Why do managers and meetings suck so badly?

There's a lovely video online by Jason Fried (of 37Signals / Basecamp / Rework fame) on how offices and meetings and managers are so toxic to getting stuff done.

It certainly strikes a chord with me. One of the things I found over the years as I became more senior and began managing people and overseeing projects was that I could go whole days where I'd go from one meeting to another.

Thing is, many of these meetings were utterly pointless. Or twice as long as they needed to be. Or at just the wrong moment. Failing which they'd contain six people, four of whom didn't need to be there and didn't add anything to the proceedings. And, yes, many times I was one of those who didn't need to be there.

The result was that my real work (I never had the luxury of purely managing stuff) would end up starting at 6pm as the office emptied out and the only distraction was the cleaner asking if I'd finished with my cup.

Jason makes excellent points but I'd say misses one fact about office life. In the companies I've been at with the best cultures, the best team spirit, time and physical space is invested in just hanging out. No, it's not productive in the traditional sense. But it pays enormous dividends when the shit hits the fan and you need everyone to pull an all-nighter. And it makes the business a nicer place to work too.

Check out the video below.