At every lab meeting, I track how much time one of my colleagues speaks.
Yes, I am a jerk.
No, I don't care.
In graduate school, lab meetings were held sporadically - but not at all for most of my graduate school career. This is a probably a large reason as to why I find anything but the "Reader's Digest" version of the whole affair absolutely excruciating.
And why I time my colleague in our lab meetings.
Content-wise: This person struggles with saying anything clearly, effectively or efficiently. They use lab meeting to think out loud to themselves. They don't think through their presentation's narrative and then I end up watching them sort through old presentations and graphs looking for the "one".
We hold data meetings every other week - and this person speaks for about a half hour at each gathering.
It is the water torture of lab meetings.
So... I bemusedly count. Because the alternative would be to dread the whole thing and bitterly stare at the otherwise nice individual while they talk about their work.
...
Did I mention that they gave a more formal project update using a Word document? It was ridiculous. I could hardly hold back the humored and amazed smirk as they slowly and awkwardly scrolled through their graphs in Word.
Do your labmates and/or co-workers a solid and make that presentation quick, obvious and to the point. We'll thank you for it.
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