“Every week my team meets to discuss how busy we are.   I’m not busy and don’t want to be.  How do I avoid getting more work?”

These meetings are usually an ego trip for the partner who has the power to deny a minion a night out with her friends or can reward their favourites and give a shitty job to someone else.

So how to avoid the trap:

"Keep it Simple": As out of sight IS out of mind, the simplest way is not to go to the meeting.  If you’re not there it’s almost certain you won’t be given anything.

If however you have to be there, then you need other tactics. "The Whirlwind”:  Arrive in a fluster with a big bundle of files.  Sit halfway round the circle, opposite the partner.  There’s always a load of chit chat and bullshitting about new clients and prospects, alongside getting cups of tea etc, to occupy the first ten minutes, so there’s time to make your presence felt with some comments showing that you would have done things better and how busy you are.  Then, once you reach the stage of going round the group to see who has any capacity, get ready for your move.  Just before the question reaches you, jump up and say you have to leave - shake the files - maybe drop a few pages from the top of your bundle - and scarper before anyone can ask what’s up.  Maybe set an alarm on your mobile.  Following an exit like that no one can give you any more work and even if the partner checks up on the reason for your departure, just say it was a new prospect who is at concept phase and it's going to be a slow burner. But huge.  MASSIVE. “The Pregnant Pause”:  Be slow in replying and someone will jump in to fill in the silence (this also works in interviews). “The Rainmaker”:  Say you have no capacity due to some non-specific client development project you are working on with another department.  Being “cross departmental” means there is no way to measure the efficacy or even existence of this activity. It also raises your profile within your team, as they think you have a firm wide profile rather than department wide (or even only team wide).  Get a friend in another team to book a meeting room and talk about what university friends you would invite for a lunch.  Make sure you minute it. Send an email to marketing asking for the process for approval of a budget for a project.  Never progress from that point.

You can apply all of these in rotation.  If you add those to all the times the meeting is cancelled due to low attendance or the partner being on holiday or being at a VERY IMPORTANT MEETING then these stratagem will be good for about 4 years - then you can move firm.