So very true, and it appears to be worse with the amount of hybrid working we do.
The question is therefore “What can we do about it?”
A few ideas would include having:
*Strong terms of reference for the meeting, and regular reviews asking “Is this meeting meeting the brief?”
*The question forefront in the minds of chairs and attendees alike “Are the attendees correct for the meeting?”
*… And most of all, asking the question “What is the purpose of meeting?” and if it’s an all-points communication, would an email be better; if it’s to answer a question can you do it asynchronously through something like Teams Chat, or LucidSpark boards or another, accessible tool; if it’s to gain agreement – can you hold a poll
The point being that if you’re ‘assertive’ with the list of meetings you have in your calendar, I bet you can avoid having quite so many.
And if there’s no avoiding them, unless they’re formal meetings, liven them up as much as you can!