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by cbanek 2483 days ago
I wish I could say that was my experience. I had a daily scrum meeting for about a year that had at least 15 people, and everyone would take their turn to talk about each post-it note on the board. After standing for about half an hour, it gets really old. Nobody cared what anyone else was saying other than the one manager. When we tried to break it up, the manager said it was more efficient if we were all there at the same time. It might have even been true - for him.
1 comments

Just think of such meeting as a paid break: check your phone for emails, catch up with Facebook friends, order some things from Amazon, or just let your mind wander. This way no meeting would be "a waste of time" :)

Personally, I've been working as contractor/consultant for the last 8 years, getting paid by the hour worked, so I grew to like those pointless meetings, because they simply are easy money: they count as work, but require almost no effort on my side.

>Just think of such meeting as a paid break

If you are paid salary and having to work any overtime, then it is likely taking up productive time and resulting in more unpaid overtime. If you are hourly, then I think that mentality works fine. I wonder if the different incentives every cause a problem in work places with both types of workers.

I think you discount the social signaling that goes on at these daily meetings, which I swear is the point of most of them.

If you're not paying attention, bosses will think less of you. So not only do you have to pretend to pay attention they love when you ask lots of gotcha questions to the person trying to give status. Anything to look smart.