Then raise those issues like an adult, rather than passive-aggressively tuning out.
> Do you spend far too much working time at meetings? Do you try to make important decisions in groups of more than 10 people? Do you have more than, let’s say, 15 co-workers under your direct management? Do you receive daily reports which you don’t read on the day you get them? Do you have days when you don’t have time to ring back the person who’s been looking for you to discuss an important matter? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, then you yourself are part of the problem, because you’re no longer on your guard against ever-increasing bureaucracy.
Unless you're some kind of modern-day ornamental hermit, writing code is unlikely to be the end goal; more likely you're getting paid to produce something useful, something for which communicating and understanding the problem is often far more important than actual coding.
> If I raise the issue everyone gets all pouty.
This does not sound like a healthy working relationship, although I'm not sure the problem's on their end.
> There is an unspoken feeling of being forced to attend every meeting assigned to you just in case something feels useful.
Well, nut up and get over it. Either attend or don't, but don't half-ass it. The surest recipe for pointless meetings that go on for too long is meetings where half the participants are coding instead of paying attention.
Then it's time to move on. This is not a way mature adults should be handling such a situation.
A passive-aggressive reaction isn't mature either though, so maybe this is mutual and your company and you are actually perfectly in tune.
Agendas. They’re worth the 10 or 15 minutes you’ll spend writing it.
My biggest pet peeve is meetings that come out of Zoom chats “Let’s chat about that later in the week” and the subject of the meeting is “Continue Discussion from Zoom”. Awesome.
Only the minutes count as the results of the meeting. Works only in large, bureaucratic, political companies.
If you think you're not needed in a meeting, or the content isn't relevant, or someone else should be there instead, pretend you're an adult human and raise the issue. But if you're going to be in the meeting, pay attention. It's astounding to me that this could be a controversial statement.
Likewise if it's a problem my camera is off except in certain meetings (with clients or whatever) then bring it up to me. To this day that has yet to happen. Shockingly, work gets done, I listen to the important points of the meeting and talk when needed, and I don't have to let someone look at me while I'm not looking at them. It sounds like you have a problem communicating without a face to look at. If it helps, you can tape faces to the screen or request people put an avatar/photo of themselves up for you to talk at.
> > If I think you're wasting our time then you are, unless you convince me otherwise.
That's not a differing opinion, that's petulant and childish.
Your coworkers deserve the benefit of the doubt when they say you're needed for something.
And if you can't, find a job that treats you like an adult.