We should have a meeting and discuss this!

One of the things that I had almost forgotten about, but is now quickly coming back to me is the amount of long winded and pointless meetings that exists in the more corporate environment. Recently I participated in a meeting together with Mr. Shachou, the sales manager and the marketing manager to discuss an upcoming event.

I'm still so new in the company that I don't really have any prior involvement in this particular event and participate more as an observer at this stage and since I do not want to stir up too much trouble too soon by speaking my mind about some of the more questionable topics and directions.

So, remember, that participating in this particular meeting is the president, marketing manager, sales manager and me, so some of the top layer in the company. The marketing manager explains his plans for the event (pretty long winded with extreme amount of detail, but I can live with that). Then he reaches the stage where he talks about the help he needs from some of the salespeople in the organization and hands out a list with names of about 7 salespeople and the tasks that he has in mind for them.

Then he comes to the person that will operate the computer which is not as difficult as it sounds, it consists of clicking to the next slide when the speaker says "next slide" and nothing more really. A heated discussion breaks out involving both managers and the president whether another salesman would be more suitable for this task or not, this discussion goes on for about 5 minutes until a conclusion has been reached: another salesguy will do that instead.

All the time during this discussion I am just sitting there stunned by the whole thing; that such a minor and insignificant topic requires a discussion involving the top layer of the company. Well, the absurdity of it provided me with some entertainment at least!