[Nik]

Hi all,

So I just started work at a company recently, and I notice that the culture seems to be very meeting-intensive. To summarize, they basically have a inter-department meeting totalling 4 hours a day, give or take, and that's not including the smaller / individual meetings and discussions within each team itself. This happens to everyone except for 1 - 2 people because of their job scope.

Because I'm new, I haven't been involved too much in all these meetings yet.

Essentially, the working day of most of my colleagues there is basically : 5-hour-meeting-then-3-hours-work, plus 1 - 2 hours of overtime cos' they can't finish the work due to meetings.
I understand CEOs and upper management types tend to have lots of meetings, but we're not on that level.

My question is: should I try, whenever possible, not to get involved in this whole meeting chaos? Like during meetings, maybe I just ask a question or so, or throw in a comment to wayang a bit, because if get involved too much, I'll get pulled into more of these as time passes.

I personally feel it's very unproductive, IMO.

Also, for example, if my working hours (on the contract) says 9.30 AM to 6.30 PM, and I leave around 6.35 - 6.45 PM, is that ok? Of course work can never be cleared totally, but generally speaking, as long as I can more or less reach deadlines, it's ok? Sometimes I feel awkward leaving the office on time when my colleagues are staying back 1 - 1.5 hours late, but I believe in having a life outside work daily, not just weekends.

Pls advise. Tks!