Meeting C.R.A.P. face to face

When it comes to meetings, the only thing editors should be worried about is how to get out of them

Raise your hand if you have to attend a lot of meetings at your job.

Now keep those hands raised if you feel that most of those meetings are an effective way to use your time.

Hey, where did everybody go?

In a previous C.R.A.P. column, we introduced the idea of T.I.L.T.S—Things In Life That Suck. Dr. Phil, Dr. Phil’s show, trips to the dentist, Dr. Phil’s book, Dr. Phil’s personality, rap music, Dr. Phil’s lawn, probably Dr. Phil’s children . . . these are all T.I.L.T.S.

Well, one fact of corporate life is that most meetings are also T.I.L.T.S. I know this, because I work mostly from home. And I get a lot of work done at home, for one reason: I don’t have any meetings.

But when you work in an office, you have meetings all the time.

Meetings suck, and the thing they suck the most is time. Meetings mean small talk with coworkers you don’t even like that much. Meetings mean wasting precious minutes waiting for the “important” people to show up. Meetings mean listening to mediocre middle managers boring everybody with how busy they are.

Yes meetings, in corporate America, are most definitely T.I.L.T.S.