You are in charge of a meeting, you have stuck to your agenda, and you are even wrapping up early due to such wonderful self-organization.

Don’t ruin it right at the end. There’s something undeniably patronizing and belittling about saying, “Let me give you your time back.”

It’s not “their” time. It’s still on the company dime during regular work hours. Ending early and acknowledging how well you did ending early is not the pat on the back you think it is (for you OR for them).

There are so many other ways to acknowledge the early completion time. You could thank everyone for their attention and preparedness, for example; this acknowledges the work everyone else did in making it such an efficient meeting, rather than the weird grandstanding position it looks like when you say “I’m going to give you your time back” or “Let me give you those extra 15 minutes back.”

It’s a phrase you have probably heard (and said) so many times, but please take a step back and reevaluate how it comes across. It’s an overused stock phrase anyway (“Think outside the box! Shift some paradigms! Let me give your your time back!”), so if that’s enough of a reason to dump it, at least give it some consideration in that regard.