Singapore Expats

I'm tired of sitting through >3hr meetings, sometimes up to 6 hrs, talking about only 1 or 2 agenda - 1. My back hurts. 2. My brain juice dries 3. I get very hungry. I'm 'supposed' to improve on my sitting-thru-meeting-for-hrs-and-still-contribute-actively skills - how? Ideas please.

P.s. I've done the asking for a 5 min break every 1 1/2 or 2 hr's time, saying I've gtg due to another meeting scheduled, etc. I'm amazed at the fact that the locals can sit through long meetings without a whine, but some of them do start to shut down at hour3.

How do you survive long meetings? Especially when these meetings are held regularly. I would love to hear some ideas.

irvine wrote:I'm tired of sitting through >3hr meetings, sometimes up to 6 hrs, talking about only 1 or 2 agenda - 1. My back hurts. 2. My brain juice dries 3. I get very hungry. I'm 'supposed' to improve on my sitting-thru-meeting-for-hrs-and-still-contribute-actively skills - how? Ideas please.

P.s. I've done the asking for a 5 min break every 1 1/2 or 2 hr's time, saying I've gtg due to another meeting scheduled, etc. I'm amazed at the fact that the locals can sit through long meetings without a whine, but some of them do start to shut down at hour3.

How do you survive long meetings? Especially when these meetings are held regularly. I would love to hear some ideas.

How is it possible to discuss for > 3hrs with 1/2 agenda's ?

I have sat through training for >9 hrs but breaking every 1.5 ~ 2 hrs . My colleagues know that I smoke , so I do not bother to inform them. I will just get up and nod at the organizer and leave the room.

You can wear sunglasses . So that others cant notice you are sleeping

bring a pad; doodle. or work on a novel. nod every once in a while. pretend that someone's calling you on your phone but it's on vibrate.

All meetings are a matter of priority, you decide if you must be there or not! Obviously if it is not directly relevant, to your interests you do not stay. Though I'm a little unsure of the kind of meetings you are talking about. Either way if you feel uncomfortable with the length of time it takes, you must lodge an offical complaint.

Organisers tend to be not so professional, hence the quality drops a great deal. If it is company related meetings, then you really do need to voice your opinion. Meetings are supposed to be constructive otherwise they are pointless, that is to say if you are bored, go home! Because there is nothing there of interest, though if it is a Company related meeting be careful.

blue_thunder - to answer your question... Perfection is of utmost importance in every piece of document, ppt presentation, and webpage that goes out. That's why one item takes a long time.

While it is common for every organization to present things that are error free, I'm sure there are other ways of getting it done. For example, sending the stuff to a copyeditor (we use one for some projects), or have it done in an internal wiki by the team members, or the boss just review it one final round by him/herself, etc. I have suggested all of the above, only to be told that there is more value when we do it together as a team, in a meeting.

However... this is expensive, inefficient, time consuming, and even embarrassing when scrutiny and humiliation starts. Unfortunately, this is the way the boss likes to do it.

Sometimes, I do opt out in some meetings that don't involve me directly. But doing that too much can be labeled as lack of teamwork bcoz apparently my feedback is appreciated.

Working on a novel sounds like a great idea! I wish I could just place my clone in the meeting room, and go play golf myself.

If you are the organiser, there is this good technique I once was introduced to at a start up. The big boss didn't like meetings, but since they are a necesary evil, he wanted to keep them short.

So evry meeting that he guessed should not take more then 30 minutes he had standing up, in a room with no chairs. Also scheduling them in early. This got every one motivated to get things moving and no meeting I attended ever took more then 15 minutes. They were really effective I must add.

Wouldn't work everywhere, and not in every situation, and would suck if you are just attending and have no influence over the cause of the meeting. Otherwise, make sure you are only attending the meetings you have to and make sure you only attend them for the agenda items concerning you.

irvine wrote:blue_thunder - to answer your question... Perfection is of utmost importance in every piece of document, ppt presentation, and webpage that goes out. That's why one item takes a long time.

While it is common for every organization to present things that are error free, I'm sure there are other ways of getting it done. For example, sending the stuff to a copyeditor (we use one for some projects), or have it done in an internal wiki by the team members, or the boss just review it one final round by him/herself, etc. I have suggested all of the above, only to be told that there is more value when we do it together as a team, in a meeting.

However... this is expensive, inefficient, time consuming, and even embarrassing when scrutiny and humiliation starts. Unfortunately, this is the way the boss likes to do it.

Sometimes, I do opt out in some meetings that don't involve me directly. But doing that too much can be labeled as lack of teamwork bcoz apparently my feedback is appreciated.

Working on a novel sounds like a great idea! I wish I could just place my clone in the meeting room, and go play golf myself.

