Where I work, conference rooms are scarce and we have to use other organizations for audio bridges. It is ridiculous. Everything about the process frustrates me beyond belief. If you schedule a room in advance, you are likely to be bumped because a more senior person needs a meeting or someone has a VTC requirement and you only have an audio bridge requirement. That is fine - being moved to a different room is annoying, but manageable. Although, I have a WEEKLY recurring meeting that has been moved the last 4 weeks in a row and it is really freaking irritating to have to e-mail everyone who attends from my office every week with a different room, or no room at all because sometimes rooms just plain are not available! How productive is that?!
Today we have a call with people all over the WORLD in many different time zones, some who call on their way in to work, some on their way home, and others first thing in the morning. The people who schedule this crap - because, you know, we aren't allowed to book our own - have changed the room and the number. The call starts in 30 minutes. How are we going to tell everyone the number changed? My guess, we aren't. It's going to be a big clusterfuck and we are going to look like morons.
Unfortunately, this happens all too often (though not usually with calls that involve every time zone). Just yesterday I tried to change the name of a meeting that was already set up, get a new audio bridge, and make it recurring. Instead of cancelling the old meeting, they tried changing everything about the new meeting and I got no less than (and I am not exaggerating) 10 calendar requests. I am not even sure it is correct. And, because the usual audio people were not answering their phone, we had to get a bridge from a different organization, and they don't do recurring meetings, so I have to call weekly to get a number. WTF?!
This is not rocket science. But, because these people don't attend meetings or don't get how confusing it can be, or just don't care (not sure which because they are all very nice), nothing ever changes. I almost never set up meetings because it is such a hassle. This is NOT efficient. And I am PISSED.
rant over.
There are mornings where I missing getting up and going to work. But after reading this, I'm a little more thankful for sitting here in my oatmeal-encrusted pajamas with mountain of laundry to fold!
ReplyDeleteFrustrating!!