We lost one of our PM's last month and it's amazing how few meetings we've had. I swear, they're whole job is nothing but scheduling meetings and they don't even run them other than saying "We'll wait 1 or 2 more minutes for people to join before we get started"...
Exactly! Some PMs really take the meeting thing a little too far, and then there are the times when they would schedule it starting at 7:00 or 7:30, or 12:00-1:00 or starting at 5:00. Then get upset when I decline because my hours are 8:00-5:00 and *your* company has a policy that no meetings are scheduled at lunch time. Or they schedule a 30 minute meeting and I recommend they book an hour because the subject matter isn't going to get covered in just 20 minutes. There were two PMs that were literally dumber than a box of rocks. Their default meeting request was starting at 12 because they knew everyone would be available. Each time I would get a call from them asking me to join the meeting and every time I would tell them oh, it wasn't on my calendar since I rejected it, but I'll join as soon as I got back to my desk...
At least that company did have a couple of decent policies in place, that all meetings end at :20 or :50 to give the attendees ten minutes to prep for their next meeting, and there will be no lunch time meetings from 12:00-1:00...
There's been a few times we as a team rejected the 7:30am meeting (because offshore timezone) and I'm with you in that I'll refuse a lunch time meeting. I've left meetings that were scheduled from 11am-12pm and went overtime. We don't do video, but I imagine this is something Wally might have done...
Oh, *that* customer that I've been referring to in the last few posts required video. I got around it since I needed to VPN into a VM in their environment and my excuse was that VM didn't recognize the mic and camera on my laptop, so I can't turn that on, (nor can I answer skype for business or team calls directly). If you need to reach me by voice, call my mobile...
If I was forced to turn on my camera, all they'd get is a black screen since I have a nice sticker covering the lens. And if they forced me to remove the sticker, all they'd see is part of the laptop keyboard and my rug because I keep the laptop on the floor...
How are you getting dual monitors if you're not using the laptop monitor as one of them?
Dual monitors? Pfft. Try quad monitors. I also don't have any room on desk for the laptop. In fact I brought in a TV tray to hold one of them...
Why not go up instead of across. I would think that containing them in a 2x2 configuration would be easier to track compared to 4x1...
You'd think that, but none of the monitors are the same size or resolution and only one has a VESA mount. Plus those mounts are stupid expensive and my desk is a folding table so I make due with what I got...
Knowing you, I'm a bit surprised you didn't end up with a four-pack of monitors, mounts, top end laptop, and a nice standing desk all provided by your company...
Riiiiiight.. Last year in my meeting with the manager to discuss the paltry pay increase and insulting bonuses I pointed out that I read the financial reports of the business. The company could have given every one of its 380,000 employees a $50,000 bonus and they still would of had $2 billion more in profit than they did the year prior. It's pretty disgusting when profits are in the 10's of billions and yet the company cries its too expensive to give employees a dedicated work station. If there's no available work stations, you can work in the cafeteria...
Ouch! Are you a publicly traded company?
Yup. And the CEO just stepped down. I guess making $18+ million per year for a good number of years was enough for him. Just think, when making your monthly budget you'd have to try keep it at around $1,000,000. The struggle must have been unreal...
I can't imagine having a monthly budget like that. Then again, I'm sure he has financial advisors that are investing most of that anyway as much as possible...
The stock market is the weirdest thing ever. One of my stocks, the company just announced the quarterly earnings of $232 million. They had originally forecasted an earnings of $203 million. Investors were unhappy with the results and the stock dropped over $20 on the opening bell. What the absolute fuck?!?!?!?? They were unhappy because the company made $30 million more than they thought they were. How/why is that bad?