research citations

Sources

While the crowdsourced dataset is still being gathered, recurring.fyi shows external research figures as a baseline reference. Below is every external figure cited anywhere on the site — with the publisher, year, and a link to the primary source.

Each baseline reflects one specific population (e.g. senior executives, knowledge workers in Microsoft 365, US professionals). They are not directly comparable to the crowdsourced per-company averages we publish — they are a frame of reference, nothing more.

1. [1]

   Senior executives, large companies

   23 hrs/wk

   Of 182 senior managers surveyed; up from ~10 hrs/wk in the 1960s.

   Harvard Business Review (Perlow, Hadley, Eun) (2017) · https://hbr.org/2017/07/stop-the-meeting-madness

2. [2]

   Knowledge workers, global

   18 hrs/wk · 17 meetings/wk

   Average reported by knowledge workers across 5 countries.

   Atlassian State of Teams (2023) · https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/state-of-teams-2023

3. [3]

   Microsoft 365 active users

   16 hrs/wk

   Derived from telemetry on time spent in Teams meetings.

   Microsoft Work Trend Index (2023) · https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index

4. [4]

   US professionals (Otter.ai survey)

   18 hrs/wk · 25.6 meetings/wk

   ~25.6 meetings/week reported; many flagged unnecessary.

   Otter.ai / The State of Business Meetings (2022) · https://otter.ai/state-of-business-meetings

5. [5]

   Workers globally (Doodle)

   10.5 hrs/wk

   Pre-pandemic baseline; >30% of meeting time rated unproductive.

   Doodle State of Meetings (2019) · https://doodle.com/en/state-of-meetings-report-2019