Four scientific reasons to say "no" to early morning online meetings
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With the smart working it is more and more frequent to receive invitations to meetings online early in the morning. Who was convinced of increasing the efficiency and productivity of the team will have to change his mind by reading the article published in Careers Community di Nature. (1)
Meetings online early in the morning, are they really needed?
The final phase an upcoming project, collaboration with colleagues living in different time zones, an emergency. The cases where the meetings online early in the morning they cannot be postponed, but they should be limited as much as possible.
This call in fact, operating at early morning forces you to interrupt the standard routine - wake up, shower, get dressed, caffeine - and require the adoption of unnatural times for the health and biological rhythms of most people. A forcing recognized as deleterious to physical health, mental concentration, domestic responsibilities and work commitment, explain the researchers who wrote the article.
1) Physical health
Our body needs 7-9 hours of sleep. Giving up can lead to high blood pressure, obesity and depression. Also, when we sleep well we are more energetic and able to perform our precious morning rituals. In particular
- physical exercise outdoors, from running to walking, it is often preferred in the morning also for the best air quality. This activity is related to stress reduction. And it benefits from constancy, even in the timetable,
- the breakfast, which could be sacrificed if called to an early meeting, is also a valuable habit. It has been shown that, if constant, it reduces health risks, such as obesity and hypertension.
'Yes, people could go to bed earlier to get more sleep and still have time for their morning rituals. But asking others to adjust their evening routines for the sake of a morning meeting is patronizing, condescending, and not always practical.', the researchers note.
2) Mental concentration
Concentration and attention improves when we are rested. Conversely, sleep deprivation impairs cognition and leads to mistakes.
An interesting aspect reported by the authors of the article is that many professionals do their best immediately after waking up. This could be because we lose willpower during the day. Willpower is the ability to resist temptation - in the digital age, this could mean controlling E. and text messages or jump on social media.
In the morning, when we have more self-control, we should engage in 'deep' work. Quite the opposite of meetings, which often consist of superficial work, especially in the virtual dimension, where we are usually less involved.
3) Domestic responsibilities
Change the rhythms Starting the day due to a meeting also affects the area of domestic responsibilities: preparing and taking children to school, caring for older parents, organizing meals, caring for pets, for example. Many of these activities are concentrated right in the morning.
As a rule these responsibilities fall mainly on women. (2) A detail that deserves attention, because the cumulative effect of responsibilities at home and at work could entail an unequal burden on them and induce them to switch to jobs with greater flexibility or to stop working altogether.
4) Work commitment
Whether it be burnout, silent resignation (3) or redefining boundaries, people are reconsidering their commitment to work. And the meetings, if too frequent, fill the calendar and contribute to burnout.
Waking up at a 'natural' time it generates a sense of control that is lost when you get up early for a morning meeting. And if a meeting is scheduled for early Monday morning, a member of the team may feel the need to prepare over the weekend, wasting some of their personal time.
Meetings online early in the morning, therefore, they are not just about work: they are about the whole person. And expecting people to work outside contract hours is unfair. But the solutions exist.
How to fix it
When it is necessary call a meeting online early in the morning, it is good to refer to these considerations:
- starting a meeting even an hour later can positively affect an individual's morale and sense of worth,
- minimizing the list of attendees allows the meeting to take place later in the morning,
- recording meetings allows those with unavoidable conflicts to view them and contribute later,
- organizing meetings from Monday to Friday, from 10 to 16, is in accordance with Athena Swan card, a convention to support and improve gender equality in education and research.
Note
(1) Adaira Landry and Resa E. Lewiss. Four evidence-backed reasons to say 'no' to early-morning meetings. Nature. 26.10.22 doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03461-6
(2) A survey found that, in the United States in 2021, women spent an average of 1,2 hours per day providing physical assistance (often feeding and bathing) to their children, compared to 0,5 hours spent by men. The same survey found that 21% of men did housework, compared with 49% of women.
(3) According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the burnout it is a syndrome resulting from chronic stress associated with the work context, which cannot be well managed. The quiet quitting, literally 'silent resignation', indicates the renunciation of maximum commitment in the workplace and a mental and emotional detachment from daily activity. In other words, the conscious decision to make the minimum wage.
