Current mood:

good

Working Culture Part IV
Meetings: They are used to be overloaded of meetings. Some people in my company haven’t got any time to do what was set on the meeting as they are in a hurry to the following ones. Of course, it happens more with the colleagues in higher positions, as far as I’ve perceived.

I’ve been in just one general Brand meeting so far. The meeting is always structured with a presentation, one of the colleagues show what is new in their field of work, the other can make questions or add something from their work as well. After that, everybody says what they are doing at the moment. It’s amazing productive as the work is all connected, it’s useful to make the communication flow and after it you can have an overview of the whole thing.

It seems to me to be very democratic, we cannot fell any difference in status, we are all the same and everybody has a word. Really, it’s not only theory. The Brand Director work as a mediator, it’s held totally in English, and
It lasts for 2 hours.

All right, we went first to the common stuff, let’s see what is really WEIRD:

- It should start at 10 a.m., I was so afraid of being late, you know the German punctuality! Well, I was there punctually as well, nobody was there, I felt so ashamed to go to the wrong meeting room, of course they were punctually somewhere else. WRONG, They just came later! I was the only one there in time! So, 15 minutes later we started, and others were coming in even later.

- After the presentation I was expecting claps, instead of claps they knocked the table! So weird! I´m still looking for an historic-cultural explanation for this...

- It is planned to occur once a week, but not less than once a month. Though a product manager told me the next one might be in 6 months! Maybe it was my first and my last meeting! 

- One woman brought the results of one research produced in House. They were just figures, and instead of making a slide, she was reading it. Good, I couldn’t compare 12 or more figures, from different categories just by listening to it. I guess nobody could really follow it. The people that were sitting at her side were trying to see her sheet, and the funny thing was that she tried to hide it with her arms, shoulders, hands, so funny! After, another woman asked if she could have a copy of the study... This was a tense moment, after some minutes stuttering, the first woman finally agreed and set thousands of restrictions to use it. Well, I´m still wondering, if you produce such an expensive study, as I guess it was, and you cannot show the results, what is the real sense of it? I´m still looking for this answer... Things are not so simple as they might seem...