Insight
The Silent Tax: how unquestioned work drains an organisation
Author: Simon Coops
Bain once examined the work generated by a weekly executive committee meeting at one large company. Supporting meetings and briefings spread through the organisation. Together, that activity consumed around 300,000 employee-hours in a year. Not all of those hours were wasted. But the example revealed something important: a meeting can cost far more than the time spent in the room. The same is true of reports, approvals and decision processes. A modest request from the top can produce days of work further down.
This is the silent tax: the accumulated cost of internal work whose full organisational footprint is rarely visible.
McKinsey found that people familiar with decision-making in their organisations spent an average of 37% of their working time on decisions. Sixty-one per cent said most of that time was used ineffectively, while only 20% believed their organisation excelled at decision-making.
Part of the problem is visibility. On BCG’s measure, employees without managerial responsibility recorded complicatedness scores 70% higher than board members. Leaders see the meeting, report or recommendation. They do not always see the spreadsheets, rehearsals and internal discussions behind it.
But I think one reason this work survives is what I call the assumed necessity trap.
When a senior leader asks for a meeting, report or process, people may assume it reflects an important priority or would be risky to question. So the meeting remains. The report is produced again. A process that once made sense continues long after its value has faded.
Research on employee voice suggests that speaking up in hierarchies can feel risky or inappropriate, while managerial openness is associated with more constructive challenge.
That is why the answer must be both cultural and structural.
Leaders need to make it safe to question established work, including work they introduced. Organisations also need more discipline around recurring demands. Before introducing or renewing a meeting, report or process, teams should ask:
- What specific value will this add?
- Who genuinely needs to be involved?
- What work will it create elsewhere?
- How will we know whether it remains worthwhile?
- When should it be reviewed or stopped?
This is about ensuring that the work we create continues to justify the time it demands. Once a meeting, report or process becomes routine, it can carry on long after anyone remembers why it began.
The real opportunity lies in creating space for what matters most, and in being willing to question the work that gets in the way.