I Survived Another Meeting That Could Have Been an Email

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Economist and Diplomat John Kenneth Galbraith said it best:

"Meetings are indispensable when you don't want to do anything." 

👉 The data confirms what most leaders already figured out: we’re meeting more than ever — and deciding less than ever.👈

Research from multiple reputable sources — including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, and Atlassian — points to a consistent pattern:

⏱️ We spend ~10–12 hours per week in meetings — nearly a third of the workweek

📅 Leaders often exceed 20 hours per week in meetings

📈 Meeting volume has risen steadily for decades, accelerating with hybrid work

👥 Larger meetings drive lower participation and effectiveness — often dropping 20–40%

🧭 More than half of meetings end without clear next steps or ownership

In plain language:

we meet more, decide less, and then schedule another meeting.

One finding shows up everywhere:

Meeting attendance size matters.

As meetings grow in attendance, participation drops. A few voices dominate, accountability diffuses, and meetings quietly become spectator events instead of decision forums.

I’ll be honest — I used to enjoy those massive virtual meetings.

Not because they worked — but because they were predictable.

They were easy to listen to in the background, get real work done, and signal engagement with a well-timed question at the end.

That wasn’t disengagement.

That was adaptation — making a broken system work against itself.

In your next virtual meeting, take a moment to really look at the virtual meeting room. Notice who’s engaged, who’s multitasking, and who’s gone quiet.

That behaviour isn’t random.

It’s feedback.

Another uncomfortable truth from the research:

📨 Many meetings could have been avoided with a well-written email.

Much of what fills calendars today isn’t collaboration or decision-making.

• It’s information transfer.

• Status updates.

• Read-outs.

• “Keeping everyone in the loop.”

Work that never needed a meeting in the first place.

When our meetings:

• lack a clear purpose

• don’t require preparation

• don’t produce decisions

• don’t create accountability

👉 leaders should push back and ask one question:

“Why are we meeting?”

Because meetings should be where work gets done and hard decisions are made.

Not where energy, focus, and accountability quietly die.