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Can 2022 Please Be The Year We Have Less Meetings?
It’s time to think about how they really impact on people
I’m pretty sure that I’ve attended more meetings in the last twenty months than in the thirty or so years of my pre-2020 working life.
Strides in workplace technology have been a pandemic success story, enabling many people to continue their employment and provide necessary services, albeit in a modified format. I’m privileged to have maintained secure employment, and I’ve reaped the benefits of flexibility in my work environment.
Yet, it hasn’t come without a cost. The great irony of working remotely is that you’re left alone less. I long for uninterrupted afternoons in the office where I was left to my own devices, able to knuckle down and get some solid work done. But, these days, work is what I do in between the online meetings that have taken over my calendar.
There are team meetings, section meetings, one-on-ones with managers, and a smattering of non-compulsory get-togethers for which being a no-show would just look bad. Add to this any number of impromptu video calls people make when a phone call or even an email would do.
It’s all about the need for us to remain connected. It took me a while to realize that the early pandemic talk about connectivity…
