Meeting Culture at Work

- Hi, welcome back to Eat Your Cress Podcast. I'm Crystal. - I'm G-Soo. - And I'm Jimmy. (upbeat music) - So this week we felt the urge to talk about work. (laughing) I feel like most people have to experience this at least a handful of times per week and they can vary a lot from being really efficient, being really helpful to sometimes just feeling like wasted time or not the best use of time. So we wanted to take today to talk about meetings at work, how you deal with them, what have you found to work for you, and just in general your relationship with work meetings. First question I have for everyone is how many meetings do you typically have? How many meetings per day, and then how many meetings per week? - Dude, meeting about meetings after a day of meetings. (laughing) I'm prepared honestly just to wait until the end and say thank you. (laughing) I have probably around like four meetings per day. I guess five if you count stand up, stand up is like 15 minutes to baby meeting. But yeah, around like four meetings per day. - Thanks, so you end up maybe with like 20-ish per week. - Yeah, times five. - Yeah. (laughing) - Dude, that sounds like a lot 'cause I was counting my meetings this week and I was like, this is kind of a meeting heavy week for me in my new company and I had 10 meetings. And seeing you say you have 20, it's actually a lot. Oh my God, this week is probably even worse too because our fiscal year ends this week, you know, June. Our fiscal year is weird. I don't get the companies that end in the middle of summer. But ours is ending, so everyone's like pumping out more meetings, more meetings. Everyone just wants to meet to ask like favors and stuff. - Yeah, I feel that. I think in my past job it was similar where I would just dread meetings because every meeting would just birth more work. The worst part is sometimes it's okay because it'll be like an exchange, you know, like some decisions will be made, so some loose ends are tied and then you have like a new project to start on or something like that. But the times where those loose ends aren't tied, so there's like ongoing decisions that are just like put off and then new projects are made, I'm like, I can't handle another meeting. - It's a perpetual cycle that just never ends. Every single time it's like, Jimmy, you want to take that action item? And you know, circle back around like next week? No, I don't want to take any action items. (laughing) - I actually tend to not have too many meetings in my day to day. On a chill week I can get away with as little as six meetings for the whole week. Yeah, so like maybe an average of one to two a day. I think I've never had more than like 15 in a week other than like events. Lucky you. (laughing) Are you more like an individual contributor? - Yeah, because my work is in design and it's kind of isolated, I don't have to like do as much of the business relations just like in terms of overall project management. It's just like they've kind of already project managed most of this. My part is just like, hey, can you do this like graphic or whatever? So then my meeting time with the other people is pretty minimal or really quick. - Yeah, I guess that brings up the good point of depending on what your role is in a meeting, it can also feel very different. For example, I said I had about 10 meetings a week. A lot of them are like all hands. Some sort of like big group team meeting or something where I don't have to present. I just can like sit and like listen to information versus in my past role. I felt like a lot of my meetings I was leading. So then preparing to lead a meeting has a lot of homework in itself of like you have to prep the agenda, send it out a couple of days prior. Oftentimes if you're doing meetings with leadership you have to like present a deck and stuff. Not only that, you have to like assign someone to take notes or you yourself might be taking notes and then afterwards you send out like a recap. So going from the meetings that I used to have in my old job and then going to the meetings that I have now, even if they were the same number of meetings, I think it would just feel super different for me. I think also there's an aspect of meetings where it's up to you a little bit. I think I could totally have more meetings in my day to day if I wanted to set up time with the people that I work with. Like hey, can you chat really fast? I need to like clarify this or ask a question. But I guess I'm just so much more used to like pinging someone or even shooting an email because of that I also cut down on my meetings because sometimes people will ping me and they'll be like, hey, do you have time right now to hop on a call? And I'm like, okay, I guess. - I'm usually the pinger in that situation. I'm so that probably explains why I have 20 meetings. I'm just like a big fan of like chit chat, you know? Well, people that like at least, especially like one-on-one situations, you could probably chit chat a lot more and gossip a little bit and stuff. I'm usually the, hey, you wanna hop on a call or hey, I'm gonna put some of your calendar except it, you know? - You're