Flibbertigibbet

Work Pet Peeve

As we all know, I hate meetings. But one thing that I really hate in meetings is when people can't stay on topic.

I hosted a training meeting today. (I hated to do it, but I knew that if I didn't train these people, then they would pretend like they didn't know how to use the application even though there are instructions posted all over it.)

So, in my training meeting, the attendees start discussing how they will adjust their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to use the application. To an extent, this is fine. 20 minutes of discussion is beyond the acceptable limit.

And then the conversation starts drifting even further afield into other topics about how other teams do things and all of that. Meanwhile, I'm trying to jump in to steer the conversation back, but this group of people are the sort who WILL NOT STOP TALKING. It doesn't matter if you pipe up to interject something or not. They will complete their monologue regardless of what you are doing.

So, I just want to send a memo out to everyone that says, "If I want to have a meeting about how you and everyone else should be handling your shit, I'll do that. Otherwise, all meetings I host will focus on the one particular issues described in the agenda I include with the invitation."

Oh, and can people please show up on time to meetings and include agendas in the meetings THEY host?

That'd be great. Thanks.