
Ask HN: What bothers you most at meetings at work? - rachel_um
Hey, I`m Rachel. I&#x27;m a software engineer and sometimes I get bored at work because of meetings.<p>I hate useless meetings at work and I would like to discuss with you guys what means a good or a bad meeting at work.<p>Or am I the only one who doesn&#x27;t like meetings that I don&#x27;t even know why I was invited? :P<p>Thank you
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pca184
When meetings have no predefined goal or agenda. They tend to go overtime and
usually digress into semi-related topics that aren't the reason why the
meeting was needed in the first place. Most of the people there are completely
bored as the conversation now has no relevance to their work and it's just so
frustrating as it's burning people's valuable time. On the flip side, I've had
some great and productive meetings when there's been a designated 'meeting
leader'. E.g someone responsible for clearly communicating the meeting's goal
and keeping the conversation focused on that. Bonus points if they actively
promote participation from everyone in the room so the conversation isn't
hijacked by just a few people. Triple bonus points if they extract any action
items out of the conversation and help the team agree who should take
ownership of that item after the meeting ends

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jdauriemma
The hallmarks of a good meeting include relevance to all the attendees and
necessity of synchronous, face-to-face interaction. Most meetings fail to live
up to these ideals.

