Sounds like they are talking in buzzwords.
this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2025
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Correct. If we stop using buzzwords, then we will have to start asking ourselves what we are actually doing here
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I used to work at this company where like 3 guys took care of basically everything. All but one of them, let's call him Rob, eventually left to better companies. About a month after that, my team had to deal with a pretty big issue and we were having trouble coming up with a solution so this idiot had the brilliant idea to page Rob. As if the poor guy hadn't spent the last month doing the job of 3 people who were already doing the job of a 5 people each. Rob got online, said "Why did you page me?" and immediately left before getting a response. I liked Rob.
lol classic Rob!
I just say, "So, you guys need me in here?"
Such corpo bullshit, do it the Scandinavian way, I don't think this meeting is for me, have a good meeting though. Done and done
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Or just preemptively reply with the second bit.
Fluent in corporate speech 101.
Seriously is there a class I can take, because it's like I'm speaking an alternate language at work and no one there understands what I'm saying
You are asking the wrong dude here. I failed at corporate speech, never understood their art of assimilation. It is all about not offending anyone, overstepping, never throwing anyone under the bus, especially higher management, and yet dodging bullets coming your way. It is also the biggest waste of time, usually. Got to give the upper management, the glorified babysitters, something to do.
I honestly can't agree with you more
"What is the purpose of this meeting and why do I need to be included" is a perfectly polite series of words to use. The wording matters far less than the tone of voice.
I vastly prefer clear and direct questions over the reply that sounds passive aggressive from the very beginning.
I think you underestimate how thin the skin of the professional managerial class is. It's not about the tone of voice it's about the directness and how that's facilitating "conflict".
I do understand and it does not matter how you phrase it for those types of people. Pretending that it could have been said the 'right' way is a waste of time because, as you said, they consider even asking to be facilitating conflict.
There are also good managers out there, they just aren't as memorable as the ones who make everything into drama. The good ones also tend to be driven to other jobs because of the jerk managers...
Don't find that's true at all. Direct language is much preferred to this bullshit.
I wouldn’t say “perfectly” polite, but it’s definitely not offensive.
The response in the OP definitely doesn’t need further tonal clarification, though. It’s tough for anyone to classify that response as hostile.
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You don't really want to tell your boss "I don't add value!".
If you are hired to sit at meetings, not adding value to them is indeed a very severe issue.
I'm sorry, is this some corposhittery I can't relate to due to me being an enlightened SME-guy? (My salary is 3 months past due because of the company's financial struggle)
Meetings are the viable alternative to work. Meetings that you don't need to contribute to are even better. Take a break. Catch some zees.
What if you enjoy your work and find value in it; and the meeting is pointless bullshit that just breaks your focus?
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Problem is, that the work is still there after the meeting
This is definitely a difference between people that believe the work they do is important and people just punching a clock.
I teach at a community college (salaried) and my partner works as staff in the same school (hourly). She works her ass off, but when she gets to the end of the day, she is done and leaves work at the office, so attending meetings is no big deal to her. Meanwhile, I've gotten involved enough in peripheral committee work that I regularly stay up working until 1AM because there are literally not enough hours in the day to get done what needs to get done. I could try to leave work at work, but I'd be hanging students and fellow instructors out to dry, so that's not always an option.
I could try to leave work at work, but I'd be hanging students and fellow instructors out to dry, so that's not always an option.
Not your problem that your college hasn't decided to fund enough positions to get things done within the workday.
It's not my fault, but it is definitely my problem if I'm in a position to help people and decide not to. Make no mistake, I raise holy hell while I'm doing it, but the lack of workers doesn't lessen the amount of work that needs to get done. Maybe it's just naivete, but I'm idealistic enough to believe that helping students is the most important thing I can do, so I only say yes to things that are directly helping students, faculty, and staff (admin and their busy work can fuck right off with their bloated salaries and support staff)
One thing I’ve learned is that sometimes you need to let the problems happen. You can raise hell and keep talking about how more hands are needed, but unless issues actually start coming up and affecting people, then no one is going to care/listen.
I had a job in the past that was vastly understaffed. I kept getting more and more, and working longer hours. I brought this up with management many times but nothing was happening. “Not in the budget to hire more” is what I kept getting.
When it got to be too much, I decided I would only work 40 hours, and whatever happens, happens. Our lives are too short to be wasted away at work.
So tasks started to take longer, and whenever something needed doing, it was added to the queue and prioritized appropriately. Sometimes that meant I couldn’t get to it in weeks. At first, I came under fire. “Why haven’t you done this yet??” But each time I explained my situation. “There’s not enough hands and I am doing the best I can with the resources given to me”. And guess what? Most people empathized and understood my predicament. So now I have an army of colleagues who understand the issue here, and now the issue gets more visibility with management as more people rally to my side.
A few months of this, and they decide to hire two more positions to help with the overload of work.
It’s a risky move for sure. They could just fire you and dig themselves into a deeper hole. But then if they do that, is that really the type of environment you’d want to work in anyway?
People are surprisingly understanding when you explain yourself. You don’t need to fix everything and everyone’s problems. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to let the problems happen and observe how others deal with it.
The biggest part of the issue in state-run higher-ed is the glacial pace at which hiring happens vs. how fast the works shows up. My organization is legitimately trying to hire appropriately (I believe), but we can't allocate resources until the students show up, and then it's an 18 month turn around between filing a faculty hiring request and the person starting work due to the standard academic hiring cycle and state-mandated EEO requirements (and that's assuming that admin approve the hiring request the first time you ask for it, which they do as often as they can). On the other hand, it only takes 2 weeks for people to resign and move on, so we're losing people as fast as we can hire them. We could to try to hire faster, but it's a tiny school with a tiny HR (so we're capped at hiring about 4-5 faculty positions per year) and a small number of faculty (so it's hard getting enough people to volunteer when you need to fill a hiring committee).
Honestly, I really like the organization and think admin are making good choices, but we legally can't turn students away, so when more people enroll, there's more work with the same number of workers for at least a year. It's honestly a good problem to have, and they do a decent job at compensating me for my extra work, but I'd rather have more help and less OT as soon as we can manage it.
All that said, working in private industry or in an organization that doesn't have as many restrictions, I would absolutely be saying "no" a lot more. As it is, when I say no, it's my colleagues and the students that feel the repercussions, not admin, and I have a hard time being OK with that.
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The university is exploiting your idealism to get you to work without being paid enough. You aren't "in a position to help people", you are doing a job for an organization with revenues. They could allocate more revenue to accomplish this work without forcing you to work until 1 AM, but they have made the choice that the work is not worth paying for.
That being said, most good people will go the extra mile if they think it can make a difference, but I see too many who take full responsibility on themselves and "cover" for financially-motivated organizational decisions, which in turn encourages the people who make those decisions to cut even more.
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That’s how I look at it. You want to pay me to go to a meeting that could’ve been an email? Ok! Bet!
go to meetings to avoid other meetings
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Email recap never comes. Miss out on key decision points. Attend next meeting. Nothing is agreed just talk for the sake of talking. Objections disregarded. Side meeting happens without you. Key points agreed with management in your absence. You're just a cog in a giant hamster wheel. Not even the hamster. Cry at night.
Cry at night.
That would imply that I care. I wouldn't recommend caring.
I'm here for the income, not the outcome. You want to pay me then disregard my advice? That's cool. Check still clears.
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