Full-time staffers across four major economies have been staggering beneath a burden of productivity-sapping meetings, according to a survey by collaborative cloud software vendor Miro.
Liz Lewis, corporate content lead at Miro, said in a website post that getting together in meetings can eat up time and reduce productivity.
“While 60% say their company has the right number of meetings, four in 10 agree their company could boost collaboration by cutting back on them,” Lewis wrote.
Miro polled 4,073 full-time office workers in the USA, UK, Germany and Japan between April and May 2024.
“Collaborative work and innovation go hand in hand,” Lewis added.
“Fixing what’s broken with meetings today paves the way for stronger collaborations and innovations.”
Within the Miro report, nine in ten (90%) of the 1000 or so US respondents said they pay attention in meetings. Seventy-one percent agreed that they “multi-task” — trying to do other things at the same time.
Figures were highest in the US, where 10% admitted to multi-tasking in every meeting.
Forty-three percent said meetings “got in the way of other work”, according to Lewis.
Other findings reflecting productivity-sapping meetings included that 65% report “feeling panicked” as more meeting requests are added.
Another 65% reported they usually had no break time during the day, with the average worker spends 37% of working hours in or “coordinating” meetings, she said.
“Despite the rise in asynchronous work and stats indicating that time in meetings is declining, organisations continue to struggle with burnout, disengagement, and [workers who are] feeling spread too thin,” Lewis said.
Read more Miro findings about productivity-sapping meetings here.
Miro’s Lewis said the “simple truth” is that today’s meetings aren’t working equally for everyone. For instance, hybrid or remote workers can be paying a “high price” in stress terms and quality of life for their flexibility.
The vendor offers a virtual whiteboarding solutions such as Miro Intelligent Canvas.
In addition, Miro recommends that leaders and organisations develop a more inclusive, efficient, and attuned meeting culture, she noted.
( Photo by Ofspace LLC on Unsplash )
