Office Toil

Why offices are like airports. Or, how to maybe have meetings start on time.

In my world, 9:30am meetings start at 9:45am. So, like airports, by the time afternoon meetings come around they are all at least 15mins behind and in some cases cancelled all together. This problem is driven by many factors, not least of which is that since lateness is a common truth, people assume meetings will start late so they turn up late. But then there are the environmental factors, like working in a huge building where getting from conference room to conference room requires some travel time.

I have been advocating, to mostly deaf ears, a system like high school. The day is broken 50min periods. Meetings are scheduled within periods. Then there is a 10 minute buffer to get from room to room, and maybe even stop at your desk to change notebooks or go to the bathroom.

I am intentionally ignoring the obvious since it seems like too big a problem to tackle. I see no way to convince people to have fewer meetings.

© 2009 Work Life Balance.