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A Day Stuck in Meetings with Huge Egos Is a Nightmare

The best coping strategy is to do what most never do.

Tim Denning
Index

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Image Credit–BigShort/Plan B Productions

Meetings blow up your week. All your time flows into the sewer. You’re smart and knew that already. It’s the other part of meetings that is rarely discussed that I want to bring your attention to. It’s taboo.

You’re not supposed to say what I’m about to say. It could ruin your career. But don’t worry, my career is already down the toilet, so I can say it, and you can take the lessons and use them.

Low-ranking slobs

I enter the room five minutes early as a sign of respect. The low-ranking slobs like me are all there. Why? We don’t want to get fired by a job title greater than ours. It’s the unwritten rule of meetings: don’t work the frontline and then be late to a meeting full of egos. It could be your last.

I sit down in the worst chair possible. There’s a rip in the middle. The chair looks like it came out of the 80s bad boss movie Glengarry Glen Ross, starring Alec Baldwin. The clean chairs are reserved for the cashmere butts.

1 pm approaches. Higher ranking corporate leaders scuffle in with their gourmet sandwiches and big teeth smiles.

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