like, there's no decline button. - There's no decline button. Oh my god, don't even dare hit like 10 a day for something. (laughing) - I mean, I think to an extent, meetings like that are unavoidable sometimes. It's just so much faster to hop on a quick call than like sort through something, especially if it's like a more complex issue or if there's like a lot of different moving pieces or something. But for me, I have this whole thing of like not wanting a meeting to go over. So I can like do the chit chat in the beginning and then after it hits like two, 10 or something, I'll like cut it off and I'll be like, okay anyways, let's jump into the actual room. - You're like agenda chit chat for five minutes. - Yeah, no more. - That's me. - I'm like, that's enough. - It's like a checklist like, okay, first let's talk about love island. (laughing) Honestly, I do like the chit chat too. It's like sort of devious because I'll chit chat for the first like 15 minutes of a 30 minute. And then I'll be like, okay, let's get to work. And then the work is you know, fast pace, like get done, get done, get done, you know. No ideation, nothing. Just like, this is why I need you to do. Just do it. - You don't give them time to like refute your tasks. - No, that waste is time. - That's for sure. So inefficient. - So interesting split of a meeting block, like chit chat. - You got warm the up, you know, you got to make them feel good. And then it's 15 minutes of just like, okay, you gotta do this, that's this, like thank you. - Honestly, I see the benefits in that because sometimes when say you have a 30 minute meeting that only really needs like 10, 15, if you finish early, sometimes someone will start laughing or rambling about the project. And you're like, okay, no, can we just end this meeting? (laughs) - Exactly. I'd much rather spend 15 minutes talking about Love Island versus like, you know, 15 minutes being like, oh, like maybe this would be better, you know. - And I'm like more likely to do something for you if we talk about like even something as simple as the weather in the beginning. Like it just like humanizes you a little bit knowing like what you're up to or like your pets or any sort of like random topic that's outside of work. But I will say, I make mental notes sometimes of people who always run over meetings. Like I'm not purposely trying to do it, but I'll remember, you know. (laughs) And my mental log will like automatically get updated. And I'm like, damn, this person always goes over. Like maybe I shouldn't schedule this other meeting right after. We're like, I'll like know to book the meeting room longer or something. - Are you cutting off the chitchat then? With those people? - I just run a stricter shift for that one. (laughs) - Can you please shut up about the weather? Like let's. (laughs) - Kind of related to what you do, G-Soo. I also take note of the people who I work with who are super busy who oftentimes come late to our meetings because their like previous meeting was running late or something like that. So then it's always a joy to feel like, ah yes, I have two more minutes until that person probably shows up. - So true. - I always like consistent too, but like they're always late consistently late. But they're also like, in my case at least, they're also like pretty consistent with how much time they're usually late, you know? Like my manager, three minutes on the dot every time. Three minutes. Yeah. So I'll see the notification like, you know, the Microsoft Teams notification. And I'll be like, okay, great, let me fill up my water and let me go to the bathroom. (laughs) So then aside from like recurring people, let's talk a little bit about recurring meetings. Like I'm sure you all have, Jimmy mentioned earlier like stand up sometimes or team meetings. My first question is, do you ever feel like you have almost a specific persona or role in that meeting? Because in my team meeting, I feel like I'm always the quiet, don't really talk too much, I share a very little person of the team. And then we also have some that I've noticed that are like, one person who loves to give really long thorough explanations. Another person who is like the note taker and like the busy mom, that kind of stuff. So what do you see in your meetings? I feel so bad for this note taker person. The note is the note taker. I'm like it sucks. What is that? Wait, actually I helped out with the note takin. Oh no. My role is actually so much easier though, but our note taker quietly took on the role of herself and then she just like writes a couple bullet points for each person when they share their like weekly updates. When it's her turn because she's talking, I'll take her notes. Dude, can I get this person's contact? Can I get like my company's headhunter to get her? Just crazy. Wait, no we need her. It's not fun being the note taker. I was like always the note taker in the small and big meetings in my past job and I start to feel like not like resentment, but kind of resentment of like why is it always me and then I would notice right? Because I would observe who the other note takers were and it was always women