What caught my eye this week.
Everyone knows that meetings are the bane of office life. The only people who love them are the genetically bossy, the work-shy, or the lovelorn office junior who has a crush on an attendee from another department.
Anyone who gets paid to produce some kind of measurable output resents being pulled away from getting on with it. Especially when they’re being pulled away by those whose job amounts to telling them to get on with it.
Meanwhile actual bosses with actual power prefer to be somewhere else making actual decisions. Or at least enjoying a business lunch.
At best meetings are a necessary evil. At worst they’re scaffolding that helps to enable the nonsense and doublespeak that pervades modern corporations.
Presetting the agenda
The most dreadful meeting I ever sat though turned into one of those soul-destroying Kakfa-esque Hall of Mirrors.
It was worse because I liked this employer and I was early enough into the job to still believe the guff.
Titter if you like, but I was looking forward to a two-day brainstorming session to ‘reset’ our aims and ‘imagine’ the future of our division.
A senior out-of-town senior manager would even be joining us to give our conclusions the official seal.
And you know what? For the first one and a half days the meeting wasn’t bad at all. Ideas flowed with the coffee. Special boxes of doughnuts and sandwiches pepped up our energy levels. Hitherto quiet employees spoke up, and they were heard. Long-standing grievances were put on notice. And sensible – even aspirational – goals were tallied on a huge whiteboard.
But then, for the final afternoon session, things turned – to my innocent mind – surreal.
The out-of-town manager was no longer mostly listening and offering a nod or a word of facilitation.
Instead he took charge to make sure that our ideas became deliverable targets.
“So what I think we’re saying is…” he began, before listing a bunch of stuff that nobody had said at all.
Nothing much was to change – we’d apparently agreed – except that our revenue goal was up 25% and we should do more spam-style mass-marketing.
Naive numpty that I was, I couldn’t believe it. I’d been totally suckered in, and I was now dismayed.
“Don’t worry,” quipped an older hand at the team-building drink session afterwards. “They’ve done this loads of times – but nothing will come of it.”
It reminds me again why I blew up [1] my corporate career.
Meting out the pain
Derek Thompson in The Atlantic (read via MSN [2]) has a great piece out this week on what he calls the ‘industrial-meeting’ complex. Give it a read to feel seen for your own meeting agonies (or to feel grateful to be missing out on it.)
Thompson writes:
Altogether, the meeting-industrial complex has grown to the point that communications has eclipsed creativity as the central skill of modern work.
Last year, another Microsoft study found that the typical worker using its software spent 57% of their time ‘communicating’—that is, in meetings, email, and chat—versus 43% of their time ‘creating’ documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and the like.
Today, knowledge work is, quantitatively speaking, less about creating new things than it is about talking about those things.
I guess the one bright note is that Artificial Intelligence will find it hard to sit for hours in an excessively air-conditioned office, trying to mentally plan a summer break while two colleagues argue about who is really responsible for upgrading the office firewall, and wondering if anyone will notice if you snag that last oversized chocolate chip cookie. There might be jobs left for us yet.
Have a great weekend. Especially if you’re playing for England!
From Monevator
The Slow and Steady passive portfolio update: Q2 2024 – Monevator [3]
Are you ready for interest rate cuts? – Monevator [4]
From the archive-ator: ETFs vs Index Funds: what are the key differences? – Monevator [5]
News
Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view click through to read the article. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing to sites you visit a lot.
