Why do we have so many meetings?

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Office workers are increasingly overwhelmed by meetings that often feel unproductive, yet many argue they persist because they serve as powerful tools for social signaling, alignment, and risk-sharing in large, complex organizations. Commenters highlight how remote and hybrid work, weak writing skills, email overload, and risk-averse or disempowered management cultures push decisions into synchronous conversations, even when the same outcomes could be achieved asynchronously. Others note that while some meetings are essential for coordination and career advancement, bloated calendars frequently reflect poor priorities, lack of clear ownership, and a tendency to confuse “talking about work” with doing it.

Social signaling and career incentives

  • Meetings are seen as a primary channel for social signaling and relationship-building, often outweighing quality of work in career outcomes.
  • Frequent syncs with managers are perceived to boost promotions and visibility, independent of output.
  • Speaking a lot in meetings and “taking up airtime” is viewed as rewarded behavior.

Avoidance, triage, and prioritization

  • Some people refuse to act on emails/PRs until a meeting is threatened or scheduled; others deliberately delay responses so only persistent requests rise to the top (“strategic neglect”).
  • Blocking a meeting is used by some as a prioritization filter: if the requester won’t invest in a meeting, the task is probably low priority.
  • Some admit they ignore vague emails or invites to dodge low-value work.

Communication failures and email overload

  • Many prefer written communication; others only trust verbal discussion. Misaligned styles create friction and mutual frustration.
  • “Let’s discuss” can be genuine preference for verbal processing or a way to avoid engaging with written content.
  • Email is often noisy (automated alerts, long AI-generated text), leading to fatigue and important messages being missed.
  • Poor writing ability and anxiety about writing push people toward meetings and calls.

Remote work, loneliness, and social replacement

  • Remote and hybrid workers reportedly have more and longer meetings, aligning with some commenters’ experience.
  • Meetings partially replace hallway/water-cooler interactions and can address loneliness, though often inefficiently.

Power, risk, and decision-making

  • Meetings distribute responsibility and blame across many attendees, which is attractive in risk-averse, poorly led organizations.
  • Lack of clear authority and fear of making unilateral decisions drives “decision by committee” and recurring status meetings.
  • Pre-meetings and informal backchannels (Wadge’s Law) are said to be where real decisions often happen.

Code reviews and process bottlenecks

  • Stalled PR reviews are a recurring pain point; some suggest auto-merging after a timeout, social shaming, or managerial escalation.
  • There is disagreement over who “owns” getting PRs reviewed: author vs management/process.

Meeting design, duration, and culture

  • Complaints about default 30–60 minute slots and meetings dragged out to fill the time.
  • Some advocate strict rules: no agenda, no meeting; keep under 30 minutes; end as soon as the goal is achieved.
  • Others find long, ad-hoc problem-solving meetings more valuable than frequent short standups that devolve into status recitation.

Broader critiques of work and management

  • Meetings are framed as:
    • A way for middle managers to feel and appear productive.
    • A symptom of overgrown, poorly run, yet profitable organizations.
    • Necessary “broccoli” for coordination and information transfer, even if widely disliked.
  • Some see excessive meetings as evidence of “bullshit jobs” and an economy focused on optics, not real value.

Proposed fixes and speculative futures

  • Suggestions include better email hygiene, clearer task assignment via ticketing systems, fewer required approvals, and empowering individuals to decide without meetings.
  • Several envision AI agents attending meetings or digesting information on behalf of humans, potentially reducing human meeting load, though this remains speculative.