Excuses to Skip a Town Hall

The town hall is an hour long, produces a summary email ninety minutes later, and the recording goes on the wiki by Tuesday. Every number in it is already in a dashboard you have access to. The slides are the same slides with a new quarter on them. This is not a criticism of town halls exactly, more an observation that the format has quietly become a broadcast that pretends to be a gathering. The only genuinely live part is the Q&A, which is where somebody asks the question about the office move that everyone submitted in the form and nobody has answered. If you want to attend the interesting eight minutes, attend the last eight minutes. If you're in another timezone and the town hall is at eleven at night, you have already done your share of them and can say so without further defence. One practical courtesy: submit your question in the form beforehand. An absent colleague whose question gets read out has participated more than most of the people with their cameras on. Below are ten excuses to skip a town hall, plus twenty in the generator.