and I was like, oh wow. This is crazy. It's so interesting that you guys have just like unspoken note takers for my immediate team. For our monthly meetings, we'll have like a meeting minutes person per quarter. So we have like a wheel and we'll spin it. And then yeah, you know, it's always like the nice like sarcastic like, oh, oh, congrats on the role. I kind of like that. It's a good system. That is a pretty good system. Our one's forced to be one, you know? That's why I feel bad for whoever just got stuck with that role. It's been a wheel. Dude, note taking a side. Sometimes the team meetings where you go around and share updates and you know how people always be like, oh, it doesn't have to be like a work update. Like you can share whatever. Like coming up with a story for that. Sometimes it's like an actual task on my agenda. Like I'm like, oh, come up with story for the two. Like whatever. Wait, same. I definitely feel like the Monday standups were like, oh, you know, what'd you do for the weekend? I have to dilute how much fun I had every time. You know, I can't go out right and be like, oh, yeah. So Friday, I party all night Saturday. Oh, yeah, I also did that too. And then Sunday I just watched television because I just, I was incapacitated the entire day. I can't do it. Dude, I am the opposite of Jimmy. If I were like, oh my god, so how is everyone's weekend? And I was like, it was good. I just stayed home. Well, that's what I usually dilute to. So they probably think I'm a crystal, you know? Down. Like, damn, this guy just doesn't really go out. Sometimes I'm like, I played golf over the weekend and they're like, whoa, you left the house. I feel like this is when it pays off to have really specific and like niche hobbies that you can talk about. Because even if you say like the smallest thing, even if you went like surfing for like 10 minutes, you know, it's like super cool. But I feel like I'm always saying, oh, I just like hung out with some friends. And then that's like it. Like that's the story. Like, I cannot divulge any more than that. Yeah. Yeah. No questions, please. Dude, I actually dread the meetings though when I'm like, I have nothing to say this week. Like, I have no updates for you all. I'm like, what do I say? How do I skip this meeting? Honestly, I'm sad to admit this is like, honestly, a daily occurrence at this point where I don't have any updates. So I'll just put it in the volume, super high on my computer. So I'm like tuning in. But then since I work from home, my TV is like right there. I usually always have a show I'm bingeing. And so I'll just be watching a show, you know. And then going back to your question, my persona, I'm the stay quiet, the entire meeting, and then at the very end, unmute. Thank you. And then I just quickly leave. Same, same. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I feel like we're pretty young. I think the people who speak up a lot in meetings tend to be like more leadership or like executives or people who have been at the company for a long time. But I will say when people are age or like people at a similar level as us really speak up in especially those big meetings, raise your hand in like a 50-prison meeting type of thing, I'm like, damn, like you're pretty cool. You're a boss. Dude, but I also wonder sometimes I'm like, I feel like I don't share that much. Just like bits and pieces like crumbs of my personal life. And I'm usually pretty quiet in meetings. I wonder if I give off like mysterious or just like boring. I could totally see that. I've known you for like 12, 13 years and that's 100% true. I think you tear the line well, Christopher. I really do. Wow, thanks. Very mysterious person. I feel like this is maybe the theme. I'm like the opposite of you where I go from either I over share or I just don't say anything at all in a meeting. Either I'm the one driving it or I'm just not even in the car. That is also fitting actually. For sure. Damn, I'm trying to think if I have a roller persona. I mean, I think it's hard because I'm still getting settled into my new role and my new company. But if I think back to my past job where I was more established, I think I drove a lot of the meetings. And I would kind of come prepared and whatnot. But I wouldn't say I enjoyed it. You know what I mean? Like it wasn't something that I was happily doing. I think it kind of felt like a mental burden on me to an extent. So in my new job where I am kind of figuring out my role, I'm trying to think what I prefer instead of like what I should be doing. So you get to rebrand? Yeah. So for now, I'm nothing. But soon I'll be something. Maybe you could be like the jokester. Oh. Oh. Hmm. I have to like bring that out though. Yeah. Like I have to like really pull it out. I definitely have a jokester in one of my team meetings. Oh. That's not that fun. I think it's a mental burden, Jimmy. You would just expect to have fun with Beat. I hate it. So it's times I don't want to be here. You know how heartless it's like in the very beginning, right? I would talk a lot, you know? That was the jokester and stuff. You know, gradually I stopped really caring and