‘Meetingitis’: how pointless meetings can harm wellbeing at work

The meeting is an increasingly contested way of working, especially with the rise of remote work and video conferencing. Managers and employees alike are complaining that they spend too much time on this deep-rooted part of corporate life, and that it has repercussions on their personal wellbeing.

Indeed, executives spend an average of 25 hours a week in meetings, whether by video conference or around a table, according to a study reported by Bloomberg Law. And it’s a practice they consider excessive and of little interest.

In fact, the 10,000 white-collar workers surveyed estimate that more than half of these business meetings could be eliminated without affecting their productivity. Attendance at these Google Meet, Zoom or in-person meetings could represent a loss of earnings of almost €100 million (RM493 million) for large private companies, according to Bloomberg.

But that’s not the only drawback of this overload of meetings, sometimes dubbed “meetingitis”. In fact, the proliferation of meetings greatly undermines everyone’s autonomy and freedom of organisation. Many employees accept the invitations they receive out of conformism, or for fear of being seen – especially by their superiors – as an unmotivated slacker.

This capitulation can become a real source of frustration at a time when many employees complain of not being able to carry out their tasks successfully. “Time is our most precious resource, so wasting it in meetings that don’t appear to serve any purpose is tiring and tedious,” said productivity coach Juliet Landau-Pope.

“Awareness of opportunity costs – knowing that you could be doing something more positive or productive – adds to frustration that saps energy and motivation.”

Team cohesion can also be undermined by this tyranny of meeting culture. Some employees may take offence at not being invited to one of these sessions, and see their exclusion as a kind of “quiet firing”.

Others are tempted to see this overload of pointless meetings as a form of micromanagement or even excessive control on the part of their superior, even if managers can suffer as much as they do from this time-consuming practice.

According to Laura Vanderkam, author of several books on time management and productivity at work, the result is that repeated meetings can lead employees to become disengaged from their company.

“In the long term, people generally feel less loyal to organisations that waste their time. It’s hard to keep really good talent in that scenario, which means that the organisation will be less effective as people self-select out of it,” she said.

But how can we avoid “meetingitis”? First, by questioning the necessity of meetings. Most could be replaced by a simple written document or an online chat group.

Executives need to reflect on the merits of these gatherings and, if need be, rethink their format to make them more relevant and effective without giving up completely on these discussions, which remain a key part of office life.