Meetings have been ridiculed so much that it’s no fun in writing about them anyone more. Over the past few years I have attended some meeting and those meetings caused trouble more than anything else for me (well there have been exceptions) so I feel a compulsion to write about some of them and hope you like it.

Hijack

Hijack is a meeting monopolized by just one person who keeps talking continuously usually about a topic generally not related to the agenda. What usually happen is that by mistake the invitation of the meeting goes to someone whose objective is to keep coming with problems, even if the problems are created just to make a life little difficult for us, they are not there to contribute to the decision making but to disrupt it. At the first opportunity, that person engages some one in a discussion; usually a fruitless one and keep going on and on and on like the energizer bunny. You went in a meeting to discus the strategy of a new project you’re starting and end up trying to explain how it’s not important to add water for dilution the printer cartridge to save money on printing.

Clueless

All meetings are not scheduled in advance some are done very impulsively. In such meetings, alot of people are not aware about the agenda. What usually happen is the one or two people decided to have a meeting are aware of what they are discussing while others are just clueless mute witness. Alexander pope has said, “there is nothing more dangerous than incomplete knowledge.” But there are a lot of people who don’t belive in that and with their incomplete knowledge of the subject they give suggestions that complicate the issue more than it was before the meeting.

Power nap

Some meetings come as welcome break because you were called not really to participate in the discussion but because you are remotely related to the subject. Since you are not really required to provide your inputs, it’s safe to steal a nap.

Time pass meetings

Some of your coworkers are not as occupied as you are and you may find yourself in a meeting they have called to discuss something unimportant and not related to you, just to kill some time. If your efficiency is measured by how many meetings you call or attend, it’s a good idea to have such meetings.

Blame storming

Murphy’s law suggests that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This law always holds true and whey you are involved in a project that has gone wrong, you’ll find yourself in a meeting room with others in the project team. Those meetings are generally called to “kick some arse” and everyone blames everyone else for the screw up and leave with a feeling of hostility that stays till they leave the job.