Sixty per cent of workers find staff meetings pointless according to survey
THE average worker endures 6,240 meetings in their career but loses concentration after just 20 minutes – and one in five falls asleep.
A survey found that seven in 10 zone out constantly while others take a nap, typically lasting two minutes.
And a crafty one in six admits he or she is only there for the posh coffee and biscuits.
Catch-ups, client meetings and appraisals with the boss are to blame for the huge number, according to the poll of 2,000 office workers.
Six in 10 thought their boss liked to hold meetings for the sake of it and described most as “pretty pointless”.
But nearly one in five admitted to making mistakes due to inattention and more than a quarter said they had made more than 10 monumental clangers because they drifted off.
For a quarter of snoozers their colleagues saw the funny side but 18 per cent experienced the wrath of their boss, and it seems there is not a perfect time in the day to hold a meeting.
Nearly a quarter said they struggled to concentrate first thing but a third said they switched off if they were too late in the day.
It comes as no surprise that workers have devised many ways to pass the time in a meeting.
Daydreaming about the weekend is the most popular preoccupation, while 31 per cent plan dinner and 16 per cent wonder what’s on TV later.
Traditional diversions have stayed popular. Nearly half of workers enjoy doodling on a notepad while 29 per cent stare aimlessly out of a window or exchange looks with colleagues.
However, new technology such as smartphones and tablets has proved a bonus for bored employees.
Accessing social media and texting friends while pretending to check work emails and texts both made the top 10 most common things to do in a work meeting in the survey by the headset manufacturer Sennheiser.
