A MegaCorp friend and I are trying to plan a happy hour to catch up, but as is often the case for many these days, she is stuck getting ready for a ‘big meeting’.

I can easily remember the meeting-to-meeting work life of MegaCorp and how I might go to 8, 9, or 10 meetings in a day. In between small meetings, I would be preparing for bigger meetings or big presentations.

It seemed sometimes that meetings became the bane of my existence, but a new theory from a Swedish university professor claims that meetings are actually ‘therapeutic’ and unnecessarily maligned.

Wait, what? Yes, this study says seemingly pointless “meetings provide an outlet for people at work to show off their status or to express frustration.”

As someone who often says that if I ever get bored in early retirement, it won’t be more boring than going to a budget meeting (sorry, Finance friends), I can not relate with the findings. The studies’ author comments that meetings serve a purpose as an “opportunity to complain and be acknowledged by colleagues”. That’s therapy?

I always did believe that the longer the meeting,the less well-behaved people were. One of my MegaCorp bosses used to call long prioritization meetings ‘Food Fights’, which seemed appropriate. That said, I am a little puzzled that researchers would propose that this is personal therapy. Perhaps that’s why I quit the game 10+ years early!

Have a great weekend!

Image Credit: Pixabay