I'm just like watching. I keep saying love Island that really it's very true right now before it was anime. And I'm just like quiet because I just have my mic muted and I'm just like watching, you know, I'm not like engaged right thing. People miss the jokes. You know? I'm not. Like word for word my manager one time she noticed and she was like, hey, Jimmy, like I knows you're pretty quiet. I'm like, oh yeah, you know, I'm just I just want to let out of the people talk, right? I just want to let people, you know, share and stuff get their voices out there. That's a good response. Yeah. Damn. I'm not going to lie. Like when the jokester is quiet during meetings, I get worried. I'm like, is something going on in this person's personal life? Yeah, you're like, are they okay? Make wellness check. Maybe one day I'll get there. I think for now, I'm the smile and not her. Like I like smile vigorously and I like not a lot. Same, same. Nice. Smile, not her. Every team needs that, you know? Yeah. Give me out my best facial expressions. I also use like the emojis. Oh my gosh. That's me too. I love the reacts. Hello thumbs up here and there. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's a clapping one. Oh yeah. I'm like clapping. If I'm being honest, I'm the reacts spammer. Oh. It makes the feel good. Yeah. Like one clap is good. But if you clap a lot, then they're like, oh my god. I really did do a good job. That's true. I also sometimes respond by typing because I don't want to unmute and then talk and then make it accidentally talk over someone and then make it awkward and everyone's waiting for you to finish your thought. Just type. Everyone can read and be like, cool. Yeah. When I said it's my manager, you know, that I want other people to like share more. That's actually kind of true, you know? And so I don't want to like interrupt someone. I'll just like put something in the chat. And then once they finish their thought, then usually people are like, oh Jimmy put something in the chat. And they'll read it. And be like, oh yeah, okay. And then I'll give it thumbs up after. I will say though, I've had times where I'm like, oh, you know, someone's talking. I don't want to talk over them. So I'll like put something in the chat. And then the person talking will like stop because they see the chat come up. And they're like, oh, G.C. said this. And I'm like, fuck. Like this is. - It's like an opposite of what I was saying. (laughing) - Oh my god, yeah, we were like, oh, hold on, let me see what. (laughing) It's definitely like a line. I think I'm well settled into my new role of the chat emoji guy now. - Yeah, the keyboard warrior now. - Yeah, the keyboard warrior. (laughing) Do you guys ever unmute just to laugh for now? - Oh my god, wait, sometimes. - I do do it as well. (laughing) - If there's a chorus of laughter and it's safe to unmute and join in. (laughing) - You'll only do it if your laugh doesn't stand out. (laughing) - And how that implies there's like a time where it's not safe to laugh. (laughing) - There's definitely like a group mentality, you know, 'cause either someone bombs a joke or like they get a chorus of laughter. First, no one wants to be the guy who tells a joke, no one laughs. But also, no one wants to be the person who's the only one laughing. - True. - And sometimes when you laugh or talk over someone, it cuts the original audio off a little bit. It's safer to just like react or know that they're done talking and then unmuting to laugh a bit. - But what I'll do nowadays is like, I'll laugh really hard visually, you know, like obviously laughing like, "Ha ha ha ha." But I'll stay muted so that they can keep talking. But I'm like encouraging them. Like, look, I'm laughing. (laughing) - Dude, we're all just mimes. Mimes on the video call. (laughing) - Get them a little visual stuff stuff. - Wait, I totally thumbs up. - You thumbs up. - Yeah. - Sometimes I'll start the meeting off like, how's everyone feel in this week? And like, thumbs up. Stay muted. - Wait, that's so fun. (laughing) - You won't even unmute and be like, "Good." And I thought it was like the standard. - Yeah. - You're really the deep end Christian. (laughing) - I could tell you do it a lot too because when you did that, it looked pretty legit. - You even like had the right facial expression, yeah. (laughing) - It's practiced. It's rehearsed. - Oh my god. - Well, I guess aside from something like a TV for big meetings, do you guys put your camera on or is it by default camera off? - Camera off muted. (laughing) - Yeah. - Camera off muted. I'm not even in the room. (laughing) - Yeah, I feel like those big meetings, like sometimes it's like orientation or maybe like a big all hands. Some of our like company wide all hands are so big that it's just streamed to the company. It's like not even a meeting, right? So then it's just like on in the background. I'm like making breakfast or like getting the day started. Camera off muted, all of that. - Yeah, all hands is like 100% breakfast time for me. Oh yeah, I've ever not had all hands or I'm not if you'd like to say it. I think it takes a special type of person to like have