The study shows that more than half of UK workers and two-thirds of US employees believe meetings are more effective when colleagues enjoy a personal catch-up.
Around half of all workers also said in-person meetings are the only interaction they have with fellow employees.
The Value Of In-Person Meetings
Meetings have long been a bone of contention for some employees. They can be an effective means of relaying information to large groups of people and can also be highly effective for collaborative efforts.
However, 'meeting bloat' can cause resentment in attendees. 'Meeting bloat', or 'meeting overload', occurs when there are too many meetings, when meetings are packed with irrelevant content, or when attendees don’t need to be there.
It varies by industry, but formal meetings are generally unproductive. “It could’ve been an email” is true on most days.
— Paul (@mrithejester) July 7, 2026
But, according to recent research, as modern employees are increasingly likely to work remotely or in hybrid roles, in-person meetings have become more valuable.
In the past five years, more and more elements of daily life have transferred online. We watch TV and movies, listen to music, and enjoy online gaming. We can also enjoy traditionally offline activities like casino gaming, for example online slot games like Action Bank offer the same features as physical slots with the convenience of playing from a computer or mobile phone.
Avoiding Isolation
While features like online casino games are more convenient than their physical counterparts, it turns out a lot of people are pushing back against fully remote work. Estimates suggest that only around 20% of the global working population work fully on site, with the rest working fully remote or in hybrid positions.
For the most part, employees enjoy the flexibility of these types of roles. It can offer financial savings, as well as improvements to work-life balance. In turn, these benefits translate to productivity boosts for employers.
But remote work can be isolating. A Kahoot! survey found 17% of workers in the UK went full days without speaking to colleagues. In the US, the figure was even higher – 30%.
Ambient Connections
One of the main problems with remote work is the lack of ambient connection. Ambient connections are unstructured interactions between colleagues – conversations in hallways and discussions around water coolers. Even ambient co-presence, the noise of activity going around on you, provides benefits.
Some of this ambient activity can be recreated online, in the form of floating avatars and name bubbles in collaborative documents. Online meetings can also help combat some feelings of being disconnected. But 50% of UK Kahoot! respondents and 47% of US participants said in-person meetings were the only opportunity to interact with their colleagues.
