Meeting fatigue is bad for business

Does your meeting schedule keep you away from actual work during the week? You're not alone. 

According to work collaboration platform Miro, 43% of workers report that meetings negatively impact their productivity, and 65% have felt panicked due to their meeting load. In total, WorkLife estimates that workers spend 37% of their workdays in meetings or coordinating them. While the rise in remote work demonstrated that office workers are more than capable of completing tasks and projects asynchronously, the number of meetings people have on their plate has increased by 60% since 2020, according to Harvard Business Review.  

"If you had a bad meeting culture before, hybrid work has amplified it," says Dom Katz, Miro's way of working lead. "It has a lot to do with the lack of trust — leaders feel if they can't see their workers, then they are not working. So, meetings have become a crutch for control, whereas companies should have embraced distributed work."

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Katz warns managers against relying on meetings to micromanage their team, noting that meetings without a specific purpose just cut into time workers can better spend elsewhere. Miro found that 64% of workers have skipped meals due to meetings, and 65% report days with zero breaks between meetings. It's not surprising that over 70% of employees admit to multitasking during meetings, whether that means sneaking a bite in or replying to emails. 

"They don't have any other time during the day to get any work done, so they don't pay attention in meetings," says Katz. "By having fewer meetings, you not only allow people to get their work done, but they will be much more engaged in the meetings they do have. It's a self-serving loop."

Too many meetings can not only hurt productivity but also lower morale. There are a few signs that a company's meeting culture has taken a toxic turn: people still attend meetings while on vacation, and it seems like the same voices are heard at the recurring meetings, notes Katz. 

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Over 60% of employees report logging on just to attend a meeting during their time off, and another 17% admit they have cried during a meeting, according to Miro. While it's more straightforward to enforce a zero meetings policy during PTO (as long as leaders are on board), creating engaging meetings can prove a bit harder, says Katz.

When splitting respondents between extroverts and introverts, Miro also found that just 30% of introverts are confident in sharing ideas during meetings compared with 84% of extroverts. Katz advises employers to be thoughtful about their meeting design. This means giving people enough notice so they can prepare themselves and encouraging people to use features like the hand-raising emoji on Zoom or putting their thoughts in the chat. 

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"At Miro, we capture the conversation on our [virtual] Miro board," says Katz. " This allows people to drop questions and comments in there without interrupting. This helps all voices get heard."  

Ultimately, Katz asks that employers push company leaders to cut down on meetings. While easier said than done, Katz notes that implementing a meeting-free day during the week can help. He also adds that running a workshop where teams rate their meetings according to how valuable they care can also reveal where people are wasting their time. 

"Say your goal is to remove 50% of meetings in your calendar — that usually can't happen to that degree, but you can set a specific challenge," says Katz. "It helps you rethink your workweek."