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Skip The Seat And Take A Stand During Meetings (Or Not)

Deborah Sweeney

Sitting ducks...

If time's a wastin' then you'd better get to standing. Or should you?

There's a common consensus going around in articles featured on the Wall Street Journal and Business Insider that the days of sit-down meetings that last for over a couple of hours are on their way out, along with other dying old school workplace practices including the traditional 9-5 workday, leisurely lunches, and engraved watches to commemorate x years of hard work. For the tech culture world especially, stand-up meetings are becoming all the more commonplace. The upsides to some of these meetings is fairly worth the standing while- noticeably shorter amount of time spent with colleagues and with no tables or chairs that get in the way or encourage drifting off.

On the other hand, the downsides vary for each company but many tend to have rules set for the meetings. Rachel Emma Silverman from the WSJ writes, "Stand-up meetings are part of a fast-moving tech culture in which sitting has become synonymous with sloth. The object is to eliminate long-winded confabs where participants pontificate, play Angry Birds on their cellphones or tune out." How do we eliminate a long-winded speech from a team member that gets sidetracked and never makes it back to the original point? Give them a 10 pound medicine ball to hold. The weight is supposed to be the not so friendly reminder that continue to talk and the pain of holding the ball will eventually cause you to stop talking.

Other "eliminations" push the envelope a bit further. The same WSJ article goes on to discuss the "Agile" approach in software development, a manifesto that calls for compressing development projects into short pieces as well actively punishes late employees to team meetings by having them pay a small fine or run around the office building. For the chatty speaker, a rubber rat is given to hold onto as a gesture to move on (no specific reason why a rat is seen as an effective tactic is mentioned). Even when Skyping, employees must stand.

While I'm much more intrigued by the idea of a walking meeting that Silverman suggests as a option to run a better meeting with, the idea of standing does have its perks. Other times the concept doesn't sit so well with me (you were waiting for that pun, weren't you?) so I looked into what exactly both styles of meetings have to offer to benefit the company and the team overall.


Clearly standing room only is meant to save time and get everyone back to work which is ideal especially for those with demanding positions but a short meeting isn't always the better option. This depends on what your definition of a short meetup is. For Atomic Object, this means meetings last for five minutes or less. Within other workspaces, gathering the group together alone would probably take at least five minutes not to mention moving furniture around so everyone gets a spot without having to cram together. Why not just email all of the necessary information over if you only plan to speak for five minutes?

The only time slot I can see this fitting into best is early in the morning when most of the employees are present or even in a quick after-hours session. While ideal for the briefest of catch-ups especially within an office where all schedules contrast with one another, you might find yourself spending more time planning how to coordinate the meeting than you initially thought you would.


A shorter meeting is meant to be able to capture the attention of all the employees present as opposed to sitting where one can hide behind their laptop screen, doodle on their notepads, or gaze off into the nearest window and daydream. Standing doesn't necessarily mean that all employees will be glued to the speaker though so my advice here is to give everyone a chance to contribute a snippet to the conversation. Go around in a circle to ensure that the meeting stays focused and on track with all team members participating and leaving no one out. I'd skip passing someone a rat to hang onto though- know to say your piece quickly and if you should have further comments, mention that you'll email them over.

Team Building

A longer meeting gives a team the opportunity to learn more about employees within the company that they might not know much about and bond over silly and fun exercises.

Or everyone could head into their cliques of work friends that they already know, not talk to people outside of their department and half-heartedly participate in the activities making the longer meeting a bust.

In a short meeting, there's opportunity to build relationships with those on the team. You just have to be creative about it. Expectations to be social, according to a LinkedIn blog post by Daniel Roth, are now company requirements that one must be able to "interact digitally with a much broader range of people both inside and outside the company.”

For the meetings to be effective, any and all time consuming details must be gotten rid of immediately (who speaks first, where to set aside chairs at, etc.). It will be expected that you will have communicated with other team members via email prior to the meeting and if not, this is the time to quickly state that you will later on that day. Should you decide to engage everyone in a longer activity, see if it's possible to set aside an upcoming afternoon specifically for said event so that everyone gets a chance to join in.

You know what they say. United we stand, divided we... sit.

I am the CEO of, an online business filing company helping 1 million+ small business owners and entrepreneurs since its founding in 1998. I’m a former…

I am the CEO of, an online business filing company helping 1 million+ small business owners and entrepreneurs since its founding in 1998. I’m a former corporate and intellectual property attorney who became an entrepreneur after acquiring from Intuit. I am active in the community and serve on the Board at California Lutheran & Pepperdine University. I enjoy Pilates, traveling and spending time with my husband and two teen sons. I credit the entrepreneurial business model for giving me the flexibility to enjoy both career & motherhood. Feel free to get in touch with me on Google+ and on Twitter @deborahsweeney and @mycorporation.