Shopify wants to put an end to unproductive meetings

The e-commerce company cancels recurring meetings with more than two people and asks employees to leave internal chat groups.

The Canadian company Shopify is spring-cleaning its employees' calendars. The company is setting new rules to end unproductive meetings, as the news portal Bloomberg reports. Too many and too long meetings are bad for employee productivity.

The company is completely scrapping recurring meetings with more than two participants. Large meetings with more than 50 people may only take place once a week on Thursdays. There are to be no more meetings at all on Wednesdays. Employees will also be encouraged to leave large internal chat groups and say no to meetings.

"It's much easier to add things than to remove things," writes CEO and Shopify co-founder Tobias Lütke in an email to his employees. "When you say yes to one thing, you're actually saying no to every other thing you could have done in that timeframe." The new meeting rules are intended to give employees more time to work.