The Meeting That Could Have Been an Email (A Eulogy)
We gather today to remember the hours — to mourn the irreplaceable, irrecoverable time that was taken from us in the name of alignment, synergy, and touching base. The meeting that could have been an email has claimed victims in every organization, on every continent, in every industry where humans are employed and conference rooms have been installed. Today we honor those hours. Today we examine why they keep dying.
The Anatomy of a Preventable Meeting
A meeting that could have been an email follows a recognizable pattern. It begins with a calendar invitation sent to twelve people for a one-hour block described only as "Discussion — Project Status." Six of the twelve are there because they were CC'd on one email six months ago and no one has removed them from the distribution list. Two others are there because their manager was invited and assumed they should attend. The actual decision-makers — the two people who have relevant information and authority to act on it — could have exchanged that information in three sentences of text at any point in the preceding week.
The Seven Stages of the Unnecessary Meeting
Stage one: You receive the calendar invitation and check your schedule. It lands during your most productive hours of the day. Stage two: You wonder if it's optional. You decide not to risk it. Stage three: You join the call and discover six minutes of "can everyone see my screen" and "you're on mute." Stage four: The presenter reads the slides aloud, in full, to people who have been reading since elementary school. Stage five: Someone asks a question that would take thirty seconds to Google. Stage six: Everyone agrees to "follow up offline" on the actual decision. Stage seven: You receive another calendar invitation for a follow-up meeting to discuss the offline follow-up.
In Defense of Asynchronous Communication
The email that could have replaced this meeting did not require every participant to be available simultaneously. It did not interrupt six people's focus time. It allowed recipients to process information on their own schedule and respond thoughtfully rather than saying "mm-hmm" and "good point" reflexively while thinking about lunch. A well-written email with a clear request, relevant context, and a specific deadline for response accomplishes in three minutes what a one-hour meeting accomplishes in one hour — plus it creates a written record that doesn't require someone to send meeting notes that no one will read.
When Meetings Are Actually Necessary
In the interest of fairness: some meetings are necessary. Complex collaborative problem-solving that requires real-time exchange of ideas benefits from synchronous discussion. Sensitive personnel or interpersonal issues deserve a human conversation rather than a text thread. Kick-off meetings that build shared understanding and team cohesion at the start of major projects serve a genuine purpose. The rule of thumb worth adopting: if the purpose of the meeting is to share information that could be written down, write it down. If the purpose is to make a decision, try to make it asynchronously with a deadline before scheduling a meeting for it. Reserve synchronous time for what genuinely requires it.
A Moment of Silence
Before we close, a moment of silence for the hours: the hour you couldn't write the code you needed to write. The hour you couldn't solve the problem that was actually blocking the team. The hour you could have spent eating lunch somewhere other than your desk while pretending to take notes. We remember you. We hold you. We will keep losing you as long as calendar scheduling software exists and organizational anxiety about visibility persists. Rest in peace, hours. You deserved better.
For more relatable IT content, read our post on stack trace nightmares and our take on the IT professional's holiday wishlist.