It’s an understatement to say that meetings at work get a bad press. According to a study published by Otter.ai and Dr. Steven Rogelberg, a third of these meetings would even be unnecessary, and American companies would lose an average of $25,000 per employee per year because of meetings that serve no purpose. Some employees even sometimes feel obliged to attend when they have nothing to do.
More teleworking meetings?
In this context, one would have thought that the rise in power of telework would make it possible to reduce this tendency to meet people and allow employees to focus on the essentials of their mission. But this is not the case, and if we are to believe a study conducted by researchers at the University of Texas, it is even quite the opposite that occurs.
The scientists consulted data provided by Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Webex Metada from ten very large multinational companies to establish their diagnosis. It shows that meetings in the context of remote work increased by 59% between 2020 and 2022. In detail, we have thus gone from 5 to 8 weekly meetings on average.
To explain this result, the researchers cite face-to-face meetings, which are increasingly numerous. They are in most cases unforeseen and spontaneous. This type of appointment has also increased by 17% in two years.
There is also good news regarding on-site meetings. Videoconferences tend to be shorter and shorter. We have also gone from 43 minutes on average in 2020 to 33 minutes last year. An efficiency that is ultimately beneficial to companies and employees who sometimes despair of seeing these exchanges drag on.
Some employees prefer to work on site
Interestingly, while working from home is appreciated, and sometimes required, by some employees, others prefer to come back to the office. Gensler Research Institute, the research arm of the international architecture and design firm Gensle, has also conducted a survey on the subject in the United States.
It shows that 48% of respondents appreciate working on site to focus better, while 43% of respondents say they find better equipment and new technologies available. Finally, 42% of employees surveyed say that it allows them to organize face-to-face meetings with their team.
For your part, have you felt this increase in the number of telework meetings? Tell us in the comments.
