Corporate Meetings

Remember the Seinfeld  episode that Kramer somehow found himself  aimlessly in a big corporation.  I forgot why Roscoe Kramer was at the big corporation, that is not important anyway.  While there,  he was mistakenly included in a meeting of young executives.   While the young men were sharing their ideas Kramer threw in his profound thoughts.  They liked what he said.  He like the warm feeling of belonging so much he returned the next day to find more meetings to go to.

Remember that episode? 

It reminded me a true story  of a real large organization , as I remember it.  A young man in a department of a large organization was a pain in the ass   He was not productive, all he did was socialize and talked..  Once the organization was having some kind of meeting and they required a person from each department to attend.  They sent the young guy  that wasn't very productive at his job.

He liked it and asked to represent their department at future meetings.   They thought it was a great way to get him out of their hair for one or two hours at any future meetings.

He did not bring back any new information from the meetings he attended.  But he did go and socialized a lot.  I think I heard one time he even called a meeting for no apparent reason. 

I figure that each department had at least one person not very productive and might even be counter -productive, so send them to meetings.

OK - are you with me so far?  First Kramer did the fictitious meetings with a company he didn't even work for.  Then, a real person found happiness at meetings, sitting around talking  in an authoritarian  manner.

About once a month I take my mother-in-law to her eye doctor to the 9th floor in a building in the Cumberland area of  Smyrna.  The first seven floors are filled with the RaceTrak Corporation.    Once or twice a year RaceTrak offer free coffee  for about a week.  I suppose it draws more customers in to buy gas and eats.  I know it has drawn me in a bunch of times.  Nothing tastes better than free coffee, or it seems to at the moment, anyway.

One time in the elevator riding  up in the RaceTrak building a few young executives got in and rode a floor or two and got out.  Before they exited I asked when were they going to give out free coffee again.  One of the young man looked in space and said, "Maybe in about two months!"

Maybe that gave them something to talk about at the meeting they were going to.