halo

Meetings meetings meetings. Every time in meetings the equation evolves. First came the cell phones. People used to keep their cell phones on. Now these days it is generally seen as a thing to be frowned upon. Then the guys started putting their cell phones on silent. But they started picking the calls while standing in the corner of the room, yet disturbing everybody. Now they too have learnt. The acceptable practice is to walk out of the room if you have an urgent call to take. Then you had the blackberry revolution. People accessing mails on their phones in meetings. The problem is so chronic that in some meetings one boss of mine started asking for cell phones to be deposited in one corner so that no is disturbed by them. You cant access the phones at all. Cool nah!
But one specific development has to be the most blatant one of them. The humble laptop. Actually it’s the arrogant laptop with wireless net connectivity. Bloody hell. Today in a meeting at least five guys were with their laptops open. How arrogant can you get? So you blatantly work on your mails or anything while a presentation is on. How on earth is that acceptable? To my mind its worse than a cell phone ringing. You are in a meeting only physically while mentally you have compeletly switched off.
While I understand this happening in really long meetings but today was a two hour meeting with specific agenda and matters were being discussed that added value to a business instantly. Dam it. They use the laptop screen as a charade in front of your face. It probably hides the dumbness of person in question and attempts to look smarter than one actually is. Sometimes a laptop is usefull when everybody is discussing numbers and everyone has a number to refer to or some sort of thing like that. but most of the time its nothing.
There is this one guy that I see all the time in every meeting with a laptop in front of him. Even small meetings. What does he do on it? I am curious. I am sure he is not writing the minutes. I guess it’s his security blanket. He never contributes in the meetings. He is silent and staring at his laptop screen. I assume he thinks that the glow from his screen in a dark room will add a touch of halo to his persona.