Meeting Load Tax
Put a price on every recurring meeting, including the work it displaces, and rank which ones to kill, shrink, or keep.
Example scenario—not a forecast or verified benchmark. Enable JavaScript to edit inputs, view charts, save locally and export your analysis.
Example inputs
- Recurring meetings
- [{"name":"Leadership weekly","attendees":6,"hourlyCost":85,"minutes":90,"perWeek":1,"value":4},{"name":"Daily standup","attendees":10,"hourlyCost":45,"minutes":30,"perWeek":5,"value":3},{"name":"All-hands status update","attendees":30,"hourlyCost":40,"minutes":60,"perWeek":0.5,"value":2},{"name":"Sales pipeline review","attendees":5,"hourlyCost":55,"minutes":60,"perWeek":1,"value":4},{"name":"Project sync","attendees":8,"hourlyCost":50,"minutes":45,"perWeek":2,"value":2}]
- Working weeks per year
- 48
- Opportunity cost multiple
- 1
- Total employees
- 30
- Working hours per employee per week
- 40
- Target reduction in meeting time
- 30
Example results
Your recurring meetings cost $323K a year including opportunity cost ($162K in paid time); acting on the kill/shrink list frees about $150K and 0.8 FTEs of capacity.
- Annual cost incl. opportunity cost
- $323,040
- Savings from recommended actions
- $150,336
- Meeting time in FTE equivalents
- 1.7
- Direct cost of time in meetings
- $161,520
- Person-hours per year
- 3,168 hrs
- Share of team capacity
- 5.5%
- Savings at 30% less meeting time
- $96,912
What stands out
Recurring meetings consume 3168 hours a year (1.7 FTEs)
That is 5.5% of total team capacity, before ad-hoc meetings and the prep and context-switching around them.
$115K a year goes to meetings rated 2 or lower
All-hands status update, Project sync. These are prime candidates for a written update or dashboard instead.
Daily standup is the worst value for money
$108,000 a year for a value rating of 3/5. Recommended: shrink attendees / time.
2 meetings have 10+ attendees
Large meetings are rarely decision-making forums. Keep only the people who must decide or act; send notes to the rest.
Next actions
- Cancel All-hands status update and Project sync for 30 days and replace with a written update; reinstate only if something breaks.
- Default all recurring meetings to 25 or 50 minutes and require a named decision-maker for each.
- Re-audit in 90 days with a 30% meeting-time reduction target ($97K a year).
Model assumptions & limitations
- Opportunity cost = 1x the direct cost of attendees' time (work displaced by the meeting). Set to 0 to see direct cost only.
- 48 working weeks per year. Prep time, travel, and context switching are not included, so costs are conservative.
- Estimated savings by action: kill/async 80%, shrink or shorten 40%, keep and tighten 15% of the meeting's cost. These are planning assumptions.
- Value ratings are your own judgment.