Meetings are a common part of working for a company. And while they can prove to be incredibly inspirational, motivating and powerful, on the flipside, they can disrupt employees and take up more time than necessary. If attendees are tardy or get off-topic, meetings can turn into more of a social gathering than a productivity gathering.

Additionally, depending on what time the meeting is scheduled, they can prove completely ineffective. I’ve known companies with policies to only have emergency meetings on Friday afternoons because they knew the chances of attendees retaining and acting on the meeting topic Monday morning was slim.

What do you think? How long should meetings last? What are your meeting tactics? Please vote in the poll below and comment with what has worked best for you or meeting horror stories from meetings gone too long.