Reducing meeting fatigue with WhatPulse

With meeting fatigue rising in their remote-first team, a SaaS company used WhatPulse Professional to track how much time employees were spending in video calls. They uncovered hidden overload and used the data to reduce unnecessary meetings and reclaim focus time.

The challenge

At a remote-first SaaS company with employees spread across 7 time zones, Dina Köhler noticed growing signs of burnout. Despite generous PTO policies and a flexible schedule, engagement scores were dropping and employees frequently cited "too many meetings" in feedback forms.

"It felt like people were always in a meeting. But no one could prove just how much time we were losing — or whether it was even balanced across teams." — Dina Köhler

Traditional calendar audits didn't show the full picture. Some meetings were recurring, some ad hoc, and others happened outside scheduled hours. People rarely logged how drained they felt after back-to-back video calls.

The solution: Measuring the real cost of meetings

Dina turned to WhatPulse Professional to track actual time spent in video conferencing apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.

The company rolled out WhatPulse to all employees with a specific focus on:

  • ✅ Tracking active hours in conferencing apps
  • ✅ Measuring session frequency and length
  • ✅ Comparing meeting time across departments
  • ✅ Identifying context-switching impact before/after meetings

Data was anonymized at first to respect privacy and encourage transparency. Aggregate insights were shared with department heads.

The analysis

After just four weeks, the results were clear:

  • The average employee spent 5.5 hours per day in video calls
  • Engineering and Support teams had the highest meeting load, often with <30 mins of uninterrupted work blocks
  • 42% of meetings happened between 4–7pm local time, creating "meeting drag" near the end of the day

Cross-checking WhatPulse data with productivity analytics showed clear drops in activity following days with 6+ hours of meetings.

The outcome

Dina's team worked with leadership to implement new practices:

  • Introduced "No-Meeting Wednesdays" company-wide
  • Encouraged async stand-ups using Slack or Loom for distributed teams
  • Empowered managers to cut recurring meetings that lacked clear agendas

Three months later:

  • Average daily meeting time dropped to 3.2 hours
  • Employee survey scores improved, especially around work-life balance
  • Focus time availability (2+ hour uninterrupted blocks) increased by 68%
"WhatPulse gave us more than just meeting metrics. It gave us the proof we needed to change habits without pushback." — Dina Köhler

The takeaway

Video meetings aren't the enemy — but without guardrails, they take over. WhatPulse Professional helped this remote-first team:

  • Uncover meeting overload patterns
  • Reduce fatigue without hurting collaboration
  • Reclaim focus time for deep work

Ready to understand your team's meeting patterns?

Start a free WhatPulse Professional trial