I've started tracking how much time one coworker adds to every meeting with pointless questions.
By @zanehm · Work
It's delaying every project and my manager thinks I'm being petty for timing it. I built a spreadsheet to prove this person is costing the company a fortune in lost productivity.
The full story
There's a person on my team who seems to believe the purpose of a meeting is to ask as many questions as possible, regardless of whether they're relevant, have already been answered, or could have been a one-sentence email. It's not malicious, it's just... a complete lack of awareness. Every single meeting, from a 15-minute daily standup to a 2-hour project kickoff, runs over. It's always because he chimes in at the very end with, "Just to play devil's advocate..." or "A quick question on the last slide..." before launching into a five-minute monologue. It throws everyone's schedule off. After a particularly brutal meeting ran 25 minutes over, I opened a spreadsheet. I started tracking the meeting's purpose, scheduled length, actual length, and the number of his questions that caused the overrun. Over the last month, I have tallied 14 hours of lost time across our team from his 'quick questions.' I framed it as a 'process improvement opportunity' and presented the data to my manager. He was not impressed. they told me it was 'uncollaborative' and 'passive-aggressive' to track a coworker like this and that I should focus on my own tasks. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Am I the villain for wanting our meetings to end on time?
How people voted
- Side A — 38% (21 votes)
- Both — 36% (20 votes)
- Side B — 25% (14 votes)
Readers are split: “Side A” leads with 38% — 55 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@hardpass — You went into avoidance mode with this spreadsheet instead of learning how to manage people directly.
@lowkeyawkward — Omg we have a person who does this but he prefaces it with 'Just to be the adult in the room here...' before asking a question a 5 year old would know the answer to.
@xenakinda — Are we sure the questions are actually pointless or do they just annoy you personally?
@violetlately — Ah yes, proof. A manager's worst enemy.
@danimm — You should add a chart and send it to the whole team for 'transparency.'
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