Just got out of a meeting and I have to wonder – do I work in a TV show? In the room we had

• Soft talker – you know the ones – voices that barely muster something above a whisper and sometimes fade in and out? Right – and ours was *conducting* the meeting – and there was someone on teleconference. If I couldn’t catch every word sitting 5 feet away, how did our poor long distance consultant fare?
• Loud cougher – not just loud – ear piercing – like it seemed as if they were painful coughs. And? Right next to soft talker and the teleconference phone system. Frequently completely obliterated any speaking voice – even the normal ones.
• Inappropriate talker – always ready with a comment or story to embarrass the rest of the room. Full of TMI and personal commentary and always ready to slam whoever is NOT in the room. Also? Loud.
• The Fidgeter – could NOT sit still. Could NOT let anyone finish a sentence without trying to finish it for them. Clearly needs to back away from the espresso or the uppers or…something! Got so bad the person next to them actually told them to “stop bouncing”.

And that, my readers, is a peek into the participants in a meeting that will be going on every two weeks for the duration of the fiscal year as we upgrade our software platform. Yay!