Cost of Ineffective & Unproductive Meetings: $37B annually 📈 Cost of Loneliness in the Workplace: $154B annually 📈 ↓ 7 Stats That Explain Whats Going On ↓ 1️⃣ Americans are spending 3x more time in meetings since 2020. This is one of the largest and most underrated impacts of COVID on how we work. 2️⃣ 83% of employees spend up to 1/3 of their week in meetings, and 68% report not having enough uninterrupted time to do real work. 3️⃣ Unproductive meetings amount to approx 24B hours/year and are costing us $37B/year. 4️⃣ Today 58% of working adults identify as 'lonely' compared to 46% in 2018. 5️⃣ 40% of people who identify as 'lonely' spend 50%+ of their time in meetings. 6️⃣ More than 40% of fully remote workers polled in a 2023 survey of working parents said they go days without leaving the house. 7️⃣ Loneliness leads to higher turnover, the quality of work diminishes and absenteeism increases. Absenteeism alone costs the US economy $154B/year. ----- Calendar bloat and loneliness are clearly business problems. They are also underrated in terms of their impact on efficiency and productivity, but in a world where we need to optimize for efficiency, we can't ignore them. A quarterly calendar purge and virtual offices like Roam (this isn't a sponsored post but I'm a happy customer 😁) are examples of solutions worth considering. I am hopeful that in 2024 and 2025, more solutions will become apparent. Would love ideas / thoughts on how companies can address these problems so please share them in the comments and I'll amplify them through the Topline podcast and newsletter. -----
Asad, you and I have discussed this extensively. Despite alarming statistics, a solution exists requiring deliberate effort, investment, and permission. Inviting employees to congregate in person throughout the year - whether this be for team meetings, traveling enablement roadshows, training, annual planning activities like workshops and/or company meetings. This in-person engagement allows knowledge workers to effectively discuss, debate, design solutions, and build stronger relationships and buy-in to the outcomes. Nothing worse than trying to ideate and workshop in zoom blocks when the meeting is book-ended with more zooms and context switching.
I think about this a lot. A core part of our app is meeting management. The poor maligned meeting. For managers who do a lot of their work through meetings - getting alignment, planning, coaching etc - it is worse. Among the many ways we have historically failed managers is that no one really trains them how to use meetings effectively.....which is crazy. Maybe they had a good role model but more than likely the problem just gets perpetuated. You have some companies declaring war on meetings and just cancelling them all. That's not a real solution. I ended up writing about it last year - https://hypercontext.com/blog/uncategorized/meetings-are-not-the-enemy-guide-to-making-them-work-for-you#:~:text=Meetings%20are%20not%20the%20enemy.,recipe%20to%20make%20them%20great.
An incredibly insightful post, Asad The statistics are alarming and highlight just how costly ineffective meetings and workplace loneliness can be for companies. It’s shocking that since 2020, we spend three times more time in meetings, often at the expense of real work. A regular „calendar purge” and innovative solutions like virtual offices are definitely steps in the right direction. Do you have any experiences or best practices on how companies can better balance necessary communication with productive work time? I think many would benefit from such insights!
our company was formed during the pandemic as a remote-first organization, which opened the doors to the best talent across the US. however, every single problem you mentioned hurts, and, frankly, I don't see effective solutions except for getting together at least from time to time
Wow, I did not expect to see such a big $$$ attached to loneliness. Asad Zaman - having gone from road warrior to zoom warrior in 2020, I learned about the effects of non-stop video calls on the brain - just google "video calls cognitive dissonance" and almost every article is from 2020! I won't repeat a lot of the great ideas mentioned here, but hopefully add one: invest in an AI notetaker and encourage people, when they can, to have walk-and-talk meetings. Use a little neuroscience to counteract the effects of neuroscience!
Though many opt for the convenience of remote work, clearly there are underlying factors and it's making an impact on the workforce.
Meetings are draining when they don't serve any purpose. Most of them could be reduced or replaced by another communication format.
Compelling premise/post. Can you share links to the underlying data sources so we can further dive in?
there is a loneliness epidemic inside and outside of the workplace - people are struggling to find their “third place” as home and work have become a singular space.
Founders 👊 Roam Founder, Yext Founder, Confide Founder.
3w**8 Minute Meetings**