Your Meetings Are Too Expensive (And Nobody Wants to Say It)

A former boss once made me calculate the real cost of every meeting.

Not the coffee. Not the cookies.

The actual cost:

Every person’s hourly rate

• benefits

• overhead (this is how I learned lease math)

• the opportunity cost of what they should’ve been doing

• the momentum lost by stopping the workday to talk about the workday

• the emotional toll of one more “quick sync” that becomes a hostage situation

Punch. to. the. brain.

Because once you see the math, you realize that “just a half hour” can easily become a $4,200 group therapy session where nothing gets decided except lunch plans.

And tourism? Oh, we don't meet. We assemble. We convene. We gather elders from every corner of the land to discuss whether to move the meeting.

We have committees for our subcommittees. We have task forces that are really just book clubs for unfinished decisions. We have meetings that happen because it’s Tuesday.

And half the time, someone says, “Let’s revisit this after the holidays,” which is basically a burial ritual for the idea.

So let’s get aligned, shall we?

My Alignment Girl Era Lessons

1. If it can be solved in an email, send the email.

With love. With clarity. With speed.

2. If the decision-maker isn’t in the room, the meeting is cosplay.

You’re rehearsing. Not deciding.

3. The longer the meeting, the wobblier the strategy.

Strong strategy is decisive. Weak strategy is chatty.

4. If a topic shows up in three consecutive meetings, it’s not collaboration, it’s avoidance.

Name it. Move it. Resolve it.

5. Time is money. Attention is money. Momentum is money.

Stop spending all three in rooms with fluorescent lighting.

Tourism deserves sharper thinking. Faster decisions. Cleaner calendars. Better boundaries.

I’m Jenn Barbee, and if your meeting needs a pre-meeting, it needs a funeral.