Is it normal to have several meetings a month about drama and finance?

25% Normal
4 Comments

I work at a small web development firm. I was the first employee to be hired in 5 years when I started, and it was right after the company was bought by a new owner. Since then, 2 other people have been hired. I myself have been employed about 9 months here. I started hourly, moved up to salary this December. I've been learning a lot, but the place has been really stressful for me.

One source of this stress comes from these strange, unannounced talks/lectures we keep getting from our COO about one of two topics or a combination thereof:

A) About the state of the company's finances and the fact that we are losing money, and therefore need to work harder (i.e. more than 40 hours a week, including some weekends),

or B) About the emotional state of our project manager, either conveying her concerns that we're not agreeing with us, saying she's afraid we disagree with her about some stuff, etc.

These talks/lectures happen during our daily morning meeting, which usually lasts about 15 minutes... but when these topics get pulled out of a hat, the meetings usually go about 45 min to an hour. These meetings have been increasing in frequency since the start of the year, now happening about 2-3 times a month.

Now, this is not about me not wanting to work hard. I'm glad to work hard for a company's success. But... I've never been salary before, and I don't know if this is normal, for a company to pull in the whole production team to talk about finances... I would have always assumed that the managers just deal with this behind the scenes, and just tell us when to come and set deadlines rather than bog us down with the minutia of the details.

And what about bringing up a manager's emotions? The drama portion of these meetings is always really vague. I don't ever understand what is going on or referred to. The subject seems to be directed at the "old hats" so to speak, while me and the two other newer people just stand there scratching our heads. It seems like he's talking down to the people with more seniority, and trying to change somehow.

These meetings scare me, and I'm considering looking for a different job. Is this normal, or is this a sign that the company is failing, or what?

Voting Results
25% Normal
Based on 8 votes (2 yes)
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Comments ( 4 )
  • StillHatingHer
    9 years ago

    either ignore all of their venting (it's obvious the ship is sinking!) and carry on, or go look for a better job! Best of luck. I'm glad you recognize your emotionally abusive bosses.

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  • [Old Memory]
    9 years ago

    pretend to listen nod and zone out thats a bit of you time and theyre paying for it , suckers

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  • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk
    9 years ago

    who hired yall? them bullshit managers or someone over em?

    sounds unprofessional and amateur for a buncha management peoples to be doin sucha thang

    fuckers like that wanna make the pay theys gotta be held to a fuckin high standard

    can yall go over theys heads to theys boss? yall might cut yalls own knees off doin so but yall might be also stickin yalls neck out for the betterment of the organization

    if yall feels strongly and yalls got the mojo cut emoff at the scalp

    but I aint there every day and aint needin the pay so follow yalls soul and not my bullshit

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  • ObscureReference
    9 years ago

    Well, it's actually kind of weird, how I got hired. The web development company was bought by the owner of a separate online retailer. I had just moved, and applied to be a customer service agent at this retailer. When the owner of the company, who interviewed me, saw my skill set, she thought I would fit in at this company she just bought, the web development firm.

    As for the other two new people, I think they were hired more directly, by the project manager.

    The issue with going over their heads, though, is that the owner doesn't want to manage us anymore. That's why she put this COO in charge. I feel like she's almost trying to wash her hands of us or something.

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