MIT Sloan Management Review Article on The Surprising Impact of Meeting-Free Days

Even before the pandemic, 71% of managers thought meetings were costly and unproductive. Since many companies have shifted to remote and hybrid workplace models, meetings have steadily increased in frequency and length to compensate for the loss of in-person interactions. Today’s knowledge workers typically spend more than 85% of their time in meetings, which studies show negatively affects people’s psychological, physical, and mental well-being.

Though building trust and achieving team cohesion rely on frequent, quality interactions, meetings are no longer the best way to accomplish this. As a result, many organizations, including Facebook and Atlassian, are taking a stand by adopting no-meeting days, during which people operate at their own rhythms and collaborate with others at a pace and on a schedule that is convenient, not forced.

About the Author

Ben Laker (@drbenlaker) is a professor of leadership at Henley Business School at the University of Reading. Vijay Pereira is a professor of strategic and international human capital management at NEOMA Business School. Pawan Budhwar is the 50th Anniversary Professor of International Human Resource Management at Aston University’s Aston Business School. Ashish Malik (@maliknewcas) is an associate professor of strategic human resource management at Newcastle Business School at the University of Newcastle.