Why boomers have so many meetings

Julie now has frequent email conversations with a Gen Xer.

The Gen Xer explains some of the behaviors in the office of her generation, and Julie explains why Baby Boomers (the bosses in the Gen Xer's office) behave the way they do. It's a fascinating dialogue.

Charlene says that since their bosses require them to have meetings (which the Boomer bosses do not attend), all the Gen Xers in the office go out of the office and have fun. Then when they get back to the office, they email each other and get the meeting business accomplished.
Email communication being far more time efficient than F2F meetings.
And F2F time far better spent doing non-meeting activities (fun, bonding, relationships, etc.)

Then Julie tells Charlene why Baby Boomers spend so much time in meetings.
It is because, for Boomers, the more time you spend in meetings the higher status it is.
The more important your job, the more time you spend in meetings.

This, of course, makes no productivity sense at all.
* Your most talented people waste much of the day in meetings.
* They then have to work late, during the least productive times of the day (late afternoon; weekends; nights).

Which is why F2F meetings decline in the 21st century, being replaced by far more efficient online communication.

Comments

[Bob Wallace]

I'm glad Willie graduated. School systems are such a large bureaucracy and it will take a long time to bring them to the realization that they have a problem (which they aren't there yet) and to actually get on the path toward fixing it. I read something several years ago that in a bureaucracy such as the school system, an idea takes 20 years to be implemented by the fringe element who is ahead of the curve and 50 years for everyone else. So, we have a long way to go, and I doubt that there will be substantial change in our lifetimes, I'm sorry to say.

[Charlene]

Just saw this - I've taken off most of the summer from work and I've been outside most of the time. I had to smile, because this was about me.

Another addition, though. Now the boss wants us to report back about our meetings at another meeting. Funny thing is, we've posted our "minutes" to the intranet every week. We don't think he knows how to use the intranet, and that's why he makes us report back.

-Charlene