their camera on during big meetings. There will be times where I'll like sit in an all hands that's not a webinar. So you can still see like the individual camera slots and stuff and people are actually like actively listening. I'm like damn, like you could really be camera off like laying on your bed, doing something that you want, but instead you chose to like show up with your camera on knowing that you'll be blown up on a big TV and like in the actual office and I'm like this is crazy. It's freaking try hard. (laughing) - They want the recognition. - True. - But oh my god, I saw you at the all hands right next to the big screen. - I just love how intently you're like listening the entire time, you know. I'm sure they see you really notice. - I mean, I don't know if it's the same with you guys, but I feel like it's usually always the sales people that are like listening in while they're driving or it's leadership with their camera's on. Like there's no one else. - Yeah, that's pretty true I think. But it is funny sometimes where you can still kind of lose interest or like do other things with your camera on. And I think seeing that in a big meeting is so funny where you can see people's like lighting change 'cause they're opening new windows and stuff or they're like totally looking somewhere else and I'm always just like damn, that's all of funny. - Yeah, I feel like sometimes when I have to do something even if it's like leaning over and grabbing my phone being out of frame, I'm just gonna turn my camera off so people don't notice that distraction. But then that also makes me wonder sometimes I'm like, what if I really need to go to the bathroom? Like should I just mute camera off and go to the bathroom in the middle of a meeting or do I announce it to the meeting if it's like a smaller one or like what is the move here? Oh my God, you know, I struggled with that when I first joined the company. (laughing) And then I made the mistake of asking during the meeting if it was, I asked permission to go to the bathroom. - Oh no. - Yeah, I was like, hey, by the way guys, hopefully it's not, you know, hopefully I'm not interrupting anything but can I use the restroom? - Wait, you unmuted and you said this out loud. Holy fuck. - I forgot, I've got why it seemed like it was necessary to get the time. And my manager's like, what the fuck? She's like, did he just go? (laughing) - Wait, did people laugh? - Uh, I don't think so. - Oh my God, that's even worse. - I know. They were probably talking shit. Wow, I was just like, you're something. (laughing) It was so bad. It was like when I was like a fledgling, you know? Like stars in the eyes, like, I just wanted to be the best I could be. - Yeah, I mean, it's a tough one. I have to be honest, there are times where I just like take my laptop into the bathroom. When I'm working from home, I'm like, this must be done, especially if someone's presenting something where I have to see it. I'm like, I guess I'll just take it in. But other times for like smaller meetings, I'll just type in the chat like, BRB bathroom. - Mm, and then I'll just go. - To be honest, very surprisingly, I haven't encountered needing to go in the middle of a meeting yet. - Ever? - I fear the day. - Whoa. - Yeah. - Honestly, there's been times where I'm in the office taking a meeting and I just like get up and go to the bathroom. I'm shocked that has never happened to you before. - Whoa. - The worst that's happened to me was like, maybe there's a meeting in two minutes and I'm like, oh, I have to go to the bathroom really badly right now. And I'm like, hopefully I can make it. But it's shocking to me that like, you just get up and leave to go to the bathroom. Like people not like, hey, what the fuck, where is she going? - I mean, no, I've seen plenty of other people go to the bathroom. Like, especially if there's a lot of back to back meetings, right? I don't always have time to like prep for a meeting. - Yeah. - And use the restroom. - Oh, dude, what if some of those people who are always late, it's because they have full day of back to backs and they just need to go to the bathroom? - Yeah, maybe. (laughing) - It seems skeptical. (laughing) - Listen, after that whole fiasco in the beginning of my career, I just go, I don't announce it. I'll type in a chat, nothing. In all seriousness, right? I don't think it's that big of a deal. You just leave him, someone like asks his year question, you're not there. They'll just ask you later. And usually what happens is like, when I'm in the meeting and they do it to someone else, they'll be like, hey, Annie, do you know this? Oh, yeah, I guess Annie is busy right now, you know? - Oh. - I guess sometimes the thing I'll do too is like, I'll maybe PM my mentor, like a friend on the team or something, like, I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick, let me know if I missed anything. That way if they do ask me something, they could just be like, oh, I know she just went to the restroom, but I'll like pass it on. So there's workarounds to our little bio breaks. Oh my god, that's also-- - Bio break! - Oh my god. - Like that is so peak