If you’re going to enter the world of consulting, you can’t avoid the dreaded all-day meeting …

“Please enter your nine-digit access code, followed by the pound sign,” the synthetic goto meeting voice droned.

The consultant punched in 623-911-888#

Ding!  “You are now connected to the meeting,” goto announced.

The consulted joined the in-progress call.  He’d attended many virtual get togethers with this client and they were almost always a colossal waste of time.  He was a fan of telecommuting when done right, which this client hadn’t.  He had done it successfully for years and made good money working from his den while teaching companies how to liberate their workplaces from desktop chains.  Yes sir, the consultant was making his contribution to the desocialization of the world.  In another generation, text messaging, Facebook, Scype, Twitter and social networking sites not yet invented would have a fair chance of completely eliminating the need for face-to-face human contact.

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