Meetings: Is anyone actually listening?
Meetings often have a bad reputation in German offices – a survey shows why: they eat up time and many colleagues do other things on the side.
(Image: fizkes/Shutterstock.com)
Meetings are part of the work culture in office jobs, but according to a survey by collaboration tool provider Miro, they are often experienced as an unproductive time waster. More than half of the knowledge workers surveyed (54%) in Germany stated that they hardly had time for their own work due to too many meetings. 74 percent were also familiar with days of endless meetings without breaks. And 71 percent had already felt burnt out due to all the meetings.
At the same time, many German knowledge workers also seem to find it difficult to set limits to the meeting misery: At 79 percent, a clear majority tend to attend meetings outside of regular working hours. Almost two thirds (65%) also occasionally attend meetings while on vacation. And just under three quarters (74%) would also take part if they were only invited as optional participants. The latter figure in particular was higher than that of respondents in the USA, Japan and the UK.
Instead of listening: Emails, gossip, sport, household chores
Miro identified the inequality between extroverted and introverted colleagues as a further frustration factor in meetings. For example, 67 percent of extroverts felt comfortable sharing ideas within the team and 69 percent were satisfied with the general level of participation in their meetings. In contrast, only 31 percent of introverts were happy to contribute their ideas to the group. And at 43 percent, less than half of them were also satisfied with inclusion.
In online meetings in particular, concentration on the matter at hand was not very high: 58% would answer emails on the side, 34% would surf the net or read online news and 28% would work on other projects. 26 percent also used the time to chat with colleagues in private. Around 10 percent were particularly results-oriented and did household tasks such as cooking, washing up or laundry on the side. 11 percent also devoted themselves to a sports workout on the side.
Valuable in itself, but
Meetings themselves are not so much frowned upon: two thirds (65%) of those surveyed were convinced that such meetings with colleagues are important for successful collaboration. 54 percent saw the value in maintaining contact with other teams and employees. Design and frequency are likely to be the key factors.
Miro concludes that too much need for coordination and too high a meeting frequency are detrimental to the motivation and productivity of each individual. Companies cannot really afford this in the current economic situation. According to Miro, 4,073 full-time knowledge workers from Germany (1,015), Japan (1,021), the UK (1,016) and the USA (1,016) were interviewed for the survey.
(axk)