h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

No you're not cynical. I've worked in offices where that's the case, certainly. Public sector administration was a lot like that.

Where I currently work it's just very complex - the organisation (matrix-managed, multiple vendors, staff in different timezones), the business (24-hour media) and the technology. Nobody understands it fully - we each understand our little bit of it. We're forced to meet each other all the time to communicate operational things as well as planning and reporting. It's like living in an ant colony.

Having gone from a job with thirteen hour shifts and eating (if you were lucky) on the hoof I can sympathise . I was shocked the first day in my new job when I was told to go for a fifteen minute break after two hours!

Could we not put all these people who insist on meetings, focus groups etc on a big spaceship and send them of....oh wait that's been done!

In these days in the US of continuing resolutions and sequesters replacing actual budgets resulting in a shrinking work force, where I work I notice that when layoffs occur it's rarely someone who spends a lot of time in meetings, it's normally someone who actually does work.

Yeah, I got laid off in my old job, and once I had left, they just didn't bother to do all the stuff I had been doing to keep things running in the background, but it must mean that everything they do now takes longer as a result...

I had an impromptu lunchtime meeting today, but at least it was a useful meeting, so I can get on with stuff more efficiently and hopefully not have to do as much unpaid overtime tonight

If employees are expected to attend more than one meeting at a time, and utilise the necessary food and mental recovery break as well, this suggests to me only one thing. The company is understaffed.

The solution is simple; employ more people. This will reduce unemployment, raise the spirits of the general population, take the pressure off existing employees and, as a result of the extra salaries flowing into the purchase economy, result in an upsurge in the company profit, which will more than compensate for the higher wage bill.

This macro-economics lark is dead easy. Perhaps if your people would like to get in touch with my people, we could arrange a meeting to discuss it.

Bring a brown bag, and a bottle, and sun cream.

Yes indeed - my company is worried about the staff cost to profit ratio, but if the staff can't produce the goods because of understaffing, they can't sell the goods, either, so the ratio isn't just dependent on the number of staff...