‘Could this have been a Slack message?’ Why UAE businesses are cutting meetings to boost productivity

Dubai: In many offices, meetings are a daily fixture but increasingly, they are being questioned. Are they always necessary? Or could a simple message suffice?

Recognising this, several UAE-based companies are now rethinking how meetings are conducted and whether they are even needed at all.

One example is Dubai-based athleisure brand The Giving Movement, which has begun shifting its internal culture to reduce unnecessary meetings. In a recent LinkedIn post, the company’s Chief People and Culture Officer, Sabahatt Habib, shared how the brand is cutting down on meetings to save time and improve productivity.

The shift in culture, Habib revealed, began with a simple but powerful question: “Could this have been a Slack message?” This was not just a passing thought, it is now printed on the doors of every meeting room at their headquarters.

“Honestly, we implemented this because we were drowning in meetings. Most of the day was spent jumping from one meeting to the next, and only afterwards could we catch up on the actual work. It was draining, mentally and creatively. We had so many great ideas, but no time to bring them to life. So we said, enough. It’s time to take our time back. The reaction from the team was pure relief. Everyone was feeling the meeting fatigue, and this gave us space to breathe again,” Habib told Gulf News. 

Habib explained that back-to-back meetings do not just drain time, they sap energy and creativity.

“Time is the one resource we can’t get back,” she added. “In a fast-paced company, how we use it matters more than ever.”

Habib isn’t alone in her thinking. Across boardrooms and industries, there is a growing chorus of business leaders questioning the value of constant meetings and some aren’t mincing words.

Earlier this year, at the 10th Dubai International Project Management Forum, Mohamed Alabbar, founder and CEO of Emaar Properties, delivered a blunt take on the issue. “Don’t tell me anyone here has benefited from attending meetings or that they have led to positive decisions or results,” he said, highlighting how most meetings fail to deliver anything tangible.

There is data to back this up. According to a 2022 study by University of North Carolina at Charlotte, unnecessary and unproductive meetings could cost companies with just 100 employees nearly $2.5 million (Dh9,182,500.00) per year. For organisations with 5,000 staff, that figure can soar past $100 million (Dh367,308,000.00).

Kaveh Anooshiravani, a serial entrepreneur and partner at the Swiss-Abu Dhabi-based multi-family office NewOak Capital, also didn’t hold back when sharing his thoughts on the true cost of workplace meetings.

He stated that most meetings are either completely unnecessary, longer than they need to be, or just plain inefficient and time, quite literally, is money.

Anooshiravani explained that the hidden cost of a typical meeting lies in the value of the employees attending it. “The cost of any meeting is the internal value of all attendees to the business, and that usually ranges from Dh2,000 to Dh6,000 per hour,” he pointed out.

Routine status meetings, he argued, are among the worst offenders. “They’re a waste of time. There should be systems in place that make project updates and feedback transparent and accessible,” he said, adding that meetings should be reserved for what truly matters, brainstorming, creativity, troubleshooting, or crisis management.

Other global companies are making similar moves. Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce giant, cancelled all recurring meetings involving more than three people and introduced ‘No Meeting Wednesdays’ in 2023. The result? The company eliminated 12,000 calendar events, the equivalent of 36 years’ worth of meetings. Meta, Canva and others have also adopted meeting-free days

Sonal Chhiber, a corporate communications consultant based in Dubai, says this is not just a trend, it’s a necessary culture shift.

“Excessive meetings disrupt deep work, fragment focus, and accelerate burnout. By cutting down on unnecessary meetings, companies give teams the space to prioritise strategic goals, boost creativity, and maintain a healthier work-life balance,” she told Gulf News.

She added that some multinationals are now introducing quarterly ‘Focus Weeks’, during which internal meetings are minimised to allow teams to concentrate on innovation and high-impact tasks. Tools like Microsoft Teams, she noted, help keep communication flowing without defaulting to calendar invites.

The growing backlash against meetings is not about scrapping them altogether, it is about running them better.

In the fast-paced world of public relations, Nicola Ellegaard, managing director of Dubai-based Budgie PR, has seen a lot of ‘performative’ catch-up meetings at PR agencies.

 “We’ve seen a lot of ‘check-the-box’ meetings in the industry, recurring every two weeks with little to no real impact,” she explained.

To cut through the noise, Ellegaard’s team takes a leaner approach. After an initial 60-day onboarding period, client catch-ups are reduced to just once a month. Instead of relying on scheduled calls, the agency leans into real-time messaging tools and email to stay connected daily. “Too many meetings lead to fatigue and hamper productivity, not just for us, but for our clients too.”

Of course, not all meetings are bad. In the creative and media industries, they often serve as vital spaces for collaboration and idea-sharing. But Ellegaard believes the way brainstorming happens also needs a rethink.

“We have a dedicated Slack brainstorming channel that’s open at all times, it allows for spontaneity and removes the start-stop nature of meetings,” she said.

It is not just the number of meetings that is the issue, it’s the length and inefficiency of them. A 2023 Microsoft survey found that ineffective meetings are the biggest disruptor to workplace productivity.

Another executive who follows similar approach, Samina Ghori, Deputy CEO of Kaya Clinic, the international skincare, haircare, and bodycare treatment provider with over 70 clinics. With such a large network and team, you might expect her to be constantly in meetings  but that’s far from the case.

“Meetings are intentionally kept to 15 to 30 minutes wherever possible, structured around clear, goal-focused points. We’ve also adopted a zero-presentation culture internally, conversations are centred on decision-making and actions rather than lengthy slides or status updates,” Ghori told Gulf News.

Like many modern workplaces, her teams rely on online collaboration tools for fast, real-time discussions, reducing the need for formal meetings. AI-powered tools also support their workflow, offering meeting transcripts, summaries, and automated note-sharing.

For Ghori, this ensures meetings stay on track, with more time spent on execution rather than revisiting discussions.

“The future of work, in my view, is not just about fewer meetings,” she said. “It’s about smarter, faster, and more focused collaboration.”

“A meeting without a mission is just a professionally sanctioned time heist. Structure or skip it, because energy is currency, not charity," says Nandini Navaseelan, HR Director and Consultant at Pathwayz Solutionz.

To ensure meetings are effective, she follows three golden rules: