There is a cost of meetings that never appears on any invoice.
It’s not the salary.
It’s not the meeting room.
It’s not Teams or Zoom.
It’s the work we stop doing while we are in a meeting.
That is one of the hidden costs of Meetingitis.
When communication eats into creation
Microsoft’s Work Trend Index found that employees spent approximately 57% of their time communicating — in meetings, email and chat — compared with 43% creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
In addition, 68% said they didn’t have enough uninterrupted focus time during their workday.
Microsoft also identified inefficient meetings as one of the major disruptors of productivity.
Are meetings really effective?
Atlassian conducted research involving 5,000 knowledge workers.
72% of meetings were considered ineffective.
And 78% said they had so many meetings that it was difficult to get their work done.
The problem, therefore, isn’t simply boring meetings.
It’s productivity.
When the calendar takes over the work
09:00 — meeting
10:00 — meeting
11:00 — meeting
12:00 — meeting
15:00 — meeting
16:00 — meeting
On paper, you’ve worked all day.
But how much time did you actually have to think, prepare, create or execute?
Meetingitis appears when the calendar starts taking over the space that should belong to the work.
We don’t want to eliminate meetings
A good meeting can help us:
→ make decisions
→ solve problems
→ create
→ unblock projects
→ coordinate teams
The problem starts when we use a meeting as the automatic response to every collaboration need.
Sometimes we need a meeting.
Sometimes a document.
Sometimes a message.
Sometimes simply a decision.
The right question isn’t:
“How can we have fewer meetings?”
It is:
“What is the best way to achieve this outcome?”
And that leads us to the next question:
Does a meeting have an ROI?
👉 Discover how to measure the profitability of your meetings.
#Meetingitis #Meetings #Productivity #FutureOfWork #Leadership #Management
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