“Meeting hangovers” and how they can affect you work day: “it negatively affects our productivity”

We’ve all been there.... sat in a boardroom listening to information or details we already know when we have a thousand and one tasks to handle or get involved in a tete-a-tete on a minor matter with the meeting in full flow.

These bad meetings where a bitter aftertaste lingers have been called ‘meeting hangovers’ and a recent survey conducted by the University of North Carolina in Charlotte discovered that more than 90% of employees occasionally experience these “meeting hangovers,” with over half reporting that these negative effects hurt their overall workflow and productivity.

Other factors that can contribute to negative meeting experiences include unnecessary meetings that could have been emails, irrelevant agenda topics, poor facilitation, too many attendees, excessive length, domination by a few participants, and unclear decisions.

UNC professor Steven Rogelberg offered his advice on how to make meetings successful and productive. “Keep the attendee list as small as possible,” Rogelberg said. “Remember that the more the leader talks, the lower the rating of effectiveness. Thus, the meeting leader needs to talk less and facilitate more.”

Rather than organizing agendas as topics to be discussed, Rogelberg suggests structuring them as questions to be answered.

“By framing agenda items as questions, you have a better sense of who really has to be invited to the meeting,” he said. “You know when to end the meeting and if the meeting has been successful — the questions have been answered.”

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