Meetings, once a vehicle for collaboration, have for many teams become overused, poorly structured and draining. Photo: Outsourcingstaff.com.
As Australian organisations meet for this week’s Productivity Roundtable (19 to 21 August), one topic is rising to the top of the agenda – how to improve efficiency without sacrificing employee wellbeing.
The pressures of modern knowledge work, particularly excessive meetings and digital overload, are now recognised not just as operational challenges, but as psychosocial risks with tangible impacts on health, engagement and performance.
Recent studies suggest Australian knowledge workers lose up to 600 hours per year to interruptions and inefficient scheduling. That equates to over 15 work weeks.
Meetings, once a vehicle for collaboration, have for many teams become overused, poorly structured and draining. Compounding this is the endless workday driven by constant connectivity. Employees can receive more than 90 emails a day, often outside core hours, fuelling a cycle of reactive work and eroded focus time.
Drawing on insights from workplace efficiency programs delivered by PEPWorldwide Australia, it’s clear these challenges are not purely operational, they’re deeply human.
As program participants put it, “There is an overwhelming volume of information delivered rapidly, accompanied by expectations for prompt responses”, “Insufficient time remains for focusing on essential tasks” and “Frequent distractions and interruptions disrupt productivity”.
The impact of poor meeting culture and digital overload aligns closely with the most common psychosocial hazards identified in Australian workplaces: high job demands, poor support and communication, lack of role clarity, and low recognition and engagement.
First, high job demands result in excessive workloads and unrealistic deadlines, leaving little space for recovery.
Next, poor support and communication. Without deliberate planning, meetings and messages multiply without delivering value.
Lack of role clarity is another common psychosocial hazard identified in Australian workplaces, where vague or shifting priorities lead to duplication of effort and disengagement.
Fourth is low recognition and engagement; here, constant reactive work is found to reduce opportunities for meaningful achievement.
PEPWorldwide Australia Head of Professional Services and Coaching Jacqui Walsh says, “Ineffective time management and prioritisation contribute to stress and burnout … Persistent demands for attention and rapid response times can lead to mental and emotional fatigue.”
Jacqui’s comments reflect a growing recognition that productivity strategies must address both operational processes and the human toll of constant demands.
Reforms to meeting culture are showing promise in many organisations. Key strategies include limiting recurring meetings to those that demonstrably add value, making agendas future-focused rather than status-heavy.
Using collaboration tools helps replace unnecessary live discussions as well as leveraging AI assistants to summarise discussions, capture action points and automate follow-ups. These measures all free up time for strategic, high-impact work while reducing cognitive load.
The connection between time management, mental health and productivity is well documented. Ineffective structures don’t just cost hours, they increase stress, fragment attention and undermine engagement.
Optimising workflows and communication patterns creates benefits on both sides. Employees gain a greater sense of control and focus, while organisations see improved decision-making and delivery.
Productivity transformation won’t succeed through policy statements alone. It needs to reach the inbox, the meeting room, and the daily work routines of individuals.
Whether through internal initiatives, structured training programs, or targeted efficiency reviews, the goal is the same: to create environments where people can do their best work without burning out.
PEPWorldwide is a leading efficiency and effectiveness consultancy, coaching private and public organisations to achieve the power of working well.
Original Article published by PEPWorldwide on PS News.
