Very few people calculate the cost of their meetings. In fact, we know from our own research, that 91% of meeting leaders, never calculate the cost of the meetings they organize.

While companies have stringent processes in place, for managing capital, many are woefully poor at accounting for time.

Most companies have few restrictions in terms of how meetings are organized. This means costly meetings are scheduled without scrutiny. No one is held accountable for unproductive and unnecessary meetings that waste significant amounts of time, and money.

Let’s share some truly shocking numbers with you.

You may remember, we talked earlier about the 40-year career. We said that if you are an individual or team player, you’ll be in 28,160 meetings during your 40 years at work. That’s equivalent to spending 12.8 of your 40 working years in meetings. We know that at least 25% of all meetings are a complete waste of time. That means, at a personal level, you’re losing 3.2 of your work years in pointless meetings. That’s depressing.

Now let’s consider the implications for a company.

Each individual or team player is averaging 16 meetings of 45 minutes duration per week. On an average salary of 30 dollars per hour, that’s costing the business $360 per person, each week.

For every 100 people, in an individual contributor, or team player role, that’s $1,584,000 per year.

So, for every 1000 employees in team player roles, that’s just under $16 million per year.

And at 10,000 employees, it’s over $158,000,000 per year. Yes, a whopping, $158 million dollars per year.

These aren’t even big companies. Think of the company you work for. Do the maths.