“Been In Back-To-Backs All Day” Is A Ridiculous Managerial Badge Of Honor

Another link in the “busy is not the same as productive” chain.

I was just walking my dog. I decided to think briefly to myself: “Have I ever had a manager who didn’t constantly reference how many back-to-back meetings he or she has been in?” I couldn’t think of a single one. A few highlights pop:

• Years ago at ESPN, I had this manager named Scott. He didn’t want to be a manager or even, really, to work at ESPN. He wanted to jam with his band. He would regularly come to meetings from another meeting (common), and sit down and say “I don’t know what this meeting is about.” Stunningly, he was almost never held accountable for this, because higher-ups liked him and thought he was goofy and affable. So a bunch of us would prepare for a meeting, our boss would have no idea what the meeting was about, take half the meeting to determine what it was about, the meeting would then be essentially useless, and the circle would just continue.
• At McKesson one summer, I worked with a guy named James who would have a completely full calendar every Monday morning, until Friday at 3:30pm. No time to eat lunch, much less do anything. There is no way to iterate on work, make things better, etc. if all you do is bounce between meetings.