meeting, Lincoln. (laughing) - I hate it. - I refuse to say bio break. - Viently refused to. It's so stupid. Just say bathroom, don't be embarrassed. (laughing) - Yeah, there's bathroom, there's restroom or bio break. But I feel like bio break is like the most commonly used phrase. - Even just today too, my manager paid me, she was like, hey, do you have time to chat? I'm like, yeah, let me go to the bathroom real quick. And then it was like a 30 minute like shit. - Oh my god. (laughing) - I'm speechless. - And I didn't say that, you know, I just came back. I was like, I'm back. She knows what happened. But we're both adults here, you know? (laughing) It's not like me saying bio break would have made it a better. (laughing) - Dude, whenever I hear bio break, I always think bio hazard. - Yeah, I feel like if someone says bio break, he would assume the worst. - Well, I'll test this next time. During the middle of my TV meeting, I'll just get up and leave. And I'll come back one minute later, be like, sorry, I was in the bathroom. (laughing) But the thing is like-- - I'm gonna apologize for your bio break. (laughing) - For my TV meetings, I always go into the office for them. So I'm just like imagining like me suddenly getting up and leaving. It's kind of shocking, you know? It seems like, like I stormed out an anger or something. - Oh my gosh. I mean, I don't think, I think people would just assume you're going to the restroom. (laughing) Like what other reason? - I don't know. (laughing) - Just so it's clear, I'm storming out. - Angerly. - Like slam the door on your way out. - Yeah. - Yeah, 'cause I think using the bathroom when your remote is a lot easier. I just turn the camera off, mu, and then go to the bathroom and then come back. Like nothing happened. But when everyone's seeing you in a meeting room and you just suddenly get up and leave, I'm like, oh God, don't look at me. - You do have to be perceived, you know, when you do that. But I've only really done that during bigger meetings, I guess, where there's maybe like 20 people in a meeting room. So it's a little bit less scary. - Yeah, I guess all my meetings are remote. I only really work from home. And so my meeting culture is a lot easier to do. (laughing) - Well, aside from like these bigger meetings, I feel like Loki one-on-one meetings are both the hardest and the easiest because to me, sometimes it's the hardest 'cause I feel like I have to fill up the empty space or time a lot more. But it's also the easiest 'cause I feel like it's easier to wrap up sometimes. I feel like I'm doing things wrong because whenever I have a meeting with my skip or my boss, I always start and end the meeting within like 15 minutes. And we like never take up the full 30 minutes. And it got so like bad that I changed my meeting with my skip into a 15 or 10 minute meeting because I didn't, I was like, damn, I can't just take up a whole extra 15 minutes of her time on her calendar when we wrap things up in like 10 minutes. So I'm curious to know, if you all run your meetings for the full 30 minutes, like what do you talk about? - It's about lifetimes. (laughing) - I will say, my one-on-ones are usually with the PM, my manager, anyone else that trapped into a meeting. My manager, for instance, every time we have a meeting and she's like legit busy afterwards, then she'll stay in the very beginning. Like, hey, just so you know Jimmy, we can't chitchat for that long. (laughing) - Wait, it's me, what ya'll just want to say? That's Jesus. (laughing) - And like, we'll usually do. And this is why she's probably three minutes late to everything because we'll still go over. And then I'm the one that stops the meeting. Like, I noticed this like three minutes over. I'm like, hold on, manager, don't you have like a meeting right now? So like, oh shoot, yeah, sorry. And she'll go. - Yeah, usually we just chitchat a lot. - So I actually do an hour long TV with my solo mentor and also with my manager and it's weekly. If I have to like divide it up, it's maybe like 15, 20 minutes of chitchat because it's an hour long, right? The rest is like work questions or sometimes I'll have like career questions of like, you know, logistical stuff. Like, what do I need to do to get promoted? Or, you know, what are some projects that you want me to work on? Things like that. So I feel like I always have a lot of questions to ask about work and then that fills up like most of the time. Even if it's not questions, like, it's a lot of status updates to on like projects of like, here's all the stuff that I did, you know, is there anything else that you need me to take on? Just like a summary of what I did behind the projects and whatnot. So I feel like there's always a good amount to talk about. But that takes like 45 minutes. - Law questions. - You have a lot of updates. If I'm like working on one project and I need to like validate the financial model I'm using or something, it's not like a true false question, right? It's like, oh, here's like the background. Like here's the variables I'm using, follow the law. So then I feel like that, like each thing takes like 10 minutes. And if I'm having like five or