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Showing posts with label workplace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workplace. Show all posts

Thursday, September 25, 2025

Ways to make meetings work, What to do about pointless meetings; Relaxation techniques

 

If a meeting does not make sense, can you call it into question to save time for something else? — Photo: Zacharie Scheurer/dpa-tmn/dpa

Spending the whole day in meetings that distract you from your actual work can be a major source of stress and frustration.

However, many companies find it difficult to move away from a meeting culture that has developed over the years.

"This is the way we've always done it," people often say. How do teams get out of this trap?

"There is no magic formula, unfortunately, for how to change a bad meeting culture or routine," says Teresa Stockmeyer, a trainer and consultant for team development.

There are, however, lots of small adjustments that can be made - provided that at least some of the people taking part in the meetings want to.

If a team decides they want to break out of existing meeting structures, there are various steps that can be taken, Stockmeyer says.

Structure your meetings

This includes setting and sharing the goal and agenda of the meeting beforehand. The number of participants should be limited and there should be a moderator that leads the meeting.

Ideally, the moderator should also make sure the meeting doesn't go over the given time. It may also be a good idea to take notes. "This means everyone gets the information, even if they don't attend," says Stockmeyer.

Be proactive

If you're frustrated with unnecessary meetings, have the courage to tackle the issue. Stockmeyer's advice is to not simply put up with meetings that feel unproductive and pointless.

It's better to question a meeting and get feedback from your team members to see if they feel the same way.

Being proactive also involves asking before a meeting what input or expertise is expected. A team can work together to visualise what purpose a meeting currently serves and agree on whether this purpose will or should continue to be served by having a meeting.

Get regular feedback

Stockmeyer advises carrying out a quick evaluation after each meeting, which will help you find out what is working well and where there is room for improvement.

The 'kill all meetings' experiment

If you want to go for a more radical approach, you could try the "kill all meetings" experiment for one to two weeks.

Stockmeyer advises "ruthlessly clearing" your calendar and, if necessary, the team calendar. This allows you to quickly see where there is a lack of communication, and where it is not needed.

Another way of reducing unnecessary meetings is to ask yourself some questions: "Which meetings or summaries would I need if I was coming back from a three-week holiday?" or "Which meetings or summaries could I do without if I was away for three weeks and I would still be able to carry out my tasks upon returning?"

Wrong goals: Why we keep having pointless meetings

However, there are a number of reasons why we hold on to unnecessary meetings. According to Stockmeyer, this often has to do with the veiled, sometimes unconscious goals of meetings.

For example, meetings may secretly serve the purpose of social interaction or self-promotion or presenting one's status instead of discussing business matters.

Teams may stick to meetings for no real reason, because they are thought to bring structure to the working day and strengthen a sense of belonging and motivation.

However, the opposite often turns out to be the case. Instead of structuring the working day, it is fragmented by constant meetings - "especially if meetings are poorly timed or are held too frequently," Stockmeyer says.

And instead of fostering team spirit, employees can feel like they have to be in meetings all the time. Especially when people who have little to contribute are invited - just to meet the need of "including everyone in meetings, and not excluding anyone." – dpa

Relaxation techniques: Try these steps to lower stress ; Slow heart rate. Lower blood pressure. Slow breathing rate. Improve digestion. Control blood sugar ..

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Let the sunshine & natural light in for better health, quality life, more sleep at night


A STUDY from Northwestern Medicine and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign indicates that all-day exposure to natural light, even by means of a window, leads to longer sleep duration at night, as well as increased physical activity and quality of life.

“There is increasing evidence that exposure to light, during the day, particularly in the morning, is beneficial to your health via its effects on mood, alertness and metabolism,” says senior study author Dr Phyllis Zee, a Northwestern Medicine neurologist and sleep specialist.

The study was conducted on office workers, and windows in the workplace could mean up to 173% more white light exposure during the day and an average of 46 minutes more sleep at night, researchers concluded.

They also noted a trend of workers with more light exposure being more physically active than their counterparts.

In the study, researchers surveyed 49 day-shift office workers, of which 27 worked in windowless offices and 22 had windows in their offices.

