If there‘s one nearly universal sentiment among office workers, it‘s that meetings are often a soul-sucking waste of time. Just seeing a calendar invite pop up is enough to deflate your mood and productivity. It‘s more than a petty annoyance though—research shows the amount of time we spend in meetings is skyrocketing and taking a real toll on employee engagement and business outcomes.
Let‘s examine the mounting evidence for why most meetings miss the mark, the most common complaints employees have about them, and some practical ways to prune back meeting bloat and make the meetings that remain on the calendar more bearable and worthwhile.
The Meetings Overload Crisis
Meetings have been steadily devouring more and more of the workday. The average office worker spent a mere 10 hours per week in meetings in the 1960s. Compare that to 23 hours per week today, and it‘s no wonder people feel like their calendars are out of control.
A study by consulting firm Bain & Company laid bare the sheer volume of time eaten up by meetings. Analyzing the schedule of one company‘s leadership, they found that a single weekly meeting consumed 300,000 hours per year:
- The 90-minute meeting required 7,000 hours annually from executives
- VPs and directors spent 20,000 hours in meetings to prepare for the executive meeting
- 21 teams each spent 63,000 hours in their own prep meetings, totaling 210,000 hours
All told, that one weekly meeting accounted for the equivalent of 38 years of full-time work for one person. Mind-boggling statistics like these illustrate how much meetings have proliferated, often to the detriment of actual work getting done.
The shift to remote work during the pandemic poured gasoline on the meetings dumpster fire. In 2020 and 2021, Microsoft‘s Work Trend Index found that time spent in meetings more than doubled for the average Teams user. Without the boundaries of a physical office, meetings sprawled across the day and crept outside of work hours.
The High Cost of Unproductive Meetings
Meetings don‘t just feel like a waste of time—for many businesses, they measurably are. Doodle‘s 2019 State of Meetings report calculated the cost of pointless meetings at a whopping $399 billion in the U.S. and $58 billion in the U.K, based on employees‘ self-reported share of meetings that were unnecessary or unproductive.
Looking at it another way, software company Otter.ai estimates that ineffective meetings cost companies between $70 to $283 per meeting, accounting for the salaries of attendees. Multiply that by the 55 million meetings happening per day just in the U.S., and it adds up fast.
Beyond the financial impact, excessive meetings negatively affect:
- Productivity: Over 65% of senior managers say meetings keep them from completing their own work and 64% say meetings come at the expense of deep thinking
- Employee satisfaction: 70% of employees cite meetings as keeping them from doing the work they enjoy most
- Work-life balance: 45% of employees say that meetings cut into their personal time outside of work hours
Clearly, meetings are more than just a petty annoyance—they have real consequences for individuals and organizations when overused or poorly executed.
Top Meeting Pet Peeves
If you‘ve ever had the thought "this meeting should have been an email" or stifled an eye roll at a colleague‘s use of an annoying corporate buzzword, you‘re not alone. Software company Igloo surveyed 1,000 people about their biggest meeting pet peeves, and some clear trends stood out.
"Was this meeting really necessary?"
Over three-quarters of people cited their number one meeting irritation as feeling like the meeting is unnecessary. Before sending out a meeting invite, take an honest look at whether you could accomplish the same thing with an email, Slack thread, or quick huddle instead of an hour-long sit-down.
Igloo‘s research also found that a majority of millennials—55%—find meetings productive, while only 45% of workers over 35 do. Younger workers seem more open to in-person collaboration, but across all age groups, people resent having their time wasted.
"Can we get back on track please?"
Another leading complaint from 65% of workers over 35 (and 55% of millennials) is when discussions derail and veer off-topic. Meetings that lack focus feel aimless and wreak havoc on everyone‘s ability to concentrate on the task at hand.
Combat this by having a clear agenda with allotted times for each topic. Assign a timekeeper to give warnings as each segment nears its end and to nudge the conversation back on course if needed.
"Didn‘t someone already say that?"
58% of millennials get frustrated when someone in a meeting repeats a point that‘s already been made, compared to 53% of older workers. Talking in circles or rehashing something from several meetings ago is tedious and unproductive.
One way to address this is to assign a notetaker to capture key points and decisions made. That way, everyone can see the minutes from past meetings and avoid duplicating efforts. The notetaker can also gently remind the group if a topic has already been discussed ad nauseam.
"If I hear ‘think outside the box‘ one more time…"
Few things elicit as much ire in meetings as corporate jargon. The most grating offender is "think outside the box," which raises the hackles of nearly 50% of meeting-goers. Other loathed lingo includes:
| Annoying buzzword | % annoyed by it |
|---|---|
| Think outside the box | 47% |
| Win-win | 43% |
| Bring to the table | 43% |
| Touch base | 42% |
| Circle back | 41% |
| Synergy | 40% |
"Synergy" seems to get under men‘s skin more, ranking in their top 5 most disliked phrases while not cracking women‘s top 5. Meanwhile, women are more peeved by "win-win."
