Busy work flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
My institution has an obsession with meetings. People humble brag about how busy they are, counting the amount of meetings in their calendars as evidence of their busyness and importance. I’m sure this is common practice in HE (for some, I emphasise, not all HE employees are like that!). I find myself falling into that mindset myself – when I set aside time to concentrate on work that has to be done without interruption I feel guilty that I am not ‘really’ working, and when I switch off Teams and email so I can ignore the meeting requests I worry that others will think that I am being lazy.
But this week I spent two whole days working without the interruption of any meetings. Two. Whole. Days. I had time to think, and immerse myself in what I needed to do (and note that this was still work that had to be done – stuff that the institution were expecting of me). I had to be really strict with myself and ignore a couple of last minute meeting requests and also remind myself that having a clear calendar did not mean that I was free to pick up extra work that others thought I had time to do. I still felt guilty – I still feel guilty – but I also feel relieved that I managed to protect my time and complete the work that needed done and also have time to get started on some tasks that I did not envisage that I would ever have time to fit in.
So yesterday, when I was back in one of those meetings that I had to attend (camera off, emails open), I came across this book: Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable. I have no intention of reading this book – from online summaries it looks as if it gives strategies for improving meetings and I’m sure it’s great – but what is really needed is a culture change.
And fewer middle managers.
Meetings and direct reports (employees under your jurisdiction), are the coin of the realm these days in all the higher eds. I wasn’t sensitive or aware, until just after Covid when I realized how much one of our College Deans had on their plate all through that time that was related to student life and well being. Since then a re-org occurred and that position no longer has ALL the things reporting up through one person. And like those direct reports, the meetings,… I can only imagine how limited time a person has with that many people reporting to them directly.