Episode #5
Should We Solve This or Schedule Another Meeting?
Ever sit in a meeting and know exactly what you want to say, but also know that saying it might be a career-limiting move? We’re back with another episode of The Busyness Paradox , the world’s most regularly irregular podcast. We don’t record on a schedule. We record when inspiration strikes. And this time, inspiration came from a collection of brutally accurate corporate one-liners for situations that should feel ridiculous, except we’ve all experienced them. What do you say when you’re handed your third “highest priority” before 10 a.m.? When you’re told to “own” something but aren’t actually given the authority to make a decision? When three weeks of work suddenly needs to be completed in 48 hours? Or when the fifth meeting about a problem ends by scheduling the sixth meeting about the problem? Paul tries to come up with his own responses before we reveal the one-liners, and somewhere along the way we stumble into policy inception, committees on committees, stretch opportunities without stretch paychecks, performative feedback, impossible timelines, and the mysterious corporate phenomenon in which yesterday’s approved strategy suddenly isn’t “quite the direction.” We also wander into a surprisingly serious conversation about meetings, busywork, organizational inertia, institutional knowledge, layoffs, and why organizations sometimes make it so difficult to simply do the work. Among the questions we probably shouldn’t ask out loud: • Which emergency would you like me to ignore? • Am I empowered or just responsible? • Should we solve this, or would everyone prefer another meeting? • Are we looking for my feedback or my agreement? • Would you like the realistic answer or the one that fits on PowerPoint? • And, of course, which Friday are we emotionally attached to? It’s workplace absurdity, organizational behavior, and the things we’re all thinking but probably shouldn’t put in an email. Come visit us at busynessparadox.com to see episode transcripts, blog posts and other content while you’re there!