Unless you want your own meetings to feel like an episode of The Office, it‘s best to steer clear of these trite terms. Aim for more specific and purposeful language.
Virtual Meeting Faux Pas
As hybrid and remote work models have normalized video meetings, a new category of meeting irritations has emerged. The top video conferencing complaints include:
- Poor audio quality – 67% of workers say not being able to hear well is their biggest video meeting pet peeve
- Noisy backgrounds – 60% get annoyed when people call in from loud environments
- Failing to mute – Over 60% of millennials hate when colleagues don‘t mute themselves, compared to 43% of Gen X and Boomers
- Talking over each other – Just over half of people dislike when others try to talk over one another on calls
The common thread is that lack of consideration for the experience of other meeting attendees, whether in-person or virtual, is a one-way ticket to making enemies. Test your audio and video setup before important meetings, dial in from a quiet space, keep yourself on mute unless you‘re speaking, and be conscious not to interrupt or speak over others.
Tips to Mitigate Meeting Misery
Despite all the grievances people have with meetings, they aren‘t going away any time soon. But there are ways to make them more focused, efficient, and less despised by your team.
1. Have a clear purpose and agenda
A meeting without a defined objective is like a ship without a rudder. If you can‘t articulate what you aim to accomplish in a meeting, that‘s a good sign it doesn‘t need to happen.
Every meeting should have an agenda distributed to attendees ahead of time, outlining:
- Goals of the meeting
- Key talking points
- Decisions that need to be made
- Designated time for each agenda item
- Roles (facilitator, notetaker, timekeeper, etc.)
Agendas keep meetings focused and on-track. Refer to the agenda periodically during the meeting to reign in off-topic discussions and keep things moving.
2. Keep meetings as short as possible
People‘s attention spans are limited, especially in meetings. Schedule the shortest amount of time you need to achieve your meeting goals. Shoot for 15-30 minutes unless the topic truly requires more discussion.
Some companies swear by the 25-minute meeting. The idea is that most 30-minute meetings include 5 minutes of chit-chat or late arrivals anyway, so you might as well codify that expectation and adjourn after 25 productive minutes.
Experiment with ways to shorten or eliminate meetings:
- Replace status update meetings with email or Slack updates
- Convert hour-long meetings to 30 minutes or less
- Set one meeting-free day per week for focused work
- Institute occasional "no-meeting" weeks for the whole company
Meetings should be the exception, not the default. Save them for when they‘re truly needed.
3. Only invite essential people
One of Amazon‘s meeting rules is the "two pizza team"—never have a meeting where two pizzas couldn‘t feed the whole group. Limiting attendees to only those who really need to be part of the discussion leads to faster decisions and more engaged participation.
Before hitting "invite," ask yourself if each person‘s attendance is critical or if they could just as easily read a summary afterward. People will appreciate having more uninterrupted work time.
If you find certain team members dominating the conversation, consider giving everyone a few minutes to gather their thoughts and jot down ideas at the start of the meeting. That way, by the time you dive in, everyone has something to contribute and is less likely to sit back or get bulldozed.
4. End with clear next steps
The sign of a good meeting is that by the end, everyone knows exactly what they‘re responsible for doing next. Never adjourn without articulating action items, owners, and timelines.
Here‘s a simple framework for assigning next steps:
- What – Clearly describe the task
- Who – Name the one person responsible (not a vague "marketing team" or "everyone")
- When – Give a specific due date
Immediately after the meeting, send out a recap with the next steps and owners so nothing falls through the cracks. Documenting actions and decisions made is also a handy reference point to avoid rehashing the same topics meeting after meeting.
5. Explore meeting alternatives
Could your next meeting actually be accomplished through…
- Asynchronous communication – A Slack thread, email chain, or comments on a shared document
- Project management tools – Assigning tasks, sharing updates, and tracking progress in a tool like Asana or Trello
- Quick huddles – 5-10 minute standups to align on priorities for the day
- Weekly newsletters – Departments share updates and metrics via an internal newsletter
- Recorded video updates – Execs record short weekly videos highlighting key information and wins
Chances are, a significant chunk of your meetings could be eliminated or streamlined by making information available on-demand and empowering teams to collaborate in real-time without a scheduled meeting.
Make Meetings an Oasis, Not an Ordeal
The next time a dreaded meeting invite lands on your calendar, don‘t resign yourself to an unproductive slog. Use it as an opportunity to set a new standard for what an effective meeting can be:
- Well-planned and purposeful
- Tightly timed and laser-focused
- Inclusive of the right people and voices
- Clear on next steps and who owns them
- Open to being replaced by an alternative means of communication
Bad meetings may be the bane of the modern workplace, but we have the power to make them less awful, one thoughtfully planned agenda at a time.