• Posted March 4, 2025

Bad Meetings Can Leave You With a Productivity 'Hangover'

Bad meetings don’t just waste time -- they can leave workers with a "meeting hangover," new research shows.

More than 90% of employees surveyed by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte said they sometimes experience these "hangovers" -- lingering frustration and distraction after unproductive meetings.

More than half said these "hangovers" hurt their overall productivity.

"A meeting hangover is the idea that when we have a bad meeting, we just don't leave it at the door. It sticks with us and it negatively affects our productivity," said Steven Rogelberg, a professor of management at UNC- Charlotte and author of "The Surprising Science of Meetings."

The study found that these bad meetings don't just affect you, they can also spread negativity across teams.

Colleagues also tend to vent to coworkers, sharing their frustrations in a process called "co-rumination" -- which can hurt the overall atmosphere and make productivity issues even worse.

Factors that can lead to negative experiences include:

• Meetings that could have been handled by email

• Unclear or irrelevant agendas

• Poor facilitation or meetings that run over alloted time

• No clear decisions made

Rogelberg offered CBS several strategies to improve meetings and reduce hangovers.

"Keep the attendee list as small as possible," he said. "Remember that the more the leader talks, the lower the rating of effectiveness. Thus, the meeting leader needs to talk less and facilitate more."

Rather than organizing agendas as topics to be discussed, Rogelberg suggests structuring them as questions to be answered.

"By framing agenda items as questions, you have a better sense of who really has to be invited to the meeting," he said. "You know when to end the meeting and if the meeting has been successful -- the questions have been answered."

Rogelberg added that "if you just can't think of any questions, it likely means you don't need to create a meeting."

If you’re already feeling the effects of a bad meeting, Rogelberg recommends centering on problem-focused conversations with colleagues as you vent.

"Chatting with your colleague about how to deal with the situation for the future, getting their thoughts, engaging in sense-making where you're trying to understand, taking different perspectives on what just happened -- those types of conversations increase your skills and your resilience when you do have a bad meeting," he said.

More information

Harvard Business Review has more on how to free up time for meaningful work.

SOURCE: CBS News, March 4, 2025