workaday Wednesday

[marcicat]

My workplace will be having it's quarterly company-wide meeting tomorrow, except it's not actually quarterly or company-wide, which is about as expected, really. I have no idea what they're going to say, if they decide to say anything beyond the usual 'look how great we are.'

Despite the lack of information, the meetings are usually interesting, if only because they are so far removed from my personal experience of the company. We say things like 'they live in a different world' a lot, but sometimes it's more obvious than others. There was a presentation a few weeks back and I actually thought to myself 'ooh, that company sounds neat; I should look into them!' before remembering they were talking about the company I already work at.

Undeniably, though, that's going to be 90 minutes of my day on Thursday when I'm not expected to do anything except be present at the meeting. (Virtually -- it's all online.) And I think that's neat!

Comments

[mecurtin]

Do you think the company they're talking about really exists for them, or is it all puffery?

[marcicat]

That is such a good question, and I think it's probably a little of both? It's definitely true that the 'company experience' varies a lot by department even at the minion levels, so I would guess that the executive experience is also very different. But I think there's probably some willful ignorance involved as well.

[umadoshi]

I actually thought to myself 'ooh, that company sounds neat; I should look into them!' before remembering they were talking about the company I already work at.

This is hilarious in a really painful way. I wish your experience with them were more like the way experience they claim to be offering.

[marcicat]

Thank you! I've been there long enough that I've admitted to myself that I enjoy complaining about workplaces, but the job I do there now is one I like, and that helps a lot.

[falkner]

For a while, my workplace tried to have short weekly meetings to both give out information about the operations of the company and listen to suggestions and complaints... it didn't last long ^_^ the difference between how the people holding the meetings envision the labor happening, and the way the actual work gets done are so stark that people just stopped showing up because it felt like a complete waste of time for everybody involved.

[marcicat]

Hahaha my workplace has tried that too! They absolutely love collecting feedback and then doing nothing in response -- we have theorized that the feedback itself is the goal, so that they can build a bright, beautiful feedback rainbow, and then spend the next ten years patting themselves on the back for listening to employees. (Hey, at least we'll have a rainbow!)