Eighty percent of hybrid workers feel anxious about attending day-to-day work meetings

A new report based on a survey of 2,000 hybrid workers and remote employees reveals that 8 in 10 people often feel anxious or worried about attending day-to-day work meetings. The white paper titled Zoomed In, Zoned Out [registration] has been released by Craft Docs, and reports on hybrid and remote workers’ attitudes towards business meetings and other daily workplace processes in 2023.

When respondents were asked if they often feel anxious or worried about attending day-to-day work meetings, 39 percent said they strongly agreed whilst another 42 percent said they somewhat agreed. Only 9 percent said they somewhat or strongly disagreed with the statement. These anxieties are felt by both managers and team members, as 83 percent of managers agreed with the statement and 71 percent of team members.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]A quarter of workers believe they haven’t received any value from the last 4-5 meetings they’ve attended[/perfectpullquote]

The report also reveals that a quarter of workers (25 percent) believe they haven’t received any value from the last 4-5 meetings they’ve attended and only 2 in 3 people (66 percent) believe they contributed any value themselves.

According to the report’s authors, the problem with these sentiments may lie in the fact that only 22 percent of respondents believe they always attend meetings fully prepared, highlighting the need for more effective planning and organisation across teams and wider businesses.

In addition, 72 percent believe that within the last two weeks, they have attended at least one meeting that could have instead been communicated via an email or other form of written communication.

Around 60 percent also believe the number of hours they spend in meetings each week could be reduced, for example by sharing written status updates and important information ahead of the meeting or using collaboration tools to communicate asynchronously instead.

The report concludes that there is the need for a large number of teams and organisations to rethink how they communicate and share information and ideas across their businesses. It argues that a large number of respondents aren’t seeing much value in either the quantity or quality of meetings they attend and believe there aren’t enough processes in place to ensure everything is being communicated effectively and time is being used efficiently.