Meetings are an integral part of professional schedules. While these can take place at any time, recent data reveals they often happen on Wednesdays.

Indeed, the middle of the workweek is the preferred day for companies to hold meetings, especially in person. Meanwhile, Tuesdays are more popular for remote team meetings, according to Business Insider, reporting data from the scheduling software platform Calendly.

This is because many employees work from home at the beginning of the week to themselves back into work after the weekend. They also tend to work from home on Fridays, forcing managers to concentrate on team meetings in the middle of the week.

While hybrid working is an increasingly popular organisational mode, few working people are prepared to go into the office on weekends. Notably, face-to-face meetings on Saturdays were 17% lower last year than in 2021, while onsite meetings on Sundays were 29% lower.

Furthermore, employees are less reluctant to participate in meetings, whether in-person or virtual, in the early evenings: only a quarter of business meetings were held between 7pm and 8pm last year, according to Calendly.

Generally, meetings are held in the afternoon to enable as many people as possible to take part without disrupting schedules. Some 86% of meetings take place between 2pm and 6pm, while a growing number occur between 11am and 1pm (an increase of 48% last year compared with 2021).

While the ways in which meetings are held vary, employees surveyed agree on one point: they can’t stand more than six sessions with their colleagues a day. Still, this figure is an average: some employees can cope with many hours in meetings, while others quickly reach a saturation point.

The overall consensus is that it’s better to limit the number of meetings to avoid losing effectiveness. Many working people question the relevance of endless face-to-face discussions, with more than one in four saying they spend too much time in meetings, which prevents them from concentrating and completing their tasks.

To cure this acute “meetingitis“, some companies are taking steps to make meetings more efficient, while others are going even further by doing away with almost all meetings.

Still, there’s no question of abolishing them entirely just yet: these times of input and discussion remain a key part of office life, especially if they are well organised.