six ad hoc, so that's like a good chunk already. It takes five minutes to be like, you see my screen? (laughing) - Dude, can we do some role play right now? Can I ask you some questions? And then you can answer them as if you're a rating, a one on one. I need to see this in action. - All right, let me just go ahead. (laughing) - Can you turn this camera off and mute it? (laughing) - All right. - So everyone, how's your week going? - Good. - It's going good. - Account for the lag. All right, well, let's start off with G-Soo. Let me know how your projects are going this week. - Yeah, so this week I've been really focusing on tackling a lot of like ad hoc requests that have come in from the sales team. So this person sent in this. I've been working on this. And then this other person sent in this request and that really required me to like go into system A to like dig up stuff. And I realized that system A doesn't have variable B. So then I had to go into system B and then like merge the data together to work on financial model A. So that's what I've been focusing on. I have some questions for you after, stand up if we could like dive into it together. But yeah, that's mostly it. - Whoa. - Off the roll play for a second. - Yeah. - Wow, you give so many details. Maybe I should add that to my repertoire. - Wait, Jimmy still having his raw muted is sending me. (laughing) - All right, back to the roll play. Oh, that sounds really good, G-Soo. Yeah, we could connect afterwards. Just shoot me a ping where we could connect offline or put some time in my calendar. All right, Jimmy, how about you, any updates for this week? No updates. (laughing) - Not even a thing. - Free real estate. (laughing) - No updates is crazy. (laughing) - Oh my god. - Okay, I see now, G-Soo, you give very good and like exciting detail. (laughing) - Well, it's funny how you say that because when we do our team stand up or whatever, I feel like I talk the least. - Oh, wow. I always felt like I was giving really, like, I don't know, not brief, but maybe I just didn't have a lot to talk about or something, so I'm shocked that you're like, "Oh, you say so much." - Dude, I say something between Jimmy and you. (laughing) - It's like black and white. (laughing) When you were going, G-Soo, I felt intimidated. (laughing) - I felt like a slacker with my camera on. - Dude. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I mean, this is only when I have updates. Like sometimes I don't have an update, so I'll just be like, I don't have much to say. - Wait, so if you have no updates and you have an hour long meeting with your manager, are you just like, oh, like, not much is going on. We can end early today. - You know how we just did like a group stand up? - Yeah. - Like in my one-on-one, I go even more in depth. Like we fucking like go through my projects and I'm like, can you like look at these? Or like, here's the thing that I added to this type of report. Like do you think this would be useful? I'll make recommendations or like, I don't know. - And so. - I think I almost always do take the full hour. Although there are times where we'll only end in like 30 minutes and we'll be like, "Ha ha ha, we'll catch up next time." - Okay. I feel like, okay, because my like team meeting updates are very similar with my manager. Cause I'm like, oh, I said like everything. I really needed to say yesterday at our tea-tree meeting. So my updates go something like, yeah, I have like project A and it's going well, it's on track. Project B is also looking good. The stakeholders is pretty excited about it. And project C, we just wrapped up and they're really happy about it. - Oh, interesting. I guess I see my TBS as like, I mean right now I'm kind of more so learning or like trying to understand or like take on more responsibilities. So I think that's a big part of it. But in my past life, because I was at a managerial role, I was having TBS with my boss who was like a VP, right? I needed an IVP to know stuff that I knew so that in his meetings with leadership, he could like talk about the things that our team was doing. So then I think that in itself, like took a long time too. The only times where I didn't have a ton to update on was like weeks where I was like really slacking or something. Because I think with my personality, if I did something, like I'll tell you about it. So if I don't have updates, then maybe I don't do much that week. Just the way I approach meetings. - I see, I see. How about you Jimmy, do you like go in depth into your projects with your manager or are you just kind of like me? You're like, all right, yeah, these are going well on track. - There's like a handful of projects I actually care about and I'll go like in depth on it. But most of the time, yeah, the updates, they right know what's going on, especially if they're like asking for an update. And they're probably right either tagged in the email thread or we're right talking about it. Aside from a 101, we're just like, hey, do you have time to chat about this? For those usually an update isn't really necessary. But yeah, I guess for my projects, I have updates and I'll let her know