For those of us in corporate leadership roles, are we all in back-to-back meetings all day, most days? I usually have 10-15 meetings per day (plus tons of actual work) and feel like my brain and soul are withering away. This isn’t sustainable. Hoping there are firms where it’s better?

Same here! But we need to make sure we block time to work in our calendars, and role model this with our teams.. this 2023 I started mainly mondays and fridays, let's see if I can improve in 2024 and demonstrate Time ownership

And probably 70% of those meetings could be handled in a group chat or email. Another 20% will be a drawn out series of meetings before any actionable plans develop or it fades out of focus. 10% of the meetings will result in a feeling we’ve accomplished the agenda.

Same here. The constant context switching is exhausting… I’ve recently started blocking time on my calendar that looks like OOO just to give myself some desk time.

Same here. We just had a talk from an executive that blocks off creative time in his calendar every day. And another blocks off time to move along long term projects. I’ve found the most success in blocking off my calendar at least once a day to prep for meetings and work on projects.

There really needs to be a culture from the top down that you should manage your calendar and not be always available for meetings and that seems to rarely happen

Same here sister

Nope, same here 🫠

Same. I’ve experimented and deleted meetings on my calendar and have yet to be called out for missing them…just so i breathe and actually work. Im overinvited and if they really need me, they can ping me

Same.. I don’t remember it being this bad before the pandemic

Same

Im just going through a process to look at start stop continue, and have created a mind map of all the meetings I have, next step reviewing each one and if it can be done shorter or differently !

Same. Lots of multi tasking and headaches.

Same boat ...Totally burnt out !

I appreciate everyone’s responses. Ugh this is so depressing, though. I was hoping a bunch of people would say their job is different so I could leave and go join a better workplace! What do we do about this? I cannot and will not spend the next 40 years like this.

I’ve started blocking out focus time and saying no very recently. I can no longer handle my calendar looking like Jenga puzzle and working second shift to get my actual work done. This is not sustainable long term.

Why, why, why so many meetings? It’s ridiculous!

I literally just had this conversation with my family last night. It’s truly unsustainable.

I actively time block my calendar and Outlook has recently ome out with Viva Insights which also helps you do it and can automatically do it for you while also tracking if you kept it up. I do it myself and leave things tentative bc of my job responsibilities but it has really helped. The last few months I didn't do it as much consistently and I can really see a difference.

Check out Viva Insights, I don't work for Microsoft, I just happen to think it's nifty that a company is trying to build balance into their system.

We just went through a company wide training series about making meaningful meetings and moving the rest to asynchronous communication. We emphasized things like making sure a meeting has an agenda and cancelling it if not, stating in the meeting invite what the purpose of the meeting is, and feeling free to decline or drop off in meeting where which feel you presence isn’t necessary. We’re also doing a “calendar cleanse” where we are supposed to look at all internal recurring meetings and decide if they are truly necessary. Since this, people think twice before scheduling larger meetings, and a lot of my weekly meetings have at least moved to biweekly, freeing up some time. We also try to implement a “no meetings Wednesday “ but it’s rarely respected.

It was the same in my last role. I don’t miss it.

Same here it’s actually awful and I can’t get anything personal done within work hours which is a problem because my daughter is having health issues that require me calling doctors, etc.. The only thing that has worked for me is to leave half hour first thing in the morning blocked to make one personal phone call today it’s better than none which is what usually happens.