How Many Meetings Do You Have Each Week in Your Job?

Here's what I've seen: some development teams can have crazy schedules, like having daily 2-hour standups. Most teams, though, keep it to a quick 15-minute standup daily. I find ad-hoc calls can vary. Usually, if it’s supervision related, I end up chatting with the team, but I try to avoid too many calls. Typically, if I am face-to-face with stakeholders, it jumps to weekly explanations, especially if working closely with them. It all depends on your role, but I have grown immune to the meeting overload since my last job was all about meetings!

It really varies for me. On weeks when I'm more involved, I can hit up to 20 meetings. It’s exhausting! I left that last place where it was back-to-back meetings because I just couldn't manage such a chaotic schedule anymore. Now I aim for fewer meetings and push back on unnecessary calls.

This week looks like I have 2-3 hour-long meetings lined up early in the week, but I keep Wednesday and Thursday open to focus on my tasks. Fridays are saved for our sprint planning, which is all a part of the routine. I do find myself on ad-hoc calls pretty much daily, around two times on average. We also have bi-weekly sessions to review our architectural designs; those add to the mix, too.

In my role, I usually have about three standing meetings each week, plus an Architect Forum I attend as the Platform Lead. I also set up additional working sessions when deeper discussions are needed, but I don’t really count those like regular meetings since they’re more informal—it's like just walking up to someone in an office to chat.

As you move up, it seems like meetings consume more of your time. Now, I'm spending less than 10% on hands-on tasks—most of it is about planning, budgeting, and managing day-to-day emergencies. I still enjoy those meetings where my team seeks out advice because that feels more productive than just going through the motions. I wish I could spend less time in meetings, but it’s part of the role at this point!