"Conference calls from hell" Topic

There are ten people on this call.

Three of them are engaged in an arcane discussion as to the best way to format data prior to testing.

The other seven of us are bored silly.

At least I can read TMP.

I get more word done during conference calls than any other time. At least the phone doesn't continually interrupt me during the call.

Huzzah for TMP!

I confess, the call doesn't sound exciting.

I was once on a 27 hour technical call. I told them the problem 2 hours in. I restated the problem after I'd left work, gone home, slept, got woken at 3 am to confirm what I'd said, and then gone back to work the next day.

They were more inclined to listen when nothing else was working for them.

I get more word done

Now there's a slip….

Multi-national conf calls suck.

My worst experience was a 3 country – 3 timezone call scheduled for 10:00 PM NZ time. It started 90 minutes late. So there were four of us waiting around in the boardroom for 90 minutes for a start…

The previous day we'd been sent a 150 page odd power point research doco to familiarise ourselves with before the call. We did.

When the call finally started, it consisted of some @#$% from the research company who proceeded to read out each page of the pp to us. The one we'd all read already. There was not additional info or insight. She jsut read it out, as if we couldn't.

After about an hour our MD finally had enough and asked whether there was any other content besides reading out loud a docu we had already read. There wasn't so we went home..

Ahhh multi-nats…

Whatisitgood4atwork, you have nailed my pet peeve. I HATE sitting on the phone reading to or being read a document I've already read and digested.

I love the part where we have actually concluded the purpose of the call about half way into the allotted time. Then, the client participants (from several different sections) proceed to talk among themselves about what they are going to do going forward. Meanwhile, we sit there looking at the clock and making faces at each other, until someone on our side says, "Hey, I think we're done, here. We'll let you guys converse on your own."

The weird thing is, I think a lot of the employees for our larger clients never communicate among themselves. A call with us is actually one of the few times they all can get together to talk about critical issues!

And to make it even more fun, there are the times they not only talk among themselves, but start to argue among themselves… with us sitting in the middle feeling somewhat amused and somewhat embarrassed.

This also happens in face to face meetings as well as con calls.

I remember a great multi country one.
Contributors from USA, Europe and Singapore.
I can't remember much of the content, only that one of the guys from the USA was on his mobile (cell).
He was calling from a school baseball game and seated close to a railway track.
It made for some interesting background sound effects.

Confcalls:
Cons – lots of bad time.
Pros – Faster than airmail, and you can get a fair bit done is things are well organised.