Why Business Meetings Waste So Much Time

In today's business environment, we've pretty much killed the concept of a regular 9-to-5 workday and have debunked the perception that you can be productive only when you're in the office. And the once-ubiquitous position of secretary is now a rarity in many organizations. So, given that we've virtually eliminated these once-common facts of office life, why do we still have painfully time-consuming and unproductive conference room meetings? Nearly one-half of employees consider a glut of meetings to be the biggest waste of their time—in large part because meetings account for 37 percent of their day, according to research. With that in mind, Robert Half Management Resources conducted the following research to pinpoint exactly why too many meetings waste too much of our time. In many cases, the factors are based on a lack of focus. So, if you stick with clear rules and remain firmly outcome-driven, you're far more likely to pull off a successful meeting. To elaborate on this, we're also including best practices for avoiding the most common meeting traps. More than 400 U.S. employees took part in the research.