Sounds like you were in what you felt was an unproductive, wasteful meeting. Any person who has ever had a job with any meaningful level of responsibility has been in more than one.
As I read your story, I wonder if other costs are not getting charged correctly in other parts of this business. It is possible that this instance of misaligned charges is a symptom of a larger more systemic issue. An issue that is costing the company much more money because if they can't account for their expenses, they can't obtain tax write offs that they should be able to claim.
And a counter story for you to consider ...
I got my PhD back in 1989. My first job in 1990 was with a software team in which I was going to be driving the design. The other 5 developers had each been with the company 20 years. They told me on no uncertain terms that given their 100+ years of experience, they were not going to do anything I wanted them to do unless I was able to convince them it absolutely had to be done. They were the ones with "real experience".
Their existing product was junk. It was failing in the market. Their VP brought me in. My PhD (Experimental Psych) allowed me to quickly determine that there team was totally dysfunctional. Their lead architect was a bully. Their most creative guy was quiet and easily pushed around. The other three simply wanted to write code, they wanted to be told what to do. Within 6 months, I redesigned the product and took on the bully, and then helped him channel his focus into the subsystem of the product, a highly technical area where he thrived, and in which there was no need for him to bully anyone. The next version of the product did great in the market and won industry awards. In large part thanks to "the college puke" that the VP brought in. I got a rather larger bonus as a result.
The point I guess is that neither a degree, or experience, is a silver bullet.
So let the GOP bash higher education.
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