Why do we have so many meetings?
A new economic study from the NBER analyzes workplace meetings using data from Norway, finding they consume 12% of work hours. While meetings are often disliked, the research suggests they facilitate knowledge transmission and contribute to wage growth.
Why it matters
Understanding the economic impact of meetings helps firms optimize productivity and employee development strategies.
LinkedIn Facebook Bluesky Threads Email Link Working Paper 35706 DOI 10.3386/w35706 Issue Date September 2026 Why do we have so many meetings? Few workplace features are so scorned, yet seemingly so necessary. This paper provides the first large-scale economic evidence on workplace meetings using an original survey of more than 9,000 workers linked to matched employer–employee administrative data from Norway. We show that meetings are both common and costly, consuming an average of 12 percent of work hours and 14 percent of firm wage bills. Planning, problem solving, information sharing, and project coordination account for the majority of meeting activity. High-paying and high-revenue firms devote more resources to meetings despite facing a substantially higher opportunity cost of employee time. Meeting frequency and intensity are positively related to worker wage growth.
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