How to Become Richer than Zendaya (as a manager)
Just by sitting in useless meetings.
You know the feeling. You sit through an hour-long meeting, staring at your screen, wondering why you’re there (thinking you could have hung the washing out, and cleaned the bathroom with your camera off and mic muted instead!). No decisions get made, no actions are taken, and by the end, you’re just further behind on the work you actually need to do.
Now imagine if you got paid every time that happened.
If you earned just $9 every time a meeting wasted your time, you could be richer than Zendaya. Yes, the Zendaya. Emmy-winning, blockbuster-starring, front-row-at-every-fashion-show Zendaya. Her estimated net worth? $24 million (I think it might be closer to $30 million these days actually).
And here’s the ridiculous part. Nine dollars per meeting doesn’t sound like much. But add it up, and suddenly, it’s looking a whole lot better.
( This is just a bit of fun, not financial advice. But if someone does want to start paying you for wasted meetings, I’d love to know how you managed it.)
The Maths. Out-Earning Zendaya, One Pointless Meeting at a Time
Let’s assume:
The average manager has six meetings per day
There are 260 workdays in a year
50% of meetings are a waste of time (according to Harvard Business Review link)
You’re working for 30 years
You get $9 per wasted meeting
That means:
Six meetings per day, 50% wasted = three wasted meetings per day
Three wasted meetings per day, 260 workdays = 780 wasted meetings per year
780 wasted meetings per year, 30 years = 23,400 wasted meetings in a career
23,400 meetings, $9 per meeting = $210,600
Put that into a high-interest savings account each year? That number grows to $24 million.
All because of meetings where nothing got done.
Hey, I’m Louise! I’ve spent over a decade in senior leadership, going from apprentice to running operations in multi-million-pound companies. Now, I share everything I’ve learned to help managers like you lead with confidence.
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Is This Meeting Worth $9?
Let’s look at it the other way around.
We’ve been talking about how much you could hypothetically earn from wasted meetings, but what if we flipped it?
What if, instead of assuming meetings were free, the organiser had to pay every attendee $9 to be there?
Would they still send that invite?
Would they still invite ten people?
Would they still schedule a full hour instead of 15 minutes?
I wonder what would happen if people started asking, "Would you pay me $9 to attend this meeting?"
Not literally, of course. But imagine if every time someone scheduled a meeting, they had to justify paying each attendee $9 out of their own pocket.
If you’re the one running the meeting, think about it. How many people have you invited? Would you pay each of them $9 to be there? Is the discussion worth that cost?
The reality is, most people don’t think of meetings as having a price tag. They feel free because there’s no invoice at the end. But wasted meetings have a very real cost in time, energy, and lost productivity.
By putting a number on it, even just as a thought experiment, you force yourself to question whether a meeting is actually necessary. And once you start thinking that way, you might find yourself cancelling more meetings than you send out.
The Real Cost of Wasted Meetings
Pointless meetings don’t just drain your energy. They cost businesses millions every year.
71% of meetings are unproductive (according to Pumble )
67% of employees say excessive meetings stop them from doing their work (according to Harvard Business Review )
U.S. businesses waste $37 billion annually on unnecessary meetings (according to Forbes)
These aren’t just minor inconveniences. Bad meetings kill productivity, cost businesses a fortune, and waste thousands of hours that could be spent actually getting things done.
The Five Biggest Meeting Time-Wasters and How to Fix Them
1. No clear agenda
Meetings that start with "So, what are we here for?" are doomed before they begin. (Maybe your wifi has just stopped working and you can no longer re-join the call, oh dear!)
Fix it. Set an agenda and send it in advance. No agenda? No meeting. (This is something that needs to be agreed at team and company level though, you might not get much luck if you just point blank refuse).
2. Too many people in the room
Ever sat in a meeting thinking, why am I even here? That’s a problem.
Fix it. Only invite people directly involved in making decisions. Everyone else? Send them notes instead. If you don’t think you need to be there, ask the organiser why you are invited and what input they’re expecting from you. This way you can prep and understand if you’re actually the right person to attend.
3. Meetings that run over time
A 30-minute meeting turns into an hour. An hour turns into two. Suddenly, the day’s gone.
Fix it. Set strict start and end times. Stick to them. Move the agenda along politely.
4. No follow-up or action plan
Decisions are made, but no one follows through. The same discussion comes up again next week.
Fix it. End every meeting with clear next steps, assigned responsibilities, and deadlines. Follow up. Importantly, where are these steps being documented. It’s worth taking 10 mins at the end to make sure they actually exisit somewhere, trello board, a Google doc, something!
5. Meetings that should have been emails
You know the ones.
Fix it. If a decision doesn’t require live discussion, send an email instead.
Don’t Let Meetings Drain Your Time (or Your Will to Live)
Meetings should drive action, not waste everyone’s time.
So next time you find yourself trapped in yet another meeting where nothing gets decided, ask yourself, if someone had to pay me $9 to sit through this, would they still invite me?
And if you’re the one organising the meeting, flip it. Would you pay $9 per person for them to be here? Is it worth it?
If the answer is no, it’s probably time to rethink how meetings are run.
Because if businesses actually cracked down on wasted meetings, we’d all be richer than Zendaya.
Thanks for reading
Louise
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