - usually as the meeting or whatever is about to wrap up and everyone is looking forward to lunch/coffee/scarpering off home.

(If you are guilty of this - cease, now!! Everyone hates you for it)