10 March 2010

Meetings, Meetings, and more Meetings

I don’t do well in meetings that require me to sit quietly for more than half an hour, forty minutes tops. Short attention span doesn’t even cover it. Church is okay because it has a lot of variety and a lot of it I find interesting. Work meetings are another matter. Maybe if I got to sing “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes” in the middle of them I would have a different opinion.

I truly enjoy my job but it requires attending a lot of meetings that don’t always apply to me. It just looks good to have my name on the roll because something might possibly be discussed that I need to know. When that something does come up, great, I take a note. When it doesn’t, I wish to bang my head on the desk so I’ll fall unconscious and the meeting will end faster.

For a while I had so many meetings I could barely get work done. I even had meetings preparing for other meetings. I still can’t figure those ones out. Why on earth would I have to meet with a group to discuss what we’ll talk about in the next meeting? My manager at the time thought they were great. The manager would take notes and then tell everyone in the next meeting everything we had done, but we were still expected to go. That way, if anyone asked a question, we would be able to answer. I wouldn’t have minded if I didn’t have to be there. Someone reporting for me is great.

I like to talk. That is part of the same problem. I don’t think about what I’m saying. I go to all kinds of meetings, and since I am not really paying attention, when I’m asked a question, all kinds of random information comes out. There are days I wonder why people still invite me places. I feel like the Shel Silverstein poem “If you have to dry the dishes.” Maybe I’ll say something so off I’ll no longer be invited to meetings.

Funny Note:
In my Monday meeting, I was busy drawing elephants (see my Flash Fiction story this week if you’re wondering why). I would’ve felt bad, except my manager was sitting next to me and kept complimenting me as he watched me draw.

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