Reason 1

Different people have different preferred modes of communication.
If they operate in their preferred mode, they are efficient and lose very little energy.
If they operate in a mode that’s not preferred, they are inefficient and they lose energy.

One of the dimensions of that is “recorded” versus “live” communication.
Software development is an extreme form of recorded communication.
Therefore, good software developers are usually not suited for meetings.
They’ll lose a lot of energy in meetings and it distracts them big time, even way before and after the meeting.

Also, recorded communicators need time to think before they say something.
So, developers often remain silent in meetings. (Which creates problems with energy feeding, see further below)

(Casual conversation at lunch or so is a different thing…)

Or software developers are actually live communicators, so they
have a very hard time to switch back to software development after a meeting
because the meeting is much more in their groove than software development.

Reason 2

Some developers are high empaths.
This may be a surprise, but it makes sense.

Here’s why:
High empaths pick up subtle energies and feelings of other people.
This creates a lot of information which can be quite overwhelming and stressful (also depending on what is received).
Therefore some empaths tend to chose work where they don’t have to deal with people all the time.
Software development fulfills that to some extent.

Meetings are often especially stressful for empaths because meetings tend

• to get emotional
• or feelings are covered (which is even more stressful energy than open communication)
• or in extreme cases there is some form of manipulation going on
• often there is energy feeding going on. Energy usually flows from the listener to the talker.

But even meetings in a positive, relaxed atmosphere can cause distraction later on.
After all, any form of emotional stuff (even positive) can distract from software development.

Reason 3

It happens quite often that managers require from developers in a meeting to
spontaneously give them answers that require extensive research (such as cost estimations for new requirements),
and insist on a spontaneous answer. (Which can only be given by lying, i.e., telling a random number)
This adds to the stress level.

Conclusion

If you want to destroy the productivity and motivation of your software developers, do as many meetings with them as possible.

The worst for productivity are daily meetings in the middle of the morning.
This is the worst because the morning is usually the most productive time,
and software development requires highly focused attention for long time-spans without interruption and distraction.

Personal note

Personally, I like the human connection in meetings (if there’s a good atmosphere).
But I don’t like the energy feeding and that I don’t have time and solitude to think or to listen to my intuition or to my inner wisdom before I say something.