Too many meetings leaving no time to actually get work done?

[teddyeddie]

Does anyone else have a ridiculous number of meetings in their job which stops them actually doing any work and meeting deadlines?

For example, the last few days I have had back to back meetings 9-5 and a 15 minute lunch!! I work 10 hour days over 4 days. I’m not even getting a decent break.

It’s just meeting after meeting - most organised by our line manager who is obsessed with meetings (that could be just an email ).

NHS.

Oh hell no, I would not stand for this. As woman in a dominated industry, I have been coached to politely refuse to take minutes or make tea/coffee even when I am the most junior person in the room. It’s never done me any harm, in fact it’s usually well received.

Have you ever asked him why he doesn’t ask your male colleagues to take minutes?

Yep, local authority, fairly low grade, we have meetings about allocated tasks, then another meeting about that meeting, then yet another meeting to talk about that meeting !

I had this in a previous job. For about a month, I religiously recorded the time I spent doing whatever I was doing every single day. The final stats showed that an inordinate amount of time was spent on pointless internal meetings and that it was forcing me to go well over my hours, often at home, to get the work done. I very simply explained that I could no longer do the additional hours (I had a 1 year old who I was missing time with) and something had to give. It worked and the number of internal meetings was really reduced.

In your shoes I would also point out that it was not my role to take notes and ask that the notes either be done by AI or the group attending take it in turns. You might find you are asked to attend fewer meetings when you are not the default note taker. But what a sexist pig your boss is. Unacceptable.

Stop.

Immediately. Nothing will change while you keep the status quo.

Document everything and send a round up email every single day before you log off of your outstanding work with your actual work time you had in the day.

You need to make it his problem to solve. If you keep facilating it he will keep allowing you too.