Meetings are taking up an increasing proportion of the working week. The amount of time knowledge workers spend in meetings has doubled since 2019, to five hours per week, according to the latest State of Work Innovation report by Asana, a project management platform.
But few people feel that all of their meetings are necessary, with 61% saying little was accomplished in the most recent meeting they attended.
Even worse, meetings are leaving some staff feeling disengaged and unproductive. Steven Rogelberg, a professor at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and author of The Surprising Science of Meetings describes this phenomenon as ‘meeting hangovers’.
Speaking to CBS News, he said: “A meeting hangover is the idea that when we have a bad meeting, we just don’t leave it at the door. It sticks with us and it negatively affects our productivity.”
A joint study by UNC Charlotte and Asana, published in Harvard Business Review, found that 90% of office workers experience meeting hangovers at least occasionally, with almost half (47%) feeling less engaged in their work as a result and a similar share claiming that their connections with colleagues are negatively impacted.
What causes meeting hangovers?
The most common meeting-related frustrations cited by employees were irrelevant discussions (59%), a lack of clear agenda or objectives (59%), poor time-management (53%), a lack of actionable outcomes (48%), unequal (39%) or low (38%) participation and ineffective facilitation (30%).
And the negative impacts of a poorly moderated or unnecessary meeting lasted an average of two hours after its conclusion, according to the research. For some, the frustrations extended beyond the end of the work day.
It’s no wonder then that 44% of workers surveyed said they now dread meetings, with almost half (45%) admitting to lying or making an excuse to avoid attending.
What’s the cure for meeting hangovers?
Another commonly cited frustration was a manager that dominates the discussion. Creating space for everyone to contribute to the conversation will mean fewer people leave the session feeling their time has been wasted.
Rogelberg also recommends “ruthlessly” cutting attendee lists, replacing agendas with action plans and ensuring meetings are tightly focused and don’t overrun. By outlining a clear set of questions that must be answered and directly assigning tasks to attendees, meeting facilitators can remove any uncertainty about the actions people need to take once the meeting has concluded.
Following these recommendations should leave fewer employees feeling the need to reach for the Lucozade and aspirin at the end of each Zoom call.
Meetings are taking up an increasing proportion of the working week. The amount of time knowledge workers spend in meetings has doubled since 2019, to five hours per week, according to the latest State of Work Innovation report by Asana, a project management platform.
But few people feel that all of their meetings are necessary, with 61% saying little was accomplished in the most recent meeting they attended.
Even worse, meetings are leaving some staff feeling disengaged and unproductive. Steven Rogelberg, a professor at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and author of The Surprising Science of Meetings describes this phenomenon as 'meeting hangovers'.
