Intro
We’re meeting more than ever.
Meetings have become one of the most common pain points in modern work life. Colleagues vent about them, memes mock them, and I’m not immune either. In project management, it’s not unusual to clock 20 hours or more in meetings during a single week. Sometimes, it feels like a full-time job just to sync with everyone.
And it’s not just project leads or managers drowning in invites. According to recent studies, employees in global projects spend 7 hours and 45 minutes per week in scheduled meetings, plus another 8 hours and 54 minutes in unscheduled ones [§ Stray 2020].
And it gets worse.
The average worker spends about 37% of their time either attending meetings or coordinating them. Just the act of scheduling meetings can consume nearly half a workday per week, leading to an annual cost of over $29,000 per employee [§ Mensik 2024].
Still, when we think about meetings, we tend to think only of the time blocked on our calendar.
But meetings are never just the hour we spend together. They are events, demanding more preparation, more follow-up, and more mental energy than we usually account for.
Therefore in this article we break down…
The true cost of meetings.
Meetings – A Lifecycle of Activity
Meetings can be structured into four phases: Preparation, Execution, Post-Meeting Work, and Recovery. Each phase comes with its own “hidden” time cost.
Preparation
Scheduling & Rescheduling
We all know the scenario. It’s a beautiful morning. The grass is green, the sky a radiant shade of blue, and we, humble knowledge workers, cradle a steaming cup of coffee (or preferred beverage), ready to dive into the day.
We open our mails and there it is. a meeting cancellation. One of the key stakeholders can’t attend.
No worries, we think as we write a quick mail and send it to the other participants asking to reschedule. But then the denials roll in.
“Sorry, can’t do that day.”
“Out of office.”
“Booked all week.”
So we create and send a quick scheduling poll covering the next couple of days, but no time works. So we expand the survey. Two weeks? Three? Still no luck and what started as a simple invite turns into something that feels like its own mini project.
As it turns out, time spent finding the right slot, chasing down responses, canceling and rebooking alone takes up to 4 hours per month per employee [§ Mensik 2024].
Content Preparation
Once we have the date, we need the content.
While the ideal of a spontaneous, productive meeting sounds dandy, most real-world meetings require structured input. Slides to onboard, data for informed decisions, and clear objectives to guide discussions are only some tools of the trade that must be prepared.
Knowledge workers spend up to 4 hours per week preparing for meetings, even for recurring syncs. This averages out to about 1 hour of prep per meeting [§ Flowtrace 2023].
Execution
Then we get to the meeting. If its a remote call we simply have to to log into our conference tool of the organization’s choice. If the meeting is in person we also must account for travel times. These ways can range from a walk down the corridor to traveling to another city.
Once we all arrive the cost per meeting boils down to:
Total Cost = Duration • Number of Attendees • Average Hourly Wage
So the cost is directly proportional to the meeting duration and the number of attendees. Keep in mind that the average meeting lasts about one hour [§ Doodle 2019].
Post-Meeting Work
But only because the meeting is over doesn’t mean that the work is done. In fact, for many the real work often begins at the sound of the bell.
Workers must spent time on tasks such as:
- Documentation (Updating project boards, wikis, timelines, …)
- Distributing tasks
- Notifying stakeholders
- Onboarding absent colleagues
Even if each participant only spends 15–30 minutes on wrap-up work, that’s another 2.5–5 collective hours per 10-person meeting [§ Wang 2024].
Recovery
And finally, we finish the post-meeting work, but one more part remains. The mental cost.
Context switching is real. Meetings interrupt deep work, require emotional energy (especially in video calls), and disrupt focus. Workers often require 15–30 minutes to fully return to prior tasks. Some companies now calculate this “meeting recovery time” into their planning frameworks [§ Allen 2022].
A Costly Hour
Putting it all together we come to the following cost for a 1hr meeting:
| Phase | Avg. Time per Attendee | For 5-Person Meeting |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduling | 15 min | 1 hr 15 min |
| Preparation | 1 hr | 5 hr |
| Execution | 1 hr | 5 hr |
| Post-Meeting Work | 30 min | 2 hr 30 min |
| Recovery | 20 min | 1 hr 40 min |
| Total | ~3 hrs | ~15 hr 25 min |
| Cost at €80/hour* | €240 | €1240 |
*Based on an hourly rate of €70–85/hour for a typical knowledge worker and €100–150/hour for senior staff.
Outro – Respect the Meeting
Not every meeting is bad, many are essential. But if we’re going to hold a meeting, we must treat it like what it is: a high-cost, high-effort investment.
Meetings cost more than their time-slot
Understanding the true cost of meetings helps us treat them with the respect they deserve. When we meet, it should be worth it.
Therefore, before sending out your next calendar invite, ask yourself:
- Do we need to meet?
- Are we prepared?
- Can we keep it small?
- Will the result justify the cost?
If the answer is yes—go for it. But if you’re unsure, remember:
There’s no such thing as a free meeting.
Sources
| Key | Citation |
|---|---|
| Allen 2022 | Allen, J. A., Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., & Rogelberg, S. G. (2022). Exploring meeting-to-work transition time: Virtual meeting fatigue and recovery. Journal of Applied Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001036 |
| Doodle 2019 | Doodle. (2019). The state of meetings report 2019: The cost of poorly organized meetings. Retrieved June 11, 2025, from https://doodle.com/en/resources/research-and-reports-/the-state-of-meetings-2019/ |
| Flowtrace 2023 | Flowtrace. (2023). The cost of poor-quality meetings: A deep dive into the data. https://www.flowtrace.co/collaboration-blog/the-cost-of-poor-quality-meetings-a-deep-dive-into-the-dataAllen, J. A., Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., & Rogelberg, S. G. (2022). Exploring meeting-to-work transition time: Virtual meeting fatigue and recovery. Journal of Applied Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001036 |
| Mensik 2024 | Menšík, H. (2024, June 20). The true cost of meetings, by the numbers. WorkLife. https://www.worklife.news/culture/the-true-cost-of-meetings-by-the-numbers/ |
| Stray 2020 | Stray, V., & Moe, N. B. (2020). Understanding coordination in global software engineering: A mixed-methods study on the use of meetings and Slack. Journal of Systems and Software, 170, 110717. |
| Wang 2024 | Wang, R., Qiu, L., Cranshaw, J., & Zhang, A. X. (2024). Meeting Bridges: Designing Information Artifacts that Bridge from Synchronous Meetings to Asynchronous Collaboration. arXiv Preprint. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2402.03259 |
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