Question 1

How do you calculate the real cost of a meeting?

Accepted Answer

The baseline formula is: (Number of Attendees × Average Hourly Rate) × Meeting Duration in hours. For a 'fully loaded' cost that includes employer taxes and benefits overhead, multiply by 1.3–1.4×. For a truly realistic figure, add 15–25 minutes of refocus time per attendee — research consistently shows it takes that long to return to deep work after any interruption.

Question 2

Are meeting costs really that significant for a company?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A single recurring 30-minute weekly meeting with 8 engineers earning $120K/year costs roughly $9,200 per year in raw payroll — before accounting for context-switching loss. Companies running 10–20 such recurring syncs are spending $100K+ annually on meetings that could often be replaced by an async update.

Question 3

Should I include only salary or also benefits and overhead?

Accepted Answer

For the most accurate cost, include fully-loaded labor costs. Benefits, payroll taxes, and overhead typically add 25–40% on top of base salary. So an employee at $100K/year actually costs the company approximately $125K–$140K total. Divide by 2,080 working hours to get a realistic hourly burden rate.

Question 4

What's the annual cost of a daily standup with 10 people?

Accepted Answer

If those 10 people average $80K/year ($38.46/hr), a 15-minute standup costs $96.15 per session. Running daily on 250 working days, that's $24,038 per year — just for a standup. Add context-switching recovery and the real cost likely exceeds $35,000.

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