Episode #59 Meetings Are the Problem, Burnout Is the Symptom

We often talk about burnout as an individual issue—lack of resilience, poor time management, or the inability to switch off. But what if burnout is not the problem itself, but a symptom of something more systemic?

This episode challenges a deeply ingrained assumption: that meetings are neutral. In reality, poorly designed meetings are one of the most underestimated sources of organizational fatigue. They consume time, fragment attention, and create the illusion of progress—while often producing very little of it.

Most meetings are not intentionally designed. They are inherited habits. Default structures. Repeated patterns that prioritise information sharing over meaningful engagement, and presence over participation.

The result? Cognitive overload, disengagement, and a growing sense that work is happening everywhere except where it matters.

From an Architecting Collaboration perspective, this is not surprising. When the process is weak, the human cost becomes visible. Burnout, in this context, is less about individual limits and more about systemic design failure.

The real question, then, is not how to cope with meetings—but how to redesign them.

What if meetings became spaces for clarity instead of confusion?
For decision instead of drift?
For energy instead of exhaustion?

This episode invites us to rethink meetings not as a necessity, but as a design challenge—one that sits at the heart of how organizations function and how people experience their work.

👉 Read the full article on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/meetings-problem-burnout-mymeetingsupport-hpo7e/

If this resonates with your experience, consider subscribing to the LinkedIn newsletter and following the next episodes in the series, where we continue to explore how better-designed interactions can transform the way we work.