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.

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.