A new survey from meeting scheduling software firm Deputy shows what employees would rather do than attend virtual or in-person meetings.ย
In fact, the survey of 3,280 respondents showed that 58% of workers would rather attend a doctorโs appointment, 25% would rather sit in traffic, and 17% would rather perform jury duty.ย
Last year, the average time for meetings was 4.48 hours across the country, but this varied across states.ย ย
The top states for meeting times included:
- Georgia at 8.39 average hours per weekย
- Massachusetts at 7.67 hours per weekย
- Kentucky at 6.14 hours per weekย
- Maine at 6 hours per weekย
The military industry saw the least amount of time per meeting, with 100% of respondents stated their meetings were 15 minutes or less.ย
Additionally, 80% of food service workers stated that they spend no more than 30 minutes per meeting.ย
According to the survey, the top work meeting stressors were preparing reports, delivering bad news, participating in discussion, scheduling, and being punctual.โฏย
However, meeting bloat was also a significant contributor to workplace stress. In fact, a Microsoft survey showed a 150% growth in time spent on its Meetings application from September 2019 to September 2020.ย
โUnfortunately, the stress of meetings is real. For many, the dread related to attending work meetings wasnโt just whether or not the meeting was interesting, or how much work was being interrupted,โ Deputy stated. โIt was actually heavily due to timing, performance anxiety, and social anxiety.โย ย
As a result, many workers have experienced the phenomenon often referred to as โZoom fatigueโ in which professionals spend excessive time attending meetings, which takes away from their work productivity and increases the likelihood of burnout.ย
