AIBU to say 9 zoom meetings in a day is just too much

[Youngatheart00]

Just looked at my work diary and that is what awaits me today. The rest of the week is just as bad. I just feel like crying. I hate it so much

Far too many, unless they are each only 10-20 mins long.

Can you identify one or two you could miss? Or when you could have your camera off and be doing something non-screen with it just on in the background?

That does sound exhausting. I feel that we are having more meetings than previously because they can be virtual. It is leading to poor practice and engagement because people are responding to other calls and emails along side. I don't know what the answer is as going back to face to face fills me with dread too.

That does sound like too much. Are they all with the same people? How long are they lasting? Are they properly structured meetings?
You will get through this week one way or another . If this isn't a one off week then you need to have a meeting with a manager and present your case that its more productive to do things another way.

Most of the meetings are 30-60 mins. The worst thing is that pretty much all of the meetings generate actions and there is just no time in between the meetings to do the work. And when I do get a rare couple of hours gap I just lie on my bed wiped out and usually with a headache.

I have 11 today. Am dreading it.

What kind of work do you do? We would be heavy on meetings (agile tech company) but we use a tool called slack which is brilliant for reducing the number of meetings. When there's an issue or need to chat, I open a channel, add the key people and pose the key question to start the conversation. It works brilliantly and saves SOOOO many meetings.

Won't help for today but start blocking out your diary to regain space to do the actions and real work. Otherwise people will see a space in your calendar and book a meeting.

If you have a HR department might be a good idea to speak with them too. Your employee has a duty of care for your health and safety which includes mental health.

If you were in the office how many would you be having. ?

Do you not have any say over some of the meetings in terms of scheduling them?

That sounds awful! Would you be doing so many meetings if you were in normal work? Do you have a manager who you could talk to regarding getting the actual actions done?

I've become more rigorous saying no to meetings i don't really need to be in, keeping necessary ones short (using 30 or even 15 min as default rather than 1hr) and questioning recurring invites. If ,our organisation has an entrenched 'let's have long pointless meetings about everything' culture that's more difficult to do. On the positive side there is always the option to switch off the video and work through some emails if you're unable to escape...

God what is wrong with some companies?? DH works in health & safety and all of the safety team have pushed the line hard that packing people’s diaries with zooms is detrimental to employee wellbeing. There’s a lot of evidence to show it’s harmful & unproductive to do back to back meetings like this. Is there no mechanism to raise this with HR or occupational health?

Agree @WishingHopingThinkingPraying Slack is brilliant and efficient. I think there's a trial version? Suggest this to your boss OP if you don't already have it.

I work in insurance / financial services

I really don’t know what the answer is. I have a really broad and busy role. I do have a small team but they are inexperienced. Perhaps I need to delegate more. Perhaps I need to say no more. This way of working absolutely sucks and it’s getting worse.

If I was office based I’d probably have a maximum of 3 meetings in a day. And one of them might be over coffee.

I’m on the other side of this in that I book meetings for others. The vast majority of them are necessary conversations that need to happen and it’s often quicker to have a meeting than go back and forth on email. It means people have meetings in working hours and then do their work after hours. They are compensated appropriately though and it’s common place in mother industry.

@Blessex it’s really too much isn’t it. I’m really struggling to summon the energy. The first of mine starts in half an hour and I haven’t even showered yet

I probably have more meetings than that although a lot of them are short ones (people have started a habit of booking in a 10-15 minute meeting whereas previously they would have just come by my desk for a quick chat). Though I agree it's too much.
If they are long and back to back even worse.

My company has tried to impose 2 rules around meetings.

1. You never book back to back, so you start at 11.05, for example to give someone a breather from their 10-11 meeting.
2. 12-1.30pm is avoided if at all possible.

Perhaps some similar guidelines are in order?

I block out “work time” now that’s how my days were at the start of the pandemic. It became unmanageable, I can’t get work done with 9 hours of meetings!!

My husband spends a lot of his time on zoom calls. He did even before Covid as he manages people in 9 countries.
In his company Wednesday is a meeting free day and there are no zoom calls allowed. Its a great idea and really helps with zoom fatigue.
Perhaps you can suggest something like that.

Allthecakes how long do people last before burning out?

This happened in our organisation. There were lots of complaints and the solution was a "protected" lunch hour 1-2 where no meetings should be booked unless completely unavoidable. However, lots of people work 7 - 3 to fit with school so they werent happy.

There is no perfect solution. I now book time into my diary to actually do the work. That helps a lot. Have you raised it with your manager?

This is what my diary is like at the moment. Full days on Teams. The actual job is getting done in the evenings and weekends because there's no space to do it in the week. Flexible working is so great.

Can you suggest a "Get Shit Done" day? The whole office agrees no internal meetings on (say) a Tuesday. Blanket policy.

My manager won’t care. I’m at a level of seniority where I’m expected to just deal with it. But I’m overwhelmed. I know there are much bigger problems in the world. But I feel absolutely exhausted. I wasn’t well last week and continued to work. I’ve also not been sleeping properly. Last night I had a nightmare that I was stuck on top of one of the skyscrapers in Canary Wharf and I have a terrible fear of heights

I’ll grit my teeth and try and get through to Easter