Tuesday, April 17, 2007
I hate conference calls
Conference Calls = The biggest waste of time and money in corporate life.
Now I don't know how it is in your company, but let me tell you how it is in mine: If I didn't fight it I could easily spend 75% of my time on a conference call.
I really don't see the need. I prefer to do all my business by email ... need a status ... send an email .... need to discuss a solution send an email .. wait for a reply send another reply ... get a nice chain letter going.
I hate having to talk to people .... or be forced to listen to be blather on for hours just so I can get my 5 minutes of my business done.
When I write an email I have time to collect and refine my thoughts. Email also provide the necessary audit trail for those occasions when you need to say "I told you so on 2/17/06"
Most conference calls seem like the person running the call doesn't know how to do their job so they let the collective wisdom do it for them. What is worse, most people "multitask" while they're on a conference call. So that means they're doing two jobs poorly! Countless times I'll here something like: "Sue what is your status on item 12? ... Sue ??? ... Oh yes I'm sorry, I was distracted. What was the question??"
People have started walking around campus ... or eating lunch with cell phone ear pieces in their ears.
The madness needs to stop!!!
All conference calls should be banned! If it's important enough call a real meeting ... in a real room ... where everyone sits at a table and can see everyone. A real meeting where people have some skin in the game by showing up. If people actually had get up from their desk and focus at a meeting we would have far fewer meetings to attend and maybe we could get some work done rather than talking about it all the time.
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 9:13 PM
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