like how that business unit is doing, the latest news and whatnot. but then also, I'll, uh, uh, I'll be like, look at the deck that I made and then you'll have all your answers. You're invited to the meeting if you want to join. Yeah, I guess maybe it's also like the way my smaller team is structured because we have this project tracker that everyone can see and my manager sees everything that comes in and then she assigns it and stuff. So it's like, you can see the same description that I see. So there's no questions. Everything is pretty straightforward. I'm working through it. Kind of thing. But I feel like I want to take up more time instead of like finishing it so quickly. Because sometimes the thought is almost like, oh, maybe I like don't even leave an impression in this person's day. Damn. Damn it. This broke Jimmy's heart. I've visibly thought break. Because sometimes my thought is like, they have no idea what I'm working on because I described it so quickly and simply. And so instead of describing something so like quickly and like, skip over me quickly, it's like, oh, I feel like I understand more of what's happening here. So I feel almost like I have a bigger stake in knowing if this thing goes to completion or whatever. Hmm. I mean, you never know because as I'm talking to you guys, I feel like we're all in like a spectrum of like our meeting philosophies. I know there's execs out there who are like, oh, my God, thank God this person is taking up like an efficient amount of time in my meeting schedule. That's already so busy. So I feel like there's a happy medium in here somewhere of like, I cut down my meetings so that you like, in flight years a little bit like Jimmy turns his camera on or something and we like all happily meet somewhere in the middle of the vent diagram. You know, I think being brief and like concise isn't inherently like a bad thing. Hopefully. I think as long as you get the job done, I mean what G Suite said actually reminds me of like a funny story where I've probably watched which is like a really regular thing for me. I have to make a deck for it. It used to be every two weeks notes every month and then one month, I just forgot to do it. Like an hour before the meeting, I was trying like really hard to like do it. I was only able, it's like two business units. I have to report on and I was only able to do one business unit. And I remember specifically in that meeting, I called on people that knew it took a lot of time. And so I would like call them to like, we think about this bill. You're like, that's 20 minutes right? Yeah. I was like, yes, bill keep going. You're like, Oh, could you elaborate on that? I didn't get the part that I just. Oh my God. I mean, hopefully it wasn't that obvious because like bill would be talking and then Ryan, I know he has questions about it. Right? So like, right, what do you think about that? We didn't even get through the first business unit. Oh my God. Oh my God. That is so funny. It was the first time after the meeting where I specifically didn't say, okay, I'll send the slide deck to you guys afterwards, you know? That's genius though. It was pretty nice. It's the directors, by the way, the directors usually like talking a lot. I notice whenever I'm leading these meetings, they always lash onto one thing and then they just want to spend the entire time talking about it, you know? Dude, yes, I've noticed that too. It's like this one number or like this one percentage. They're like, where did you get this number? And then suddenly that question becomes like a 30 minute meeting. Yeah. The whole entire exactly. So you just like slip if you don't finish your slides, you know, then just like slip in like some inflammatory number and you know it's going to get everyone stirred up. You're the real workplace tips. I like this strategy. Yeah, this month we've had very like an uptake in negative VOCs. They're like, oh shit. They're like, I heard negative. Yeah, Genetic was really upset about this. Oh. Well, it's so funny to talk through this kind of stuff because these are things that happen in a meeting that aren't always positive. For example, someone taking one number, running with it and taking up like your entire meeting time or not feeling like you're super prepared for a meeting. But I think talking to you guys, it makes me realize that we can use these things that happen in meetings to our benefit and to our advantage. So thank you, Jimmy and Crystal for talking through some of the meeting culture and meeting etiquette things with me today. For any of our listeners out there, if you have meeting tips and tricks, James just turned his cam off again for the ending of this meeting. I'm just waiting for him to say something in the chat like, thank you. But if you have meeting tips and tricks or any sort of meeting habit that you might have, then feel free to hit a set. We have Instagram @eatyourcrispod and we also have email [email protected]. And don't forget to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcasts. We upload new episodes every other Wednesday morning. Thank you. Thanks for listening. And don't forget Eat Your Cress.