This is pure brilliance — the folks at 37Signals, which makes minimalistic, web-based productivity tools — has declared Wednesday, Jan. 19th "Boycott a Meeting Day." Why? Because meetings stop us from actually getting any work done.
In his inspired performance at TED Midwest, 37Signal's co-founder Jason Fried argues passionately that work, particularly the creative sort, requires long periods of uninterrupted time. This is why so many people come in early or work over the weekend when they actually have something concrete to do. No one really works during peak office hours. The time between 9 and 5 is chopped into tiny, little 15 minute chunks of meetings, conference calls, presentations and other nonsense that white collar types have convinced themselves is "work." Funny that much of this productivity cuisinarting is accomplished with the aid of "productivity software" like Microsoft's Outlook, Google's Calendar and Apple's iCalendar.
According to this web site, worker bees subject themselves to around 62 hours worth of meetings a month, events where they indulge in activities like daydreaming (91%), doing other work (73%) or sleeping (39%). I'm not sure how precisely reliable these statistics are, but my experience of corporate America suggests that they might understating the case. I have attended meetings were every single soul present was simultaneously using their BlackBerries, including the poor sucker who was droning on about…something.
And that's the big problem. Very rarely is anything accomplished in a meeting. They tend to be attended by way too many people, all of whom feel obligated to speak, even when they have nothing to say. They meander and digress to fill the allocated time. And they are often conjured into existence by self-important managerial types who consider it their actual full-time job to attend meetings. At one particularly low-point in my professional career I had a colleague who called meetings in order to schedule other meetings. He has since been fired and no one really misses him.
So, workers of the world, heed 37Signal's call and unite for Boycott a Meeting Day. You have only your chains to lose.
Thanks to Michael NoerI / blogs.forbes
