![]() 03/02/2017 at 09:46 • Filed to: None | ![]() | ![]() |
One person goes slightly off topic or off schedule, next thing you know we’re all just spinning out of control.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 09:58 |
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How long have you been with my company?
![]() 03/02/2017 at 09:59 |
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How conference calls go for me:
“I don’t care about any of this, so I’m going to just buy things that I need from Amazon and hope that by periodically nodding my head no one will direct any questions or comments towards me.”
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:00 |
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Some days it feels like forever......
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:00 |
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I spent nearly all of yesterday like that via email threads. Try to work on project -> ask question on other project to get it off plate - > other people sidetracked on other project almost all day asking more questions and giving bad answers - > finally take phone call to resolve issues with other project and find out from same guy that yet another project has gone Charlie Foxtrot.
Sigh.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:10 |
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Keep in practice: http://conferencecall.biz/
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:11 |
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There are times I’m afraid to concentrate on one thing because when I finish that thing I’m worried about the mess to clean up when I move on to something else.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:13 |
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Oh look! It’s a portal to the tenth level of hell.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:14 |
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I have exactly one Dilbert cartoon at my desk. This one:
It’s for a reason or several.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:16 |
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A couple of colleagues and I used to play conference call bingo. When that got boring, we created a game where we had to make someone on the call say a word we identified 5 minutes prior to the call (each of us had a different word). That game was permanently retired when I was able to get one of the senior partners at the firm to say “fluffy.”
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:18 |
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That comic hits a little too close to home.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:21 |
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The extra special salty reason it does that for me is that every one of those mentioned projects *will* have a due date, none of which will be communicated to me, and they all have a different work interval - i.e. how long they would take to complete in a vacuum - which doesn’t track with “how long will it take to complete this if I’m interrupted by stupid things”. Some projects are more interruption antifragile than others, and it’s not a function of their difficulty as such.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:22 |
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Sadly my higher-ups just speak in corporate lingo and acronyms.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:29 |
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I just love due dates when nobody tells me about them, always leads to fun conversations and last minute panic.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:32 |
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![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:40 |
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This is why I bring a spray bottle, a rolled up newspaper, and bite size treats to my meetings.
BAD ENGINEER, STAY ON TOPIC AND KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE, BAD
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:43 |
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Jargon is one of the reasons why we discontinued bingo — it got too easy.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:54 |
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I love the ending “Beth is going to send an email to recap the meeting that could have taken the place of the meeting”
![]() 03/02/2017 at 10:56 |
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One of the time honored traditions of all engineers is the airing of the grievances, even if nobody in the meeting has anything to do with the grievances.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 11:01 |
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I’m the blue and neon yellow car that avoids any conversation unless I really need to.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 11:05 |
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That’s my normal plan too. Hit the mute button and wait to hear my name.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 21:19 |
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I used to be in a job like that. Didn’t fit my playstyle or stress profile.
![]() 03/02/2017 at 23:25 |
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Fortunately I get to take things, fix them, and put them back together too. That and getting to spend a lot of at customer locations and not in an office really help balance things out.