We’ve all been here. You’re stuck in a meeting. Graeme from Accounts is droning on and on. Half the people are either sneakily looking at their phones or mentally planning their next holiday. Most people are wondering what the point of this meeting is, and why couldn’t it have been an email.

The truth is, lots of meetings aren’t working for lots of people. The average office worker spends 27 days a year in meetings that they believe to be pointless, according to one survey.

And even if your job isn’t office-based, you may well find yourself in a more informal meeting in a school, a church, or a sports club. Or, like Jackie Weaver, whose meeting bust-up went viral in 2020, in a local parish council.

If you disrupt this meeting, I will have to remove you from it.

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver. No authority at all.

She’s just kicked him out.

So, how do we make meetings better? Firstly, preparation is key.

Sorry, sorry I’m late.

Whether you’re chairing the meeting or just attending, you’ll get a lot more out of it if you’re fully prepped.

… Where are my glasses? Oh yeh, there!

If you’re the chair, make sure you send out an agenda and maybe even a question in advance. There’s evidence that starting a meeting with that question gets everyone focused and participating quicker. If you’re a participant, do the pre-read and work out what you want to say beforehand.

Another tip for chairs is to think about who’s in the room and what sort of people they are. A plan to manage extroverts, to make sure they don’t dominate, will really help, and making sure that your more introverted types are able to share their views is also important. A good idea is to ask them in advance to contribute on a certain subject. That way, they can pre-plan what they want to say.

If you’re an introvert, you might want to take a tip from Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Facebook, … … and make sure you say something, anything, early on in the meeting to establish your voice and presence. That way, when it’s time to make your killer point later in the meeting, it’s much easier to speak up.

Online meetings can make chairing easier. Everyone’s names are visible, and it’s easy to raise your virtual hand, though there is always someone who forgets to take themselves off mute.

Yeah, I can’t… Oh… I can hear you. Yeah, but you… You need to turn… Can you see where…? Bottom left.

And there’s evidence that hybrid meetings, where some people are in the room and some people are online, are less effective.

Oh, come on!

So, planning how you’re going to make sure everyone’s included here is the key to success.

Research shows that a few moments of mindfulness at the start of a meeting could help reduce stress and boost creativity.But if you think that would go down like a cup of cold sick in your team, think of other ways you can form bonds. Breakout rooms, icebreakers. Ask me anything and I’ll answer yes or no. Then you’ve got to guess. No.

Timing is also key. Meetings are often booked in half-hour or hour blocks, and if they overrun, they can cause unnecessary stress, which can carry on to your next meeting. Brain scans show the impact that back-to-back meetings have on your grey matter. After successive meetings, you become much less productive. Consider ending your meeting at quarter to the hour, or for longer meetings, put in a little tea break in the middle.

Impromptu breathers can be particularly good if things are getting heated. But even if everyone’s enjoying themselves, most people will feel the benefit from a leg stretch or a comfort break. If your meeting is in person and your budgets can stretch, consider providing refreshments. If budgets won’t stretch to food and drink, think about other ways to bond and create informal moments. Taking turns to bake, for example.

And finally, make sure you allocate some time to follow up. If you’re the chair, it’s a good idea to thank people for attending, and send round notes with action points. And, if you’ve attended a good meeting, don’t be shy about letting the chair know. Meetings are an essential part of the modern world, and chances are you’ll end up in a meeting with them again soon. Yes, meetings can be rubbish, but all of us can help make them better.

