We wanted to look at how struggling with technology during meetings and presentations impacts on the stress levels of office workers. We asked 1,000 office workers across the globe who run, present or attend meetings to share their experiences of technology and meetings.

The results were staggering: technology intended to simplify, quicken and enhance office meetings is frequently causing the very opposite effects for its users. Worse, globally, 93% of people revealed that they have experienced wider negative impacts as a result of tech issues during meetings.

Over half reported that they experienced inefficiencies such as a lack of ability to perform effectively and had wasted time due to tech issues. Nearly 40% experienced anger and frustration simply attending meetings with tech problems. Disconcertingly, a third of people have experienced decreased morale due to the technology – in Germany, this figure rises to nearly half. 24% of respondents admitted that tech issues had caused them to miss deadlines or important actions.

Our findings became even more serious when it was revealed that almost a quarter of participants have missed deadlines as a result of technology issues and 12% have lost out on business or sales. More astonishingly still, one in ten people even disclosed that they had missed out on personal opportunities such as promotions or credit. In France, this figure was a worrying 23%.

Anger, frustration and wasted time are bad enough consequences of technology designed fundamentally to improve meetings for office workers. When technology struggles are affecting employees’ personal progression and a loss of new business or sales for a company, the severity of the issue and thus the need for reliable technology in office meetings is starkly clear.

Click here for the conclusions from the meeting stress test