Apologies if this is not the right place for this post, but it seems like it's relevant.
In my department, the manager talks excessively. I would even say compulsively. It's a joke around the whole office to avoid her office because she talks so much. She often complains about how much work she has to do, but she could probably get a lot more done if she talked less. This becomes a problem for those of us whom she oversees because a conversation that could be 10 minutes long turns into 45 minutes. A meeting that could have been 30 minutes turns into 60+ minutes. Plus, she likes to have meetings and I've heard whispers that she is going to push for us to have more.
She doesn't get social cues. Literally as I'm walking out her office and halfway down the hallway she's still talking to me. She repeats herself a lot. She shares excessive details about things that are not important. The thing is that she's *extremely* nice and considerate, will never say anything bad about anyone, and genuinely cares about her job. But also, she does not take constructive criticism well. Rumors have gone around that when her boss tells her she's not doing something well she cries for a whole weekend, and if a mistake she made is brought up in a meeting she gets defensive and over-explains herself. If it's not already obvious, she is extremely anxious and a perfectionist (who naturally still makes mistakes like any human).
Does anyone have advice on how to deal with a boss like this? We have the rapport with her boss (the director of our dept. and also one of our bosses) to give honest feedback, but is there a constructive/productive/professional way to say “Our boss talks too much”? In all honesty, I don't know if it's something she would be able to change because it seems like a big part of her personality. For the most part, we just accept it and deal with it, but when she pushes for more pointless meetings it becomes an issue. Also, because she's so nice, no one wants to get her trouble, but we would like a solution for this issue.