The Meeting Tax: $25,000 a Year, Per Employee, for Meetings You Could Have Skipped

Everyone has sat in a meeting doing the math in their head: how much is this hour actually costing us?

In 2022, someone finally did the math. It's worse than you think.

Korn Ferry reported on a 2022 survey of 632 employees across 20 industries, led by organizational psychologist Steven Rogelberg, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, together with meeting-software firm Otter.ai. Employees were asked how much time they spend in meetings each week and how much they get out of them.

Here's what came back:

Rogelberg turned that into a metric he calls "wasted investment": the dollars sacrificed when an employee sits in a meeting they could have skipped.

One hundred million dollars. One company. Spent on meetings people say they didn't need to attend.

Microsoft found that the number of meetings per week had increased by 153% globally for the average Microsoft Teams user since the start of the pandemic, and it wasn't slowing even as many people returned to the office.

Korn Ferry's David Vied, global sector leader for the firm's Medical Devices and Diagnostics practice, put it simply:

That's the whole problem in one sentence. A meeting costs nothing to schedule and a fortune to attend.

To be fair, meetings exist for a reason. Many organizations run on a culture of keeping everyone in the loop. Effective meetings convey information, spark innovation, and engage employees. As Juan Pablo González, sector leader for Korn Ferry's Professional Services practice, said:

But the article is clear about where it breaks down: the bad habits of organizers. Meetings scheduled too long, then stuffed with presentations to justify the length. People invited who have nothing to contribute. No next steps. No deadlines.

Miriam Nelson, Korn Ferry senior client partner in the firm's Assessment and Succession Solutions business:

The article lists the usual remedies. Kristi Drew, global account leader for Korn Ferry's Financial Services Practice, has multiple clients who cap meetings at 25 minutes:

Some managers declare "no-meeting Fridays." Others wrap up early. And Dan Kaplan, a Korn Ferry senior client partner who specializes in human resources, captured the mood shift:

Shorter meetings help. Fewer meetings help. But notice what every one of these fixes assumes: a human still has to be in the room.

That's the assumption we should be questioning.

Look at what the employees actually said. They could skip a third of their meeting time as long as they got the same information some other way.

That "some other way" is the whole opportunity.

WisdomTwin.ai lets every person send their WisdomTwin to internal meetings in their place. Your WisdomTwin can also reply to most of your internal Slack messages and emails. It shows up, it represents you, and you get your hours back for the work only you can do.

Our mission is blunt: end most of the internal daily, weekly and monthly meetings that waste people's time.

Not shorter meetings. Not one meeting-free day a week. Fewer meetings that need a human in the chair at all.

Run the numbers from the study on your own team. Take your headcount. Multiply by $25,000. Then do it again for your managers at $42,000. That's the meeting tax you're paying right now, every year.

A short call with me could save your team thousands of hours. That's a meeting worth taking.

We're hosting WisdomTwin Live, a session on the meeting tax and how WisdomTwin works.

Want in? Comment two words: No Meetings. We'll invite you to the next WisdomTwin Live, or send you the replay if you miss it.

Examples in this issue are hypothetical, and nothing here describes a customer result.

Roman Bodnarchuk

Co-Founder and CEO, WisdomTwin.ai