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Let’s stand back and look at how much meetings actually cost. Suppose there are eight managers in a meeting that lasts three hours. How much do you think the meeting will cost?

Suppose each manager’s salary is £30,000.

£30,000 ÷ 48 (52 weeks in the year minus 4 for holidays) = £625 per week.

£625 ÷ 5 = £125 per day. So £125 is what each manager receives as gross pay per day, before tax or other deductions.

Now let’s work out the hourly rate of pay received. Managers may be in the office for seven hours but how many of those are actually productive? Let’s say five so we have £125 ÷ 5 = £25 per hour: this is the amount of gross pay that a manager is paid per hour.

But we need to multiply £25 by approximately 3 (some colleagues have suggested 2.7; others have suggested 5) to account for general business expenses. We need to think not only of the salaries of those concerned but also of the general costs to the company or organization of each individual’s time. Someone has to pay for electricity, cleaning, buildings and employees’ insurance, and government taxes. These could be allocated to each individual. Such general business expenses are referred to as overheads.

“Time is money”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), American statesman, scientist and author: Advice to a Young Tradesman (1748)

one minute wonder In a meeting, I sometimes think that I’m in a taxi and I’m watching the meter go up minute by minute for the fare I will be charged. I can see that time costs money. In the same way, meetings cost money.

£25 pounds x 3 = £75. So £75 is the cost per hour of one manager. Now suppose the meeting lasts three hours and eight managers attend it, then the cost of the meeting is £75 x 3 ×8 = £1800.

This figure is probably higher than you thought.

It also has certain effects: suppose seven managers are waiting for one manager who is 10 minutes late. The amount of money that is wasted while waiting for the late colleague is £88, i.e. £75 ÷ 6 (for 10 minutes) x 6 colleagues = £75.

Suppose also that during the meeting the chairman says that time did not allow them to circulate the paper in advance so every member of the meeting now has to spend 5 minutes reading through the paper, then that costs £75 ÷ 12 (for 5 minutes) x 8 = £50.

This means that you should keep your meetings as short as possible to avoid wasting resources.

Keep your meetings as short as possible to avoid wasting resources.