The Meeting Problem: Why Everyone’s Exhausted and Nobody Knows Anything

Or: how we've somehow managed to spend half the day talking about work and still have no idea what's going on.

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Quick question: Who has ever sat through a meeting that could have been an email?

Now keep your hand up if you've ever sat through a meeting that could have been:

• a Teams message
• a video update
• a shared document
• or, frankly, nothing at all

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Exactly. Modern workplaces have developed a fascinating superpower. We've become incredibly good at filling calendars while simultaneously failing to communicate. This is something we come across time and time again when we speak to employees (including managers) when running our comms health checks.

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Employees are spending more time in meetings than ever before, yet many organisations are still struggling with:

• information gaps
• unclear priorities
• duplicated work
• communication overload
• and a general sense that nobody quite knows what's happening

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It's a remarkable achievement when you think about it. We've created a world where people spend all day talking about work and still leave feeling under-informed.

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Welcome to the meeting problem.

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How did we get here?

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Meetings used to have a purpose. You gathered people together because you genuinely needed a conversation. A decision had to be made. A problem had to be solved. A discussion needed to happen.

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Then somewhere along the way, meetings became the default setting for communication.

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Need to share information? Meeting.

Need to announce something? Meeting.

Need to avoid making a decision? Definitely a meeting.

Need to justify your existence to senior leadership? Book a recurring weekly meeting immediately.

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The rise of hybrid working has only accelerated the trend. Because when people aren't physically together, there's often a temptation to compensate with more calls, more check-ins and more calendar invitations.

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Which sounds sensible until everyone's diary resembles a game of Tetris played by someone having a nervous breakdown.

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Collaboration overload is becoming a real problem

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This isn't just people moaning about Zoom.

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Research from Microsoft's Work Trend Index found that employees spend increasing amounts of time in meetings, chats and emails, with many workers reporting that constant collaboration is making it harder to focus on meaningful work.

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Microsoft's research has also highlighted that interruptions from meetings, messages and notifications can arrive every couple of minutes during the working day.

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Which raises a reasonable question. When exactly are people supposed to do their actual jobs? Because there's a growing difference between communicating and collaborating.

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One helps work happen. The other often becomes work itself.

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The hidden cost of meeting fatigue

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The obvious cost of meetings is time. The hidden cost is attention. Because every meeting creates what psychologists call a "switching cost." Your brain leaves one task, enters a meeting, processes information, then tries to return to the original task afterwards.

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Unfortunately, brains don't operate like browser tabs. (Well, mine sure as hell doesn’t.) Not many of us can simply click back into deep concentration.

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Many employees spend entire days bouncing between meetings without ever reaching the focused work that creates value.

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It's the professional equivalent of trying to write a novel while somebody rings your doorbell every six minutes.

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It’s no wonder people are exhausted.

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The great communication illusion

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Here's where things get really interesting.

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Many organisations assume lots of meetings equals lots of communication. It doesn't. In fact, excessive meetings often create the illusion of communication while reducing actual understanding.

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You've probably experienced this. You attend a meeting. The meeting discusses another meeting. A follow-up meeting is scheduled. An action log is produced. A workshop is arranged. And somehow, despite all this activity, nobody leaves entirely sure what they're supposed to do next.

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Communication becomes performance art.

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Everyone participates. Nobody understands.

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Information sharing isn't the same as conversation

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One of the biggest mistakes organisations make is treating every message as a discussion.

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Sometimes employees simply need information. That's it. No workshop. No breakout room. No collaborative whiteboard exercise. No "let's spend 45 minutes hearing everyone's thoughts on a software update they have no influence over."

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Just information.

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This is where asynchronous communication becomes incredibly powerful.

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The rise of asynchronous communication

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"Asynchronous communication" sounds like something a consultant charges £2,000 a day to explain. (It probably is.) But it's actually very simple.

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It means communication that doesn't require everyone to be present at the same time. Think:

• video updates
• recorded leadership messages
• intranet articles
• FAQs
• shared documents
• targeted email updates
• digital workplace announcements

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Employees consume the information when it suits them. Not when somebody finds a spare slot in sixteen people's calendars and an available room for those in the office.

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Research from multiple organisations has shown that interruptions and excessive meetings significantly impact productivity, with employees losing substantial time each week to unnecessary collaboration.

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Which is why many organisations are now actively reducing meetings in favour of more thoughtful asynchronous communication.

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And honestly? It's about time.

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Not everything deserves a meeting

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Let's be brave and say it. Some things simply do not deserve a meeting.

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Examples include:

• sharing information that doesn't require discussion
• status updates everyone already knows
• reading documents aloud
• scheduling another meeting
• introducing a meeting about preparing for a future meeting

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The modern workplace has become alarmingly comfortable with all of these.

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A useful rule of thumb is: if the primary purpose is information distribution rather than discussion, another channel is probably better.

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This is where video comes into its own

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Video has become one of the most effective tools for reducing meeting overload. Not because it's trendy. Because it's efficient.

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A leader can explain:

• what is happening
• why it matters
• what employees need to know

in three minutes.

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Employees can watch it:

• when convenient
• at their own pace
• and revisit it later if needed

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Compare that with:

• finding a meeting slot
• arranging attendance
• dealing with scheduling conflicts
• and spending thirty minutes waiting for somebody to share their screen properly

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The maths becomes fairly compelling.

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This is why organisations increasingly use short-form video as part of wider communication campaigns. Not to replace conversations. But to reserve meetings for the conversations that genuinely matter.

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The channel problem

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Of course, meetings often become the default because organisations don't trust their other communication channels.

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And sometimes with good reason.

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‍If your intranet is impossible to navigate... If nobody reads internal emails... If leadership messages disappear into the void... Then meetings become the fallback option.

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They're the communication equivalent of:

"Well, at least we know they were in the room."

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This is often where a comms health check uncovers deeper issues. The meeting problem isn't always a meeting problem. Sometimes it's:

• a channel problem
• a trust problem
• a content problem
• or a strategy problem

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Meetings are merely the symptom.

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Good communication creates fewer meetings

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One of the most overlooked benefits of strong internal communication is that it reduces the need for constant clarification.

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When employees:

• understand priorities
• know where information lives
• trust leadership communication
• and have access to clear updates

they ask fewer questions.

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Not because they're disengaged. Because they're informed.

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Which means fewer:

• clarification meetings
• update meetings
• alignment meetings
• catch-up meetings
• and meetings about why nobody understood the previous meeting

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It's a beautiful cycle.

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Leaders need to stop equating visibility with meetings

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There's another trap many organisations fall into.

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Leaders often worry that if they aren't constantly appearing in meetings, employees will feel disconnected. But the opposite is often true.

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Employees don't necessarily want more access to leaders. They want better communication from leaders. There's a difference.

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A concise, authentic video update often builds more trust than a crowded town hall where half the audience is answering emails under the table.

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Visibility matters. But clarity matters more.

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In brief, then…

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The solution to poor communication is rarely more meetings. It's usually better communication.

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Meetings absolutely have a place. They're brilliant for:

• decision-making
• discussion
• collaboration
• problem-solving
• relationship-building

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But they've become the workplace default for tasks they were never designed to solve. And that's leaving employees exhausted, distracted and overwhelmed.

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If your organisation is suffering from meeting fatigue, the answer may not be another calendar invite. It may be:

• a clearer comms strategy
• stronger leadership communication
• better use of video
• more effective channels
• and a healthier balance between synchronous and asynchronous communication

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Because if employees are spending six hours a day in meetings and still don't know what's going on, then meetings probably aren't the solution.

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They're the problem.

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