Yesterday we had our normal weekly development meeting. These meetings can get very mundane. We go over the status of development each week. The development manager polls the team leads. The floor is opened for discussion on any number of topics. On good weeks the meeting lasts an hour. But some weeks is can go on for hours.This past meeting was a bit unusual. One of the developers did not show up. I know she was in the office that day. So we went on without her. In the middle of the meeting she showed up very late. Hey. I guess things happen and you can’t make it on time. There is no problem with that. But this person started getting antsy when the meeting ran past an hour. She stated that we should not discuss issues since she needed to get back to work on development. On the surface this sounded like a good idea. However I thought it was a bit undeserving as she was late to arrive to the meeting anyway.
I stayed in the meeting room for a follow-up meeting to discuss some issues related to our team. We were able to knock out a plan and get out of the conference room in a short amount of time. I was a bit suspicious when I returned to my cubicle though. The developer who was in such a rush to exit the initial meeting was busy on the phone talking with what seemed to be her friend. And the call lasted a long time. Maybe now I see what the rush to exit the meeting was – the need to do some personal business. That is not too good at all.
There might be some extenuating circumstances. This developer has been asked to help out another team with a tool she is not very familiar with. So she is not having any fun. But it takes a lot of nerve to pull some stunts like this. I thought back to a bigger meeting where this person called attention to the fact that she was taking on such a difficult task and making good progress. When you stand out like this at meetings, you had better make sure you are backing your words up with action. I am sensing a lack of action here in the trenches.
I find it interesting that I do not feel this way towards other developers who keep a low profile in meetings. They sit back and do not cause much of a commotion. So when I find they are chatting up their friends or leaving early I do not think any worse of them. I guess maybe I need to dig deeper into what is irking me. It must have something to do with behavior in meetings. Maybe I should have taken more psychology classes in college.
