My case is a bit easier, as I was working in advertising, and it is easy to quantify the impact - which is kind of the point in the article (quantifying negati

My case is a bit easier, as I was working in advertising, and it is easy to quantify the impact - which is kind of the point in the article (quantifying negative impact of a meeting, for example). Depending on your manager, they will also fight for reducing meetings to necessities only, and find ways to work more in harmony (for lack of a better word) instead of the relatively forced nature of meetings. For most solid engineers, 10 minutes chatting on IM/in person every now and then is more productive then weekly forced meetings (where everyone stares at their laptop). We came up with plenty of improvements where I pinged someone or they pinged me, and it was done soon after. Everyone knew their responsibility, and they did not hesitate to ask for help where they needed. However, your point does sound plausible, and very likely. When everyone is fine with status quo, the one that challenges it can be singled out.