Bored at Work?

I don't know about you, but I have way too many meetings at work. Or maybe there are the right amount of meetings, but they are too long. I don't know.

Anyway, don't get me wrong, I understand the need to refocus, to reiterate office goals, to announce important events, to reorganize. All of these are essential for a smooth-running operation. I get it.

But sometimes you get talkers in these meetings. People who need elaboration on every minute detail that doesn't concern anyone but themselves; elaboration that could easily take place after the meeting, one-on-one with the boss, and not at the expense of everyone else's work time. I found this unfortunate fact out about 3 weeks into working a real job.

Initially, I tried to pass this wasted time by doodling on my notepad. This was a failure because I found out that I have no talent when it comes to drawing, and all that resulted were countless 3-D cubes, because...well, that's all I remembered/could do from my 5th grade art class.

I decided to get pro-active about things. I began paying attention to the way people talked and noticed that certain phrases presented themselves more frequently than others. I talked with some of my colleagues and decided that to keep things interesting, we should play "Corporate Idiom Bingo" during these at-times excruciating meetings. The rules are simple. Fill out a 4x4 card with any phrases you feel will be used during the meeting. Get a row, diagonal, or column: BINGO. Blackouts are also possible, though I would say improbable. Here are some classic corporate phrases I've found:

"...but you see, where the rubber hits the road is when..."
"We're putting the cart before the horse here..."
"The last thing we want to do is reinvent the wheel..."

I'd be interested in hearing what other people hear in their meetings. Just don't get caught taking down phrases by your supervisor.

Oh yeah, so when I said 'I decided to get pro-active' I bet you were thinking I reshaped the way we did meetings in such a way that my office's efficiency increased threefold or something. I'm flattered, but you give me way too much credit.