"most of our meetings are bloated pieces of shit" made me lol. That's how I see meetings too. Sometimes the tech team will get together in the meeting room and rock some shit out, but for the most part it's a lot of nothing getting accomplished and taking a long time to do it. I'm constantly fighting my company wanting to promote me into a management position, mostly because I would gouge my own eyes out if I had to deal with meetings all day.
The worst part for me is, I'm just a facilitator type for most meetings. I publish an agenda, collect inputs, produce a slide deck, get everyone there on time, and then I'm expected to say nothing from start to finish. Sometimes I witness conflict based on complete misunderstandings, and it's not my place to set it right. Sometimes I know for a fact the discussion we're having isn't what we're supposed to be there for... doesn't matter. And when one guy in particular takes every meeting into overtime by blathering on about dumb shit, and then makes a show of apologizing at the end, I can't stand up and say "fuck off, if you really care then don't do it EVERY TIME!" hehe...
If I moved up the chain, at least I'd have a voice, but the bullshit would get exponentially worse, and at this point even the financial motive for advancement is marginal. I just won't be there long enough for it to add up to real money... so I spend my free time and mental energy on investment strategies and other outside stuff. I keep my boss happy, which isn't hard, and he takes care of me... my teammates are great and most of my peers across the other shops are cool when we collaborate... the rest of it, I just do my best to tune out and ignore.
Ha, I'm not sure who has it worse, me or you.
I'm in this great position now - maybe this is the life of a project manager? But - I have no control over anything or anybody. But I get asked ALL THE TIME if we are going to meet a schedule, and if not, why.
1. We had a test problem. Things were blowing up. They sat for 12 days because the device guy was deciding what to do. And maybe he decided and forgot to tell the guys who work for him.
2. Then the data guy didn't review the data. So 7 days go by. I realize this (note I was out for 3 of those 7, and sick for a few others), and do the review myself
3. The person who is supposed to ship them waited 10 days. Even though I asked for it to happen earlier.
Etc etc, this works for everything we do.
- stuff is delayed at our offshore assembly house. Because we are small peanuts and they will work on bigger projects first
- stuff is delayed at test because we do not have capacity and mgt won't agree to pay for more
I mean, it's all about too much stuff to do, and not enough people and LITERALLY nobody works for me. I'm used to just going in and doing things myself to get them done. Can't do that. Can only pester. Have I mentioned that I'm working on a ton of different projects, they are ALL really important (per mgt), but nobody who actually does the work even works for me?
I can work hard to remind people to move the stuff. I can keep track so that we don't forget anything. But I can't actually make people work.