asshole effect 

The tendency for meetings to go longer than necessary because participants feel the need to share their own opinions even though, typically, these opinions are not useful.

Origin: From "opinions are like assholes--everybody has one" and the asshole move of extending meetings longer than necessary.

1. "UGH we could have ended the meeting a half hour early but there was MAJOR asshole effect going on today!"

2. "This is a nice report on our fourth quarter earnings. However, in your pie chart you use magenta and I think that crimson would be more pleasing to the eyes."
"You know, John, when this is printed out through the second floor copier, the color is always slightly different than what appears on screen."
"Hmm, is that so? Has Richard looked at that lately? Have we been sending out reports with the wrong color of crimson this whole time?"
"I think mauve would be a nice color. It was used on the quarter 3 report. It also matches nicely with our company's logo."
"How about colorblind people? Will this be a problem when they read the report?"
"Hmm, Chad, can you get us some numbers on how many potentially colorblind people will be reading this?"
"Ooh, we might also want to do a cost-benefit analysis of toner costs."
<sigh...>

asshole effect by trevacious February 4, 2016