Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It_ The Results-Only Revolution - Cali Ressler [11]
But what about meetings? What about teams? We’ll spend more time on meetings and management in the coming chapters, but for now we’ll just say this:
Everyone knows that for every productive meeting there are at least two more that aren’t.
Everyone knows that once a meeting reaches a certain size it’s likely that at least three people will be there who don’t have to be there.
Everyone knows that a good portion of what is accomplished in a meeting—meaning the actual exchange of information—could be handled through e-mail.
We think the point of meetings is to get work done. But meetings are also a way of expressing and exercising our outdated beliefs about work. This is why people who are double and triple booked are seen as more important than people who don’t have as many meetings. This is why people who can make other people go to meetings are seen as powerful, even if this power has nothing to do with effectiveness. This is why you can skate by in a job just by attending lots of meetings, because if you showed up then naturally you contributed. The work that gets done in meetings is fine. The unwritten and unspoken rules that surround meetings are one of the big reasons why work sucks.
As Gina noted in her story, there is a definite risk-reward equation at work if you don’t give people control over their time and their work. If you let your beliefs about work serve as your guide, you are robbing yourself and your coworkers and employees of the control they might even need to do their jobs. Just when you need to be as fluid as possible, just when you need to be lean and mean and thoughtful and wise and nimble and proactive and all those business things you need to be, you are hamstrung by assumptions. You’re stuck in a cube with a desktop computer and a phone with a cord so you can be there in person should your manager walk over to check up on whether or not you’re working. The game becomes looking busy instead of working hard and solving problems and contributing. It’s a game no one wins. You lose your freedom, your motivation, your soul, and in exchange for control over your life, your company often gets little more than a show of work.
None of this is written down anywhere. Employee manuals have time and vacation policy guidelines, but people don’t walk around living by the rule books. The culture at a workplace is a living, breathing thing. So how do these beliefs get reinforced?
Let’s take Heather as an example. Heather might be the unhappiest person at her company. She’s in her early forties, recently divorced with two kids who are in day care. She is the only person making that family go. She’s not always the best worker, but she’s better than most and she can really pour it on when it counts. Her problem is that her life is killing her. No matter how hard she works there is always something that isn’t getting done. Personal life or work life—neither is flourishing. She puts her kids in day care when they are sick and feels bad all day. She’s constantly being taken to task for her attendance. Her coworkers treat her like a fallen woman. Sometimes the cues are subtle—like when the room goes quiet when she walks in—but other times people say it to her face, that if she can’t seem to manage both family and work then maybe she should find another job. Over time this all adds up, until it gets to the point at which even the slightest comment can deflate her. One day she is fifteen minutes late