Shopify tells employees to say no to meetings.
Shopify, a Canadian e-commerce firm, is conducting a “calendar purge” by removing all recurring meetings with more than two people “in perpetuity.” The company is also re-instituting a rule that no meetings can be held on Wednesdays and limiting extensive sessions to one per week, to be contained within a six-hour window on Thursdays. The company’s leaders will encourage workers to decline other meetings and remove themselves from large internal chat groups. This move aligns with a growing trend among companies to limit unproductive meetings, which have become a common problem in the hybrid workplace.
Other companies like Facebook parent Meta, Clorox, and Twilio have also implemented no-meeting days. An average employee spends 18 hours a week in meetings, and according to a survey, only 14% of invites are declined, despite wanting to reduce 31% of them. This wastes time and money in big organizations, estimated to be around $100 million annually.
The poor management of meetings can hurt employee engagement and even increase their desire to quit their job, according to Steven Rogelberg, a professor of organizational science, psychology, and management at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The data from Microsoft based on thousands of users of its workplace software has found that time spent in meetings tripled in the first two years of the pandemic, and the number of weekly meetings more than doubled. These figures highlight effective meeting management’s importance in boosting employee engagement, productivity, and retention. By limiting unnecessary and unproductive meetings, companies can improve their employee’s overall job satisfaction and reduce turnover.
Shopify is reducing unproductive meetings by implementing a “calendar purge” policy and limiting extensive sessions to one per week, held within a six-hour window on Thursdays. It is also re-instituting a rule that no meetings can be stored on Wednesdays and encouraging employees to decline other appointments and remove themselves from large internal chat groups. The company has also assigned a bot as the enforcer of this policy to remind meeting organizers of the new rules starting January 5th. According to research from NEOMA Business School, the move comes as a part of the company’s cost-cutting drive and is an attempt to boost productivity and reduce employee stress. However, it’s worth noting that the company still allows flexibility by offering a “two-week cooling off period” before anyone can reconvene a canceled meeting. The company also plans to use only Slack as an instant messenger and use “large, unwieldy” chat groups only for announcements.
The original article is “Shopify tells employees to just say no to meetings.”