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.
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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
Posted by: Charlene | August 02, 2005 at 09:25 AM
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.
Posted by: Bob Wallace | July 24, 2005 at 10:04 PM