Staff and pupils allowed late Monday starts as England play in Euros final – Guardian [6]
UK economy returns to growth in May, beating expectations – CNBC [7]
‘Swiftflation’ headache for the Bank of England – This Is Money [8]
US inflation cools again, potentially paving the way for the Fed to cut rates soon – A.P. [9]
Four-day week campaign to launch pilot looking at flexible working – Guardian [10]
Big London office buildings proving almost impossible to sell [Search result] – FT [11]
Number of millionaires to soar globally but plunge in the UK, research finds – CNBC [12]
Labour’s housing plans will use land twice the size of Milton Keynes – Guardian [13]
Softbank acquires UK chipmaker Graphcore – TechCrunch [14]
The world’s poor have gotten richer – Axios [15]
[16]
The lifecycle of market champions [A few weeks old, I missed it] – Bridgewater [17]
LSE in peril mini-special
Thatcher’s mistake – Prospect [18]
London stock market rules shaken up to try to stop firms moving overseas… – Guardian [19]
…but the initiative is not universally popular – Sky [20]
Products and services
Mortgage competition heats up as rate decision looms – BBC [21]
Nine ways to protect your savings from smartphone thieves – Be Clever With Your Cash [22]
Sign-up to Trading 212 via our affiliate link [23] to claim your free share and cashback. T&Cs apply – Trading 212 [23]
Barclays launches £175 current account switching offer – Which [24]
Can the boom in dinosaur fossils survive? [Search result] – FT [25]
Open an account with low-cost platform InvestEngine via our link [26] and get up to £50 when you invest at least £100 (T&Cs apply. Capital at risk) – InvestEngine [26]
Should you pay £650 for the Amex Platinum Credit Card? – Which [27]
How to negotiate your car insurance – Which [28]
Is Amazon Prime Day any good? – Be Clever With Your Cash [29]
Homes to watch sport from, in pictures – Guardian [30]
Comment and opinion
Follow Harry Dent at your peril – Think Advisor [31]
How bonds became a serious investment choice again [Search result] – FT [32]
Boreout at work and life – Life after the Daily Grind [33]
Inside the Bank of England’s gold vaults with Idris Elba [Video] – W.G.C. via YouTube [34]
How the ‘single tax’ can break financial resilience [Search result] – FT [35]
Over decades global stock markets have got less risky, more rewarding – Morningstar [36]
The overlooked risk of regret in retirement [Podcast] – Humans Vs Retirement [37]
The capital gaze – Money With Katie [38]
Looking different – Humble Dollar [39]
In search of the elusive neutral interest rate [Nerdy] – CFA Institute [40]
Passive index investing in the dock mini-special
Are index funds a bubble? – JL Collins [41]
GMO: Passive investing’s impact has been overblown, but it’s not negligible – Institutional Investor [42]
Passive investors and the AI bubble [Search result] – FT [43]
Naughty corner: Active antics
The US stock market’s internal agonies have reached epic proportions – Sherwood [44]
Stock splits and stupidity – Arcadian [45]
Here’s what Mt. Gox repayments mean for Bitcoin markets – Axios [46]
Bill Ackman wants to monetise his X account to the tune of $25bn – Sherwood [47]
The easiest way to replicate a multi-factor hedge fund is with cash – Finominal [48]
How stocks became the #1 game in America – Bloomberg [49] [h/t Abnormal Returns [50]]
It’s time for the Fed to cut rates – Claudia Sahm [51]
Kindle book bargains
The Hidden Half by Michael Blastland – £0.99 on Kindle [52]
How to Own the World by Andrew Craig – £0.99 on Kindle [53]
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss – £0.99 on Kindle [54]
Bejiing Rules: China’s Quest for Global Influence by Bethany Allen – £0.99 on Kindle [55]
Environmental factors
Wind is now generating more energy in the US than coal – Sherwood [56]
Trophy killings spark fierce battle over the future of ‘super tusker’ elephants… – Guardian [57]
…even as Pablo Escabar’s abandoned hippos wreak havoc in Colombia – Smithsonian [58]
Polluters provide higher returns than non-polluters – Alpha Architect [59]
Indonesia and US seal $35m debt swap to protect coral reefs – Reuters [60]
Attention wild swimmers! Researchers want to study your poo – Sky News [61]
Urgent action required to prevent a micro-plastic crisis – Guardian [62]
Robot overlord roundup
DeepMind paper proposes 10x more computation without 10x more compute [Research] – PDF [63]
Pop Culture [or, the AI Emperor has no clothes] – Ed Zitron [64]
I’ll have my AI email your AI – Six Colours [65]
The AI summer – Benedict Evans [66]
Off our beat
Technocratic Southgate has become a reckless adventurer [“Phil Foden’s on fire…”] – Guardian [67]
Why India will become a superpower [Search result] – FT [68]
Digital déjà vu – Of Dollars and Data [69]
Why has it been so wet and rainy in the UK? – BBC [70]
“The kidnapping I can’t escape”– New York Times [71] [h/t Abnormal Returns [50]]
Massive spike in tourists has European cities fuming – Sherwood [72]
Wimbledon leaves $100m on the table – HuddleUp [73]
We’re in a new era of survey science – Slate [74]
How one Rich House Poor House millionaire made her money – The Sun [75]
Young men are swinging hard right in South Korea – Politico [76]
This is why you don’t want to tell yourself stories – Ryan Holiday [77]
“I needed to experience life in a coastal town to realise my mistake” – Next Avenue [78]
And finally…
“If your feet are in two buckets and the average temperature of the water is 90 degrees, you’re probably fine—unless one bucket is at 35 and the other is at 145 degrees. On average, you’re fine. Based on variation, though, you’re miserable.”
– Seth Godin, We Are All Weird [79]
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