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a friend at the office washed his dirty laundry at his sisters. she had one of those machines that wash and dry. once, he told me, his sister was in a hurry, she had to leave and let him do the job. she said something like - i have set the machine, all you have to do is put detergent and the dirty cloths then press play.
he did that and decided to go for a walk around the block. when he got back to take the now clean and dry laundry, he said the whole building had a chemical smell. when he opened the machine his cloths were like plasterboard.
as he stood there wondering what happened, his sister came back and yelled at him "what have you done?! how much detergent have you put inside?"
he said i put it all, why? doesn't this thing know how much detergent it needs?! when i put gasoline in my motorbike i fill it up and the motor takes what it needs...
at first this sounded so crazy and funny to me, but i realized he was right. after 60 years of washing machines, someone must have fixed this.
i remembered all the times a have looked at the machine UI and wondered, why did they marked this function so? why is there a container for detergent marked 1 and 2, but you almost always have to put the soap in 2? if 1 is some special case that is seldomly used, why didn't they marked it 0?
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No, no - you want to be the guy doing the minutes!
Remember, the minutes are the official record of what was discussed and what was agreed at the meeting.
And what tasks were given to which attendee.
So the guy who write the minutes effectively has all the power - he can allocate what he wants where and provided it doesn't jibe too badly with general recollections (and most people don't listen to anything in a meeting, they are planning what they want to say) it's what the meeting decided, Joe - so get on with it!
If you do get called out on something, just apologise, say that's what you thought was decided, and you must have written it down wrong ...
Doing the minutes is an excellent way to get out of jobs ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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That's why my boss does the minutes.
And that's how it should be actually.
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That supports my point of view -- "always get/put everything in writing".
What is written overpowers whatever may have been said.
Meetings hinder communication and progress.
Meetings are intended to quash dissent.
Meetings are the tool of the bully.
Don't attend meetings.
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Or, since I am not intimidated and do those things I'm included out of almost every meeting.
If I were tasked with the minutes, I'd just tell everyone - "Relax! I'm going to record you and use that . . ."
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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But... But... they have donuts.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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Even worse.
Bagels, maybe.
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No, not, better. Get the garlic ones, keep people away for the rest of the day.
It works, old people tested.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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Raisin bagels with garlic/chive schmear?
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Cinnamon crunch, with the double garlic schmear.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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theoldfool wrote: Cinnamon crunch, with the double garlic schmear.
 
I'm glad I don't work in the same office as you... 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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My counselor in college had a plaque on his desk; "if you can't find time to do it right the first time how are you going to find time to do it again?".
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� Forogar � wrote: What have you done to avoid something?
Meetings; and I simply said "no, will not be there". I dislike meetings that are there just for form. If you have questions, I wants a mail that gives me a copy of what you want and your wording. No need to meet for that.
At my last place, we meeted an hour per day, minimum. Standing of course, cause you don't want to seem passive. We active, engaging, committed, and fakkin bored.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Eddy wrote: At my last place, we meeted an hour per day, minimum. Standing of course
At my last place. Let me guess. It no longer exists. Quite possibly because someone went postal.
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Greg Utas wrote: At my last place. Let me guess. It no longer exists. Quite possibly because someone went postal.
For some of my previous jobs that was true.
..I'm no longer fit for "work" and had to leave. So, trying to prove otherwise. Most of the time, I'm rather confused, so limiting my replies too. Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't.
I'm a programmer. That's not worth much if one isn't programming, is it?
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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To get out of meetings, just tell the boss you don't go to meetings that don't have an agenda published in advance. You don't want to turn up at a meeting unprepared, after all.
When I've done that, I was never invited to meetings again. (Or in some cases, meetings were never held again).
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( In another life, YEARS ago ) we had once a week, 5 - 6 people, "what are you working on? what's the status?" meetings. After they stopped, I found that they were useful.
( Well half of them - how to pick which ones. )
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davecasdf wrote: After they stopped, I found that they were useful.
You don't need a meeting for that; a coffee machine suffices. Got more updates there than at any meeting.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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my response to something I don't want to do is usually a 'No'. If I have to I will respond with 'NO!'
If I am ordered to do so by someone in upper management who can make me. And if I really don't want to do it and it won't cost me my job. Doing the item wrongly usually means I won't have to do it again. Doing it wrongly as stated does not mean doing it badly. Just not doing the exact way it was expected.
I know wrongly is not a word. But it suited my purpose here.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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I recall walking into a meeting and when seeing 12 people I turned round to leave. When the PM demanded why I was leaving I pointed out that nothing would be decided with 12 participants so I was going to go do something constructive. I rarely got invited to meetings and NEVER took minutes.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
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In a meeting with a potential bushiness partner, I had a slight difference of opinion with their CFO.
The minutes of that meeting correctly reported, "Joe called the CFO a f***ing idiot."
Needless to say, I was not included in further meetings.
Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth.
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I often do All the minutes, notes for meetings.
In real-time, while sharing my screen.
It keeps me engaged in the process, ensures everyone's voice is heard, and allows me to be wrong out loud.
I never thought of it as an opportunity to embarrass or harass a co-worker or client.
But by showing my screen, including (and especially) the Action Items, who they are assigned to, and what they actually say, we find that we get INCREDIBLE levels of buy-in, and we often review the Action Items at the end, to ensure that everyone is clear on what is assigned to them.
DOW Chemical taught me 2 things about every meeting:
1) If the purpose of the meeting is not clear, it MUST NOT BE HELD!
2) If the output of the meeting is not a well-defined set of actions, it MUST NOT BE HELD!
This really nipped a lot of the old "informative" or "inquisitive" (out of touch people trying to get up to speed), in the bud. And I greatly appreciated NOT being in those meetings, when I was forced into them at other companies.
You have an interesting take on doing the minutes. If I was your superior, I would have you re-write them, continuously, for days if required, until you capture the TONE and ESSENCE of the meeting. And you would be assigned to take ALL the meeting notes in EVERY meeting until you developed said skills.
Oh, and I would MOST CERTAINLY make you take the notes, online, and share/review what was being captured in front of the team having the meeting. We would "help" you reword and remove things (like side comments).
BTW, I don't discourage the side comments, like your minutes tend to. the emotional state of the team can be measured that way. It's usually a sign of deeper problems that I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT. Especially if we are ALL FEELING IT.
Oh, we also RECORD our meetings, and I drop Time Stamps in my notes, so we can quickly find specific conversations. It's never what was "said"... It's what was communicated by what was said...
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Wow! I'm glad I don't work there! How horribly efficient!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Interesting, I am not sure which level of sarcasm you are driving at!
Just in case:
It might sound inefficient, but if you type 80wpm or more, and have 30+ years of experience.
And can put your EGO aside (being wrong out loud)...
It REALLY is efficient. When we are done with a meeting, we can (and do) immediately send the Action Items, and often a Snippet Reminder of the context of the meeting (not always required).
We had to interface with another company that took, on average 2 days to get "Minutes" out to everyone.
We don't wait 2 days to get most of the action items completed. It was REALLY HARD to work with them, and they kept talking about "Work/Life" balance.
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