My dad used to joke that a meeting is where minutes are kept and hours are lost.

Buried in the pdf in different sections

> Managers attend meetings far more frequently and spend substantially more time in them than non-managerial employees.

> Separately, interactions with senior colleagues are associated with stronger wage growth

A meeting is called to coordinate or communicate. Wadge's law of meetings tell you which one is which.

But not all coordination is top down, sometimes you need your manager to go negotiate a point with another division.

And neither is all communication, most often you can impress on others the potential of a new approach or the problems with the existing one.

The only trouble for the neurodivergent among us is that "appearing to pay attention" is also communication, same goes for eye-contact or not stuttering.

Corolllary is that skip meetings at your own risk, decisions will be made and you won't be in the room where it happens. And don't be the person who is not welcome in meetings, that too eventually makes your pay suffer.