“This meeting could have been an email” became corporate workers’ universal frustration cry, representing wasted time in unnecessary meetings that disrupted productivity while conveying information better suited to asynchronous communication.
The Productivity Killer
Research consistently shows workers spend 35-50% of time in meetings, with managers attending even more. Yet studies also find 67% of meetings are considered failures by participants. “Could have been an email” captures this waste—meetings interrupting deep work to share information that written communication could convey more efficiently, allowing people to process on their own schedules.
The Pandemic Reckoning
COVID-19 remote work initially worsened meeting culture: back-to-back Zoom calls replaced in-person meetings, leading to “Zoom fatigue.” However, forced asynchronous work (across time zones, with caregiving responsibilities) demonstrated alternatives’ viability. Companies like Gitlab and Basecamp championed “meetings as last resort” cultures, documenting decisions in writing first, meeting only when collaboration required real-time discussion.
The Meeting-Free Movements
By 2022, companies experimented with “no-meeting days,” “meeting-free weeks,” and “async-first” cultures. Shopify canceled 10,000+ meetings in 2023. However, meeting reduction faced resistance: some managers equated meetings with importance, others struggled with written communication, and collaborative work genuinely benefits from synchronous discussion. The debate continues between productivity (fewer meetings) and connection (especially for remote teams).
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