Whether you work remotely or in an office (or a mix of both), meetings are an integral part of work, especially for knowledge workers. According to recent estimates, the average American professional will spend more than 14 years of their working lives in meetings.

As Steven Rogelberg highlighted in one of the best books on this topic (The Surprising Science of Meetings):

1. Only half of the enormous time organizations invest in meetings produces adequate returns, even according to the rather unreliable and probably optimistic self-ratings of those who actually have the meetings. In other words, one in two meetings are a waste of time.

2. The figure is even lower when we examine senior managers or leaders, with 71% of them describing meetings as unproductive and inefficient, 65% stating that meetings actually prevent them from completing important work, and 64% noting that meetings undermine deep thinking. Since many meetings are set by senior managers, the irony is hard to miss here.

3. The most poetic or romantic data point of all: 90% of workers report daydreaming in meetings, and 73% admit doing other work during them, which may suggest that meetings are an underrated conduit to enhancing productivity (just not in the manner we measure).

Whatever you think of meetings, they play an important social role in organizational life. In fact, few things reveal a company’s culture faster than joining one. Are people early or late, cameras on or off, prepared or improvising? Does everyone speak or just the boss?

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