Many responses in one survey could have just been biased or lacking productivity savviness, but generally, technology use was not optimal

In a survey of 5,000 knowledge workers in India, the US, Australia, Germany and France (1,000 per market) commissioned by a project-management software firm, some findings were gleaned from the data.

First, respondents cited that the time spent in meetings as the top barrier “preventing them from completing their day-to-day tasks”, ahead of other hurdles suck as lack of motivation, unclear goals, unclear responsibilities, and being “sure of who to work with”.

Second, data from the India respondents showed the following trends in three areas, namely productivity, effectiveness and culture:

  • 90% of respondents cited difficulties in getting their work done on top of attending all their meetings.
  • 74% cited having to work overtime at least a few days a week due to meeting overload, compared to 51% globally.
  • 80% agreed to prompts that they felt drained on days when they had many meetings.
  • 70% of respondents cited feeling lonely at work, even when they attended many meetings, compared to 55% globally.
  • 88% of respondents cited being frequently in meetings that ended in a decision to schedule a follow-up meeting.
  • 66% of respondents cited often attending meetings where no goal had been communicated.(41%)
  • 91% thought agendas led to productive meetings.
  • 82% cited that most of their meetings could have been done in half the time.

According to Dom Price, “Work Futurist”, Atlassian, which commissioned the survey: “We know that teams are more distributed (now), but those not equipped with the right products and practices will quickly see themselves defaulting to meetings when they are likely not the most effective tool for the job. Teams that revert to old ways of working and schedule meetings without intentionality are going to see themselves fall behind effective teams” that experiment and take advantage of technology to improve the quality of meetings, the AI-assisted generation of meeting transcripts, and other tools that help workers improve collaboration without over-reliance on meetings.