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Comment by npacenop | Hacker News Reader

Not quite... my argument is that a lot of meetings are necessary to keep an organization ticking - decision making is just a part of it. If for anyone that feels like corporate bs (which is a perfectly valid standpoint!!!), well... these people aren't cut for a corporate life. What's the problem in that? If I don't like children I probably wouldn't try to become a kindergarten teacher, if I absolutely can't stand communication and politics, I shouldn't work in a corporate setting.

And it's also perfectly OK to find this out about yourself only later in life, when you have gathered some (more) professional experience.

What's not OK imho is labelling other people's version of work as "corporate bs".

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> If for anyone that feels like corporate bs (which is a perfectly valid standpoint!!!), well... these people aren't cut for a corporate life.

If someone feels like a meeting is "corporate bs", that speaks to a failing of those hosting the meeting to properly communicate the intent of the meeting. If you are not able to effectively communicate with the people you work with, perhaps it is you who isn't cut out for corporate life? If you think you can treat a class of kindergarteners like it is a fourth year university course, teaching kindergarten likely isn't for you.

Peter principle applies, I suppose.

Agreed! It is of course not always the employee's fault for not "liking" meetings. Pretty often meetings are not well prepared (by the one who called for the meeting in the first place), not well moderated (if any kind of moderation is there at all) and there is little consideration if everyone on the invitee is really relevant or not. And some people are just not good at explaining stuff and communicating intent, as you said. These are all facts and I can't deny them. I am very often guilty of all of these mistakes myself. As is most probably everyone who has ever organised a meeting.

It takes effort to mitigate all that and it takes even more effort to try to work around it if it happens a lot. If you are ready and willing to improve the system - welcome to management ;) If this feels like a whole lot of crap to you - better stay away from big companies, do some consulting, find startups with like minded people... Staying on a job, being unmotivated or stressed out is not good for anyone involved.

Can you give an example of a meeting that keeps the org ticking and doesn't have any decision making?

To your second point.. corporate bs is not necessary and should be called out. Most of it falls into waste. Another large chunk falls into people trying to climb the corporate ladder.

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