Four reasons you’re boring everyone at work

SITCOMS and films are filled with scenes of employees looking at the clock, rolling their eyes and falling asleep. You could be the reason.

Four reasons you’re boring at work

BUSINESS meetings have a longstanding reputation for being unexciting.

Sitcoms, films and even stock photo collections are filled with scenes of employees looking at the clock, rolling their eyes and falling asleep while the presenter seems to drone on interminably.

Though these staged “boring meetings” may be slightly exaggerated on camera, they’re not too far from the truth: A recent survey by enterprise intranet company Igloo Software found that about half of all employees find meetings to be unproductive. The most common meeting pet peeves reflect this sentiment, with unnecessary meetings (76 per cent), meetings going off-topic (59 per cent) and people repeating one another (58 per cent) topping the list.

“There’s an interesting trend in the most popular pet peeves, and it’s that they all lead to inefficiency,” said Amanda Milligan, a spokeswoman for Igloo Software and project manager of the survey. “When people sense a meeting is lacking in productivity, they’re less likely to retain confidence it’s a good use of their time, and thus they disengage.”

It’s important for managers to evaluate how they’re conducting meetings — and how often — to see if it’s the best for their teams, Milligan said. If your employees don’t seem to get anything out of company meetings, you might be making one of these engagement-killing mistakes.

YOU DON’T HAVE A CLEAR PURPOSE OR AGENDA

Meetings without a real goal are the ones that get classified as “pointless” and “unnecessary” by employees. Before you call everyone into the conference room, think about the purpose of this meeting, and if it’s really worth your team’s precious time and energy.

“Meetings must have a clear purpose beyond a status report, which can be handled very well by one of the many online project management tools that are out on the market,” said Stephen Sheinbaum, founder of Bizfi, a financial technology company and alternative finance provider. “Make a meeting agenda, and send it to all attendees ahead of time [so] they know what is expected of them at the meeting.”

Tim Eisenhauer, president of intranet provider Axero Solutions, agreed that forgoing an agenda is a big mistake, as this often leads to lengthy, off-topic meetings.

“Keep it short,” Eisenhauer said. “Have defined start and end times, and most important, have someone to lead the meeting and keep it on track.”

YOU USE ‘BUZZWORDS’

Few things turn employees off faster than hearing corporate jargon during meetings. You may think that popular buzzwords like “synergy” and “paradigm shift” make you sound more in tune with the company’s business strategy, but your team likely prefers plain-language explanations to these vague, overused phrases.

Igloo Software found that the following buzzwords irked employees most during meetings:

• Think outside the box

• A lot on my plate

• Touch base

• Bring to the table

• Synergy

• Rock star

• Going forward

• Win-win

• Paradigm shift

• Best practices

YOU ENGAGE IN DISTRACTING BEHAVIORS

The Igloo Software survey found many employees were annoyed by distracting behaviours such as taking calls (51 per cent), having side conversations (47 per cent) and eating or drinking (22 per cent) during meetings. You may not realise you’re doing these things or the effect it has on fellow attendees, but it could be part of the reason they’re tuning out.

Eisenhauer gave an example of a former colleague who loudly chewed gum during meetings.

“As soon as I saw or heard her, you could count me out,” he said. “I’d focus in on the chewing and become distracted, maybe even a little hypnotised. So if something like this disengaged me, imagine the things that might be disengaging your employees.”

YOU’RE NOT USING TECH TOOLS PROPERLY

Although technology has made PowerPoints, screen sharing, video conferencing and other aspects of the modern meeting possible, it’s not always perfect. Technological errors can and do happen — so often that 34 per cent of Igloo survey respondents cited constant technical issues as one of their biggest meeting annoyances. If your video connection cuts in and out or the output monitor keeps shutting off, how can you expect your employees to stay focused? Test all meeting tools before you have to use them, and even if all goes smoothly, be prepared to run the meeting tech-free just in case something happens.

A related issue is failing to use technology effectively. Another 29 per cent of respondents said they disliked meetings that used PowerPoint presentations all the time. Reading off a slide show — and not adding any additional information — feels like a waste of employees’ time because they could have just as easily read it on their own, without a meeting.

“Despite there being numerous digital and technological resources at companies’ disposal, managers may not know the best ways to use these resources for the purposes of their meetings,” Milligan told Business News Daily. “It’s vital that company leaders research the options and identify how they can communicate with employees in the most straightforward, engaging way possible.”

IS YOUR MEETING NECESSARY?

Before you call a meeting in which you can potentially make the above mistakes, take a moment to think about whether you really need to have it in the first place.

“You should ask yourself whether a meeting, which can disrupt productivity, is the best way to [accomplish a goal],” Sheinbaum said.

“When I want to check on the progress of some of the technology we are developing, I ask for a call or email from the team leader, not a group meeting. But when I wanted to communicate why we rebranded the company earlier this year, I gathered the entire company together at the end of the business day. If a meeting is the right solution, then you have to be sure that, by its end, you have accomplished the goal you set.”

“A significant number of smaller meetings that are focused on updates or simply disseminating information can be done in collaborative spaces, which saves everyone time and removes the possibility of interruption or distraction,” Milligan added.

“It also helps to have an open culture that encourages people to work out loud, to expose day-to-day conversations and department workflow to make it easier to follow. Company cultures with a foundation in transparency have less of a need for frequent in-person meetings.”

If you determine that your meeting is necessary — that is, it is the best way to achieve something that cannot be done through digital communication — our expert sources reminded leaders to only invite the employees who need to be there and to stick to your planned agenda and time frame.

This article originally appeared on BusinessNewsDaily and was reproduced with permission.