Last year, a tongue-in-cheek internal video featuring in-house lawyers at Australian telecommunications company Telstra Corp. Ltd. went viral among company employees. In the film, lawyers, including group general counsel Carmel Mulhern, proudly reported their achievements in rejecting meeting invitations and cutting back time spent on unproductive meetings.
“Now, instead of logging back on after dinner, I get to spend time with the family,” said one lawyer in the film. The recovering “meeting addicts” shared experiences of saying “no” to the numerous meetings that had consumed most of their working day, and they celebrated finally getting their lives back. Some used the time to get actual work done; some were able to achieve better work-life balance; and some spent that time learning new things, like playing the trumpet.
