Unpacking the meeting load paradox: impacts on engagement and burnout across work arrangements

Purpose - This paper aims to explore how workplace meetings, work arrangements and their interactions relate to employee engagement and burnout. Design/methodology/approach - This paper draws from the conservation of resources theory to hypothesize the relationships between the antecedent and outcome variables. To test the hypotheses, this study analyzes a structural equation model based on panel survey data from 1,137 respondents. Findings - This study finds that meeting load is positively related to burnout, but not to engagement in general. Also, relative to the hybrid work arrangement, engagement is lower in the in-person only arrangement and burnout is higher in the remote-only arrangement. As to the interaction effects, meeting load in the on-site work arrangement situation relates positively to both engagement and burnout. Practical implications - The findings provide valuable insight for practitioners in an increasingly complex and competitive environment, as they can be factored into debates around policies for meetings and work arrangements. Originality/value - The COVID-19 pandemic created a seismic shift in the way people work: it released an avalanche of workplace meetings; it normalized hybrid work arrangements; and it heightened attention on work outcomes. This study lies at the intersection of these three important trends.