I used to work for Japanese company. Whenever a VIP comes, we'd have meetings (more like sermons, really) that would last for hours where all that happens is this dude just says what he thinks about...we stopped listening after the fourth hour. We'd also have review sessions and videoconferences that take hours too and most of what happens is just either party reads off a document, some internal discussion, rinse, repeat, ad nauseam.

Complete waste of time. Bloody idiots don't know how to hold proper meetings. I'd call my team for a meeting to discuss things and we'd be done in ten minutes, twenty if there's a lot of stuff to discuss.

So, sometimes we'd sneak some documents that need reading, reviewing and whatnot, just so we don't have to bear with people who are enamored by the sound of their own voices and actually be productive and maybe cut down on inevitable overtime work. (If I don't have documents (hardcopy) to work on, my notebook would be full of doodles and notes on other things.)

And we tried telling them how ineffective these meetings were but we were just told that they are necessary and attendance compulsory.

irvine wrote:I'm tired of sitting through >3hr meetings, sometimes up to 6 hrs, talking about only 1 or 2 agenda - 1. My back hurts. 2. My brain juice dries 3. I get very hungry. I'm 'supposed' to improve on my sitting-thru-meeting-for-hrs-and-still-contribute-actively skills - how? Ideas please.

P.s. I've done the asking for a 5 min break every 1 1/2 or 2 hr's time, saying I've gtg due to another meeting scheduled, etc. I'm amazed at the fact that the locals can sit through long meetings without a whine, but some of them do start to shut down at hour3.

How do you survive long meetings? Especially when these meetings are held regularly. I would love to hear some ideas.

Does anything actually come out of these meetings? Sounds like a bull session.

Just do up a pair of these...........

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-To-Make-S ... es-4544624

Here is what you need for these meetings.

http://www.bullshitbingo.net/cards/bullshit/

problem is, after the 1st 15 minutes, everybody would have bingo'd and what would they do for the next 2 hrs & 45 minutes.

Strong Eagle wrote:Here is what you need for these meetings.

http://www.bullshitbingo.net/cards/bullshit/

My colleague played that long ago with our telco client. It got a laugh cause they were mainly techies with only a couple of manager-types in the room!

sundaymorningstaple wrote:Just do up a pair of these...........

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-To-Make-S ... es-4544624

I made fake eyes for my colleague for one of those homilies-er-meetings. Even though they were just made of bond paper drawn with pencil, he wore them through the whole 4 hours asleep and no one even noticed.

On another note, these may be less inconspicuous: http://gizmodo.com/356627/eyelid-sticke ... ind-idiots

While it is common for every organization to present things that are error free, I'm sure there are other ways of getting it done. For example, sending the stuff to a copyeditor (we use one for some projects), or have it done in an internal wiki by the team members, or the boss just review it one final round by him/herself, etc. I have suggested all of the above, only to be told that there is more value when we do it together as a team, in a meeting.

Tell your boss there can be no team work, if the team doesn't have the skill set to discuss the project. All you will get is verbal shit and wannabe's
You need people who can team up together to produce results, and they will normally have insight into the vision of what maybe good or bad, then you can have a debate.

Though if you have no knowledge of art and design it will be very difficult to contribute anything worth while, everything thing we do is skills related, no skill or very limited interested, will cause a problem...that's why you have leaders who should have the ability to read people like a book...
I can tell you i'm no expert in anything, but i have a damned good knowledge of everything i do, otherwise I wouldn't poke my nose in.

I see the problem every day dealing with Owners of business, that do not have a clue about what they are doing, because they believe in leadership and not skills, this is like cutting your own throat, because you get no respect whatsoever from your workers.

I can honestly tell you that any army officer that takes over a unit, learns from his men, and until the men are comfortable he, will never be their leader... I have faced some really hard bastards on my travels, though hard bastards can also be so stupid with their head in the sand, because of ego and power...I see people controlled by fear, because they are in debt to come and work here becuase they are shafted left right and centre

Personally i feel sick to death of it all, and i will not tolerate it within my space, people are people and not slaves! And that's exactly what companies need to address, many companies are receiving grants to improve their capabilities, it's also up to the workers to be reasonable and to understand, that they must be productive to earn their keep.

Singapore is all about education in my opinion, and the government is actually injecting money to encourage growth, which means using the consultants that are offering their services. If your boss is inviting everyone to take part in meetings, then you are correct in your assumptions that its a waste of money. Why don't you just refer them to this thread, so the discussion can be debated. Anonymously if you like! Most are companies that have limited financial control typical of many MNC, that take in MBA graduates with limited experience, they would normally climb the ladder more quickly though none have practical manmanagement experience in exteme stressfull situations, confidence can only be gained by practical experience in my mind in many skills. Otherwise what are you? A wanker that likes to play boss! Though it is true, that a leader will take control in many situations, though not with me

Love the Bullshit Bingo! Haha... Worth a try in the next long one.