Office Meeting Productive, Operations Manager says

RICHMOND, Va. - Following a four-hour debriefing on user traffic to the company website on Wednesday, office manager Jeff Burroughs of Richmond Cleaners said the meeting "went well."

"I think we got a lot accomplished," Burroughs told the Celery Stalk, outlining the agenda of the six-pointed meeting.

Burroughs described the detente as an afternoon ordeal without the option of coffee or donuts, outlining six-month action items on the company's website infrastructure, usability, search engine optimization tactics and more.

"We're very excited to be creating our website. And, I know we discussed many of these things in previous meetings," Burroughs said, "but I thought it helpful to recount many of the items that haven't been accomplished so we could sort of rework and reword them on paper."

Burroughs said that talking about the same issues over and over help to "reiterate" and "motivate" employees to "get moving" on their vaguely assigned tasks, like tracking user activity and reporting key search engine statistics on the company's two-page website.

Still, some office attendees weren't as optimistic. Judy Price, Richmond Cleaners senior accounting operator and lunchtime cash register operator, said she "really thought about quitting" during the first hour of what she called a "long, boring and pointless" conference where "no one knows what they're talking about, but everybody argues like they do."

"I just did some quick math. If I were to quit today and go on unemployment for awhile, I'd probably make out even better than I am now. And I'd never have to go to another meeting again," Price said.

A copywriting consultant who declined to give her name said, "I don't know, I kind of like these meetings. They give me a chance to map out my hectic day, like what time I should pick up my dry cleaning and how many bills I have left to pay. I even planned out my husband's entire surprise birthday party during one meeting, so it works out well for me."