For those who feel their interminable afternoon meeting is never going to end, it’s now official - unnecessary meetings are the number one drain on the productivity of small businesses.
A survey by Microsoft has found that nearly half - 45 per cent - of small businesses believed they conducted too many meetings, most of which caused disruption to their productivity.
Other things that caused the blood to boil of a third of those polled included productivity being lost because of poor delegation.
More than a fifth of those questioned said groaning in-boxes and too much email activity also sounded the death-knell when it came to productivity.
John Coulthard, Microsoft’s UK head of small business, said: “Any loss in productivity costs time, and time is money.
“So the ability to access, manage, interpret and share information efficiently is critical. Small business managers need to consider carefully their own and their employees working patterns. They should then utilise the tools available to help them manage meetings and workloads more effectively," he added.
Meetings often involved long distance travelling, with agenda setting and follow-ups also taking up much of the business schedule, said Microsoft.
