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An increase in well-intentioned, remote “check-in meetings” during the pandemic only made work more difficult. According to surveys, most employees want fewer meetings and that those meetings make them less productive, but there are ways to contain all of the “touchpoints” that are sticking up your calendar. So you can reclaim your schedule without annoying your colleagues.
A casual “check-in meeting” is really just another formal meeting
Collaboration and socializing are much more difficult working remotely than working together in an office. To make up for this, many workers have added more “check-in” meetings to their schedule – too many, it turns out, like a current survey of remote employees shows that 70% of respondents hope to hold fewer meetings when they return to the office. And since a remote worker is literally less visible, supervisors are more likely to rely on “check-ins” to make sure the employee is fine.
The problem is, many of these meetings are simply less effective than the spontaneous hustle and bustle that once dominated office work. For all the benefits of working remotely, even coordinating a “quick call” requires text chat, sending out invitations, and claiming part of your calendar. Before, if a colleague was overwhelmed in the office, the more likely you would see them and come back later, unless it was urgent.
And even these additional virtual meetings are not always effective, especially for team calls. There are no side conversations, less clarifying heckling and in video meetings there is a panopticon effect of always being “on”, which leads to that Zoom fatigue (Compare a virtual happy hour with a real office party). During one study found that the average length of meetings 20% liked it during the pandemic it is not clear that they are more effective.
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This will avoid too many check-in meetings
- Block time in your schedule for real work. According to the muse, a middle manager typically spends 35% of their working day in meetings. While this is not entirely avoidable, plan large periods of two to three hours for work that requires sustained concentration. You should also plan time in which you are available for meetings, as you want to be flexible for the team if necessary.
- Insist on an agenda. When meetings drag on with no point or too much small talk, ask for an agenda – even if it’s something informal, like a handful of bullet points sent through Slack. It is useful to ask for an agenda so that you can prepare for the meeting. In addition, agendas have the additional advantage that you give your meeting structure, since you can always trace a degressive conversation back to the stated goals of the meeting.
- Learn to politely decline meetings. As long as you can refer to an hourly record of your work and explain your priorities, it is possible to decline a meeting because you are too busy. A blocked calendar can be helpful here, as the problem then becomes a “planning conflict”.
- Make sure your manager knows your communication style. Managers are not mind readers, and some of their direct reports require more attention than others, but that doesn’t mean you need a personal check-in call every week just because someone else is doing it. There is nothing wrong with it, for example, For example, gently suggest biweekly instead of weekly meetings, or a phone call instead of video chat.
