Changing Workplace

It's interesting how the workplace is changing. For most of my 5 years at my last employer, I had multiple meetings a day. These were in-person meetings. Conference rooms, especially larger ones, were always in short supply. It was pretty rare for anyone to call in to a meeting. Usually if they did, it was because they were stuck in traffic, and they would call directly into the conference room. It was not standard practice to reserve a conference call for a given meeting.

We also had quarterly "Town Halls", where all of a large functional area, or even all of the Minneapolis-based employees, would attend in person. The socializing was as important as the presentation.

Then in the last 6 months, we merged with a similar-sized company in Philly. Every meeting was scheduled with a conference call. For a while, it was usually conference room calling conference room, but over time, it became less common to gather on location--easier just to call in from your desk. It even got to the point where the occasional all-Minneapolis meeting was nevertheless held via conf call.

This is very much the norm in my new company. My second day, I had 5 meetings--only 1 in-person. In the 5 days since, that is still the only in-person meeting I've attended!