Quality of life and everything health-related was self-reported, whereas sleep was assessed by means of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

A subset of 21 participants was surveyed for light exposure, activity and sleep by means of actigraphy. Ten of these participants worked in windowless environments and 11 hailed from workplaces with windows.

Actigraphy logs ambulatory physiological data, in this case motion and light illuminance, by means of a scientific wearable device.

“Light is the most important synchronizing agent for the brain and body,” says Ivy Cheung, co-lead author and Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience in Zee’s lab at Northwestern. “Proper synchronization of your internal biological rhythms with the earth’s daily rotation has been shown to be essential for health.”

Sunlight is an important source of vitamin D and a CDC report indicates sun exposure is important even for breast-fed babies, despite the high quantities of vitamin D in breast milk.

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. – AFP Relaxnews

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Monday, October 7, 2013

Bosses prefer Multi-skilled workers with the digital technologies, Global Randstad Workmonitor Report

PETALING JAYA: Malaysian employees expect their jobs to be more demanding with the increasing influence of digital technologies in the workplace and more bosses preferring to hire multi-skilled workers.

The latest survey by a global recruitment and human resource services firm showed that nine out of 10 Malaysian workers expected their jobs to be more challenging over the next five years.

According to the latest Randstad Workmonitor Report, greater workplace expectations were higher in Malaysia compared with respondents in Singapore (80%), Hong Kong (73%), Australia (73%) and New Zealand (82%).

The survey, based on 405 respondents, also found that 95% of the Malaysian workers were willing to develop their skills to meet the changes.

Randstad Malaysia director Jasmin Kaur said employers have increased the emphasis on education, experience, social and digital skills.

“With organisations becoming leaner, employees are now expected to be not only high performing, but to be able to put on several hats,” she said.

Jasmin said the figures were reflective of Malaysia’s aim to become a high-income nation by 2020.

Malaysian Employers Federation’s (MEF) executive director Shamsuddin Bardan concurred with the report’s findings

“Like it or not, this is the definite trend due to the demands of business,” he said, adding that even older employees had to adapt to the digital trend of being wired and contactable.

Jasmin said the survey also found that most of the respondents believed that their employers placed greater importance on digital skills than they did five years ago.

“With social media being a part of today’s business environment, being comfortable with using tools such as Twitter and LinkedIn could help an employee keep connected and abreast of what is happening in the industry.

“Different companies have different expectations of their workers. Employees who are client-facing may be expected to be on call outside of standard office hours to respond to clients as required,” she said.

Shamsuddin echoed similar views, saying that it was now a necessity for employees to be reachable anytime of the day, whether it was outside work hours on while they were on holiday.

However, he said employers recognised that there had to be a work-life balance for their staff, adding: “Being contactable is not the same thing as working 24/7.”

Burnt out: Employees face stressful days at home and at the workplace if a work-life balance is not struck.

He said employers also knew that happy employees were more productive.

MTUC secretary-general Abdul Halim Mansor said the umbrella organisation for unions was against the culture of employees being at the beck and call of bosses beyond working hours.

He said the Malaysian Employment Act specified rest days which workers were entitled to.

“Notwithstanding the demands of the job, the rights of employees to get adequate rest should be respected,” he said.

Abdul Halim said such a working culture could have negative impacts on families and communities.

Company managers, who spoke to The Star, said the nature of a job and position would determine if an employee had to be on call.

“For those in management, there is no escape,” said the human resources manager of a multinational company in Kuala Lumpur

Another manager, who also declined to be named, said being on call 24 hours a day was already a norm.

“The company provides employees with smartphones so they can be reached anytime,” she said.

The survey, conducted between July 17 and Aug 5, also found that 77% of Malaysians were satisfied with their current employer compared with 56% in Singapore, 47% in Hong Kong and 44% in Japan.

Jasmin said a pleasant working environment, effective leadership and career development training were the reasons why Malaysian employees remained satisfied.

The quantitative study was conducted via an online questionnaire. The respondents were between 18 and 65-years old, working a minimum of 24 hours a week in a paid job.

Randstad issues its survey report four times a year.

- Contributed by  by p. Aruna, Neville Spykerman, and D. Kanyakumari, The Star/Asia News Netowrk

Related stories:
Inability to 'switch off' causes burnouts, say experts
Technology affects work performance and personal lives