Meeting Topic

 I was watching N-TV this AM, and a piece came on....getting into the value/lack of value....for team meetings.

So someone in the German business world sat down and analyzed the cost of these meetings....saying that one such meeting with an average number of a dozen members....wasted around 1,000 Euro (per hour).  

For a number of years in my early life....these team meetings (in the American atmosphere) were never more than 10 minutes, Somewhere in the mid-1990s....the trend shifted, and a 45-minute meeting became the norm for at least once a week.

Toward the very end of my work career....if I counted all of the weekly meetings I had to attend....it amounted to four a week and around an hour for each.  Value of these?  There was always one or two little items in the mix...giving it some value....the rest were a total waste.

My wife (German in nature) whines about team meetings a good bit, and simply sees it as another Covid-spread opportunity.

I had a boss once (for a brief period) who organized his team meetings around the 'smoker's pit'.  We'd gather there for the smokers to have a chance for a smoke, standing, and getting a simple 8-minute you-need-to-know-this chat.  It was one of the few times that I enjoyed the office meeting business.  

Will this German discovery of 1,000 Euro of man-hours bother people?  I'm guessing there will be some office meetings where the issue is discussed.  But it's not likely to evolve into anything to dismantle office meetings.