This company tells employees to just say no to meetings
3 min read . Updated: 06 Jan 2023, 07:03 PM IST
Premium- According to reports, Shopify said that big meetings with more than 50 people can only be held during a six-hour window on Thursdays.
E-commerce company Shopify said that it is planning to cancelling all recurring meetings with more than two people in perpetuity. The company also plans to implement a rule that no meetings at all can be held on Wednesdays.
According to reports, Canadian e-commerce Shopify said that big meetings with more than 50 people can only be held during a six-hour window on Thursdays. The company’s leaders will also encourage workers to decline other meetings, and remove themselves from large internal chat groups.
"The best thing founders can do is subtraction," Chief Executive Officer Tobi Lutke, who co-founded the company, said in an emailed statement, according to Bloomberg.
“It’s much easier to add things than to remove things. If you say yes to a thing, you actually say no to every other thing you could have done with that period of time. As people add things, the set of things that can be done becomes smaller. Then, you end up with more and more people just maintaining the status quo," it added.
Shopify's VP Product and COO Kaz Nejatian said that the company is giving 'people back their maker time.'
"Meetings are a bug. Today, we shipped a fix to this bug at @Shopify.
'To start 2023, we're cancelling all Shopify meetings with more than two people. Let's give people back their maker time. Companies are for builders. Not managers," he tweeted.
Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., household product maker Clorox Co. and tech firm Twilio Inc. are among those that have instituted no-meeting days.
Shopify said that a bot will serve as the policy’s enforcer, reminding meeting organizers of the new rules starting January 5.
“Over the years, we’ve seen excess meetings creep back into our day to day," said Kaz Nejatian, Shopify’s vice president of product and chief operating officer.
“We know no one joined Shopify to sit in meetings," he added. The latest changes come amid a cost-cutting drive at the company.
Shopify had let go of 1,000 jobs from its workforce of 10,000 over the summer.
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