Imlebideli

My life is an endless version of the waiting game. Hurry up and wait seems to be my forte these days. It’s maddening.

I’m not an impatient person, I never have been, but I really think that it’s become worse of late. I certainly have noticed that I seem to be kept waiting now more than ever before. I hate it.

It’s especially prevalent at work. It seems that I am now required to attend at least three meetings each week regarding the implementation of our new computer system. This whole process was supposed to be over by now, but it isn’t, and so, we meet. Everyone knows when and where the meetings are, and the agenda for each meeting is handed out that morning so that everyone can come prepared. But it never fails that someone is late, and we hold the meeting until everyone is present.

Once everyone is assembled, which is typically some fifteen minutes after we were scheduled to begin, there is, more often than not, some point mid-meeting when we have to wait because someone forgot to bring some crucial handout or piece of information with them. The meetings are scheduled for 11-1. I tend to go to lunch at 1:30. I start my workday at 7:30 in the morning. We are not supposed to leave for lunch later than 2:00. By then, I’m starving anyway. But with all of the delays, the two hour meetings almost always end up being three hours or more, and it’s well after 2:00 by the time we adjourn and can all go to get lunch.

This makes me quite unhappy — not only because the whole rhythm of my day is thrown off, but because so much time is wasted, time that I could be using to accomplish the growing stack of work on my desk, time that shouldn’t be wasted, because it is not that difficult to make it to a meeting on time, or to make sure that you have everything that you need before you arrive. There are a dozen people in these meetings, and it is the same five who cause the problems every single time. They need to get it together.

As of today, I have approximately 210 more days before I retire at the end of next year – that’s workdays only, not counting vacation, weekends, holidays and other days off. 210 more days. I think I can make it.

And in the meantime, I will continue to play the waiting game. I won’t enjoy it, but I’ll play along.