• Stuck (adjective): unable to move, trapped, or set in a particular position.
• To drone on (informal, phrasal verb): to talk for a long time in a boring way.
• Sneakily (adverb): secretly, without telling anyone.
• Pointless (adjective): a waste of time, having no purpose.
• -based (suffix): the main place or area where something happens or exists.
• A bust-up (noun): a serious argument, especially one that ends a relationship.
• To go viral (phrase): to become very popular very quickly.
• A parish council (noun): a group of people who are elected to make decisions in a local area.
• To disrupt something (verb): to prevent something from continuing as normal.
• Authority (noun): a legal right or ability to control something.
• To kick someone out (phrasal verb): to make someone leave a place or job.
• Key (adjective): very important.
• To chair something (verb): to be the person in charge of a meeting.
• To get something out of something (phrasal verb): to enjoy or think something is useful.
• Prepped (informal, adjective): abbreviation for ‘prepared’.
• To send out something (phrasal verb): to send something to a lot of different people.
• An agenda (noun): a list of things to be discussed at a meeting.
• A participant (noun): a person who takes part in an activity.
• Beforehand (adverb): earlier (than a particular time).
• An extrovert (noun): an energetic, sociable person who enjoys being with other people.
• Introverted (adjective): referring to people who are shy, quiet, and prefer time alone.
• In advance (idiom): before a particular time, or before doing a particular thing.
• To contribute something (verb): to give something to help achieve something with others.
• COO (noun): abbr. for chief operating officer, a manager responsible for running a business.
• To establish something (verb): to start, create, or set something in a particular way.
• Killer (adjective): extremely good, impressive, or effective.
• To speak up (phrasal verb): to express your opinion.
• Mute (noun): a button on an electronic device or computer that makes it silent.
• Mindfulness (noun): the practice of being aware of your body and mind in the moment.
• To boost (verb): to increase or improve something.
• To go down like a cup of cold sick (informal, idiom): to be received very badly by people.
• A bond (noun): a close connection or relationship between people.
• A breakout room (noun): a small ‘room’, separate from the online meeting, for discussion.
• An icebreaker (noun): an activity that helps people who don’t know each other feel relaxed.
• To overrun (verb): to continue past a planned limit, to finish late, cost more, etc.
• To carry on (phrasal verb): to continue.
• Back-to-back (adjective): happening one after the other, without a break.
• Impromptu (adjective): done or said without earlier planning or preparation.
• A breather (informal, noun): a short rest.
• Heated (adjective): excited, emotional, or angry.
• To stretch (verb): to have enough available money or resources to allow something.
• To follow up something (phrasal verb): to take more action related to something.
• (The) chances are (idiom): it is likely.

In this text, there are lots of examples of phrasal verbs and some interesting examples of word order in phrasal verbs.

Phrasal verbs consist of a verb plus one or two particles (prepositions or adverbs such as: on, in, up, to, etc.). The particle changes the meaning of a verb:

‘You played badly last night.’ (play = to engage in sport or games); ‘You played up last night.’ (play up = to misbehave, behave badly)

There are two types phrasal verbs: separable and non-separable.

Separable phrasal verbs: are transitive (they take a direct object): you can put the object between the verb and the particle, OR put the object after the verb and particle:

‘Please turn the light off.’ OR ‘Please turn offthe light.’ Both ways have the same meaning.

But when the object is a pronoun (e.g. it, you, me), the pronoun must go between the verb and the particle: ‘Please turn it off’ NOT ‘Please turn off it’

Separation is more common in spoken English when the speaker stresses the particle: ‘Turn the light OFF!’

However, when the object of the sentence is long (more than 4 or 5 words), we tend to keep the verb and particle together: ‘Please turn off any equipment that may interfere with landing.

Non-separable phrasal verbs: are sometimes intransitive (they cannot take a direct object): ‘My car broke down.’; ‘I like to eat out on Fridays.’

Other non-separable phrasal verbs are transitive and can take an object. If they have a preposition as a particle, the phrasal verb is always non-separable because the object has to come after the preposition: ‘He stepped on a banana.’ NOT ‘He stepped a banana on’ = Step on + object.

Phrasal verbs with two particles are inseparable, even if the object is a pronoun:  ‘He looks up to me.’ NOT ‘He looks me up to’  ‘We should cut down on it.’ NOT ‘We should cut down it on’

Examples in the text:

• Graeme from Accounts is droning on: ‘drone on’ is an intransitive, non-separable phrasal verb, it does not take a direct object and cannot be separated.
• She’s just kicked him out: ‘kick out’ is a transitive (it requires an object), separable phrasal verb. In this case, the pronoun ‘him’ must go between the verb and the particle.
• you’ll get a lot more out of it if you’re fully prepped: ‘get something out of something’ is a transitive, non-separable phrasal verb. It has two particles (‘out’ and ‘of’) and therefore can’t be separated.
• … make sure you send out an agenda: ‘send out’ is a transitive, separable phrasal verb. Both ‘send out an agenda’ and ‘send an agenda out’ are correct.
• do the pre–read and work out what you want to say: ‘work out’ (meaning ‘plan’) in this context is a transitive, separable phrasal verb. However, due to the long object (‘what you want to say’), it sounds more natural to keep the verb and the particle together.
• … it’s much easier to speak up: ‘speak up’ is an intransitive, non-separable phrasal verb, it does not take a direct object and cannot be separated.
• … which can carry on to your next meeting: ‘carry on’ (meaning ‘continue’) in this context is an intransitive, non-separable phrasal verb, it does not take a direct object and cannot be separated.
• … make sure you allocate some time to follow up: ‘follow up’ in this context functions as an intransitive, non-separable phrasal verb, it does not take a direct object and cannot be separated.
• … and send round notes with action points: ‘send round’ (meaning ‘distribute’) is a transitive, separable phrasal verb. Both ‘send round notes’ and ‘send notes round’ are correct.

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/c1-grammar/word-order-phrasal-verbs

https://www.englishpodcastscollected.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/BBC-Ideas-How-to-make-meetings-less-rubbish.pdf

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