You will attend 8864 meetings in your lifetime. Yes you read that correctly. Many of us are guilty of these workplace time wasters. Are you?
When planning the working week, it can feel as though time is spent juggling meeting after meeting with no time left to tick off the to-do list. Deliveroo For Business, a service offered to businesses nationally, conducted a survey concluding the average Australian will attend around 8864 meetings in their lifetime with only 43.9% of those meetings being considered constructive. That means, according to the research, over half of all meetings are a complete waste of time.
Deliveroo research reveals that 73% of workers attend meetings armed with a pen and notepad just to appear pro-active. Additionally, the survey uncovers:
- Around 1/3 of employees do not utter a word in meetings
- 13% have admitted to falling asleep
- 1 in 4 Australians make a mental shopping list of what they want to buy on the way home
- 7% flirt with colleagues
Nearly half of Australian employees said they’d be more enthusiastic about meetings if free food and drink were offered. Australian workers will consumer 20,547 cups of tea and coffee, nibble on 24,056 biscuits, drink 13,269 plastic cups of water and devour 16,390 sandwiches during a lifetime of meetings. The survey asked its participants if eating particular foods for lunch make them more productive in the afternoons with 32% saying yes.
“Meetings can be dull and traditionally the food and drink offered in them is pretty lacklustre, consisting of dreary custard creams thrown on a plate and lukewarm tea from an ancient office urn,” said Juan Diego Farah, Global Head of Deliveroo for Business.
“Some meetings do drag on and breaking up proceedings with breaks for tasty, high quality food and drink can really boost people’s energy levels and enthusiasm.”