Member-only story
Companies could do this if they’re truly family-friendly
It might also mean better meetings and a more productive staff
If companies want to be truly family-friendly, they won’t let meetings start before 10 AM or after 4 PM.
That’s when things are most likely to pop up for people with kids, whether it’s something in the morning with getting them to school or in the evening getting them to activities.
If your reaction to this is that you can’t give up that time to have meetings, then your company might be having too many meetings.
You should be able to fit your meetings into that six hour window the majority of the time and those six hours also shouldn’t be completely packed. People need time to do their work.
I realize there are some exceptions to all of this, such as sales people who need to catch others at certain times of day or those who need to have a quick briefing before work begins.
But at most of the places I’ve worked, we could have gotten by without meetings first thing in the morning or last thing in the afternoon.
Being family-friendly isn’t the only benefit to this policy
There are other benefits to this meeting policy as well.
Not having meetings at the start of each day gives employees a chance to catch up on things first thing in the morning and to map out the day. INot having meetings to close the day gives people time to wrap up tasks before heading out.
Changing your meeting policies might even make your meetings more productive too.
