Shopify has developed an app to track the cost of meetings held at their company.
Shopify, a Canadian e-commerce company, rolled out its Meeting Cost Calculator internally Wednesday as part of ongoing efforts to encourage emptier calendars. The tool functions as a Chrome extension built into Google Calendar, showing Shopify’s 11,000-plus global employees the estimated cost of their meetings by using data based on average compensation, number of attendees and length.
CNN Business News
They are not the first company to question the need for weeks filled with meetings. Many employees feel their time is wasted and little gets accomplished when assembled either on-line or in person. The app calculates and displayes how many labor hours are devoted to the gathering and the financial expenditure in wages.
Here is an app that many would consider desirable- but in what way exactly? It does not facilitate the sale of a product or service which is how most business enterprises maintain their livelihoods. No- it does not gain a sale but rather the app encourages people to avoid the expense of loss.
This activity lines up more with public goods activities. The health departments mandate vaccines to avoid the spread of disease. Building codes enforce standards to prohibit structures from falling down and hurting people. Stop lights and speed bumps are put into place to avoid accidents. By pricing out the cost of the meeting, Spotify is encouraging employees to resist wasting the company dollar through elimination not production.
Less waste, more profit. A stronger company benefits all the employees. The app shows that markets are very much alive in the public realm.
Home Economics 