Room isn't a synonym of breakout room.
A breakout room is a type of room, but it's a specific type of room for a particular function. You could insist on referring to dining rooms, control rooms and bedrooms all as just "rooms"', I suppose.
Why "breakout" room though ?
Dining Room- For Dining - spot on.
Bedrooms- Have Beds- spot on.
Control Room- For Controlling (whatever)- spot on.
Breakout room- ???
A training room for escapologists maybe.
Stop!
We just call them Meeting Rooms. OK?!
Breakout rooms aren't bookable. You don't have to reserve one for a meeting at a specific time, they are for impromptu discussions that arise (break out) from some other chat.
Distinct difference.
Would you prefer to call them 'unbookable meeting rooms' instead? Not sure why you care tbh 🙂
Why "breakout" room though ?
Works well in legal context.
If it's impromptu then saying you need a "breakout room" is understood to mean "I need somewhere private to work out a way to backtrack from the crappy position I've just accidentally agreed to".
Useful from a planning perspective too. If we have a meeting where there are multiple parties and their representatives, you often need to leave that meeting room and go somewhere private to discuss things you don't want the other parties to hear. We call those other rooms "breakout rooms", i.e. you are breaking out from the main meeting.
You could argue that it's easier to call them "other rooms" or "another room", but the term is really just for the purpose of actually arranging meetings. For some transactions you need quite a few rooms (board rooms, completion room, document rooms, breakout rooms etc). It might seem a bit OTT to a lay by-stander, but with the amount which can, and often does, go wrong when you're trying to close something, being properly organised is key. So it's just a bit easier to put a name to something.
Not saying I think it's a great choice of words, but it means the same thing to me and everyone else in my job, so it fulfils its purpose. It could be called a "Dog Poo Room" for all I care, so long as people know what and where it is 🙂
I don't care particularly 🙂
Just seems odd when people accept (and defend) a description that makes no sense that's all.
Might as well call them Table Tennis rooms and just accept it makes no sense, at least that sounds like fun 😉
break-out rooms? that's so 2011.
we have a collaboration area 😀
Please! I'd rather listen to walkaroundshoutyman than have you lot argue about what a bleedin room is called!
Just seems odd when people accept (and defend) a description that makes no sense that's all.
life would be rather dull if everything was so utilitarian
🙂
Presumably all those people who only ride at trail centres actually own Trail Centre Bikes rather than Mountain Bikes?
the bleedin room is where shoutyman ends up when he doesn't STFU
😀
life would be rather dull if everything was so utilitarian
That's why I suggested "table tennis room" as a fun sounding alternative 😉
Dont do it now as im not a project manager any more but for about 6 years me and just about every other PM paced and shouted our way round the office, often passing each other and sometimes employing a one way system so as not to collide.
The ones who didnt seemed to slope off into the side offices and conduct covert conversations...i think it has something to do with having to get round all the problems on site and not really wanting to let the management know how you are doing this so a quick walk down the office away from ears and then back again when when the topic is a little less sensitive seemed the way forward?
Even now when a call comes in i'll pace a little....dont know why?? but at home the wife gets enraged by it.
That's why I suggested "table tennis room" as a fun sounding alternative
A few years ago I had the priviledge of working with some amazingly bright and funny guys who were joining their consultancy businesses. There were multiple transactions happening at once and, as is often the case, each was assigned a project name to identify it.
Normally directors pick something descriptive, catchy and easy. These guys picked the most obscure, difficult to pronounce and spell project names imaginable (some were the names of chemical compounds for example). 🙂 It was the source of a lot of outbursts from frustrated lawyers/sectretaries/other advisers as they struggled with the names in meetings
[i]but at home the wife gets enraged by it.[/i]
She has got a point.
Pacing while on the phone is the modern version of "walking the talk" - for those of you who did management training courses in the 90s.
