Rise of the «Infinite Workday» – 40% of Employees Check Email Before 6 a.m., Evening Meetings Up 16%

Microsoft news ^ | 17/6/25

[anthropocene_x]

Professionals, are experiencing an «infinite workday» with 40% checking email before 6 a.m. and meetings after 8 p.m. increasing 16% year-over-year, according to a new Microsoft Work Trend Index Special Report released today. The global study, which analyzed trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals, including Switzerland among the 31,000 knowledge workers across 31 markets surveyed, reveals how the traditional 9-to-5 workday has evolved into a continuous cycle of digital communication.

The average employee now receives 117 emails and 153 Teams messages daily, with Tuesday emerging as the week’s busiest day for meetings (23%). The report identifies a «triple peak» workday pattern, with nearly a third (29%) of active workers returning to their inboxes by 10 p.m. Weekend work is also on the rise, with 20% of employees actively working on weekends checking email before noon on Saturday and Sunday.

The study reveals that employees are interrupted every two minutes – 275 times per day – by meetings, emails or chat notifications. Half of all meetings occur during peak productivity hours (9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m.), leaving little room for deep focus work. Additionally, 57% of meetings are ad hoc calls without calendar invites, and PowerPoint edits spike 122% in the final 10 minutes before meetings.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: jobs; work

[anthropocene_x]

In unrelated news, birth rates are declining in most developed nations. Government policymakers are puzzled as to why. They are offering tax breaks for daycare and longer maternity leave.

[ChicagoConservative27]

I check email when I’m on vacation...😬

[Don W]

Don’t take this personally, but you are an IDIOT! Your job is not your identity, and the employer DOES NOT OWN YOU!

45-60 hour weeks are excessive, but SOMETIMES necessary. If you are always working that long, either your employer is taking advantage of you and understaffing, or the product isn’t profitable and you are carrying the company on your time.

Either way, time NOT on the clock is supposed to be just that, not an unpaid “on-call” situation. They want you to be on call, they need to pay you for that.

[ChicagoConservative27]

I agree

[anthropocene_x]

Apparently you’ve never worker in a forced-ranking performance evaluation company.

[MinorityRepublican]

birth rates are declining in most developed nations

Due to modernity, secularism and feminism.

[stanne]

My friends join me at my house for brunch , coffee, movie nights. Women. They will refuse to put their phones away. They don’t have corporate jobs they are mothers, wives, sisters.

Yes bosses interfere but they’re not allowed to. There are employment laws, boundaries. If my boss texts me after or before hours it’s once a year and I have a high level job generating a lot of revenue

People work after hours because they allow it I know people with PhD’s with more appreciation for the value of down time than my above mentioned friends

I know people with massive real estate they’ve earned who put their phones down and visit with their families at dinner

Boundary setting with co workers and superiors

Being present for oneself reading, reflecting, hobbies uninterrupted

Good movies and programs - people are now texting in the theater
Interrupting everyone - who pay a lot for the theater experience

This is very important

Take time off. The brain simply does not function without regular down time, leisure time

Families do not thrive with constant distraction of parents. They are misguided and they make a huge mistake

[Mr. Blond]

I’m a freelancer, and we fall into that trap easily. Thankfully I’m on the verge of retiring early...but I have no idea what I’ll do with myself.

[stanne]

Then it is not a vax action. You’re not recharging. Save your money and stay home

[struggle]

Ah, it’s great being a teacher...so many days now of getting paid to do nothing.

[matt04]

If I have to concentrate, I keep my text notifications muted. If all you hear, is ding, ding, ding......ding, ding it us usually something stupid or that could have been a email.

[ChicagoConservative27]

I agree

[Don W]

No, and those who do are complete fools.

If nobody worked for the literal SLAVEMASTERS, they would vanish.

That folks are willing to subject themselves to such vile mistreatment is NOT my issue, but theirs, I only want to inform that there are always alternatives to abuse. If they want to continue, their own lack of vision is the cause and there is no reason to show them even a modicum of compassion.

[Drew68]

I check email when I’m on vacation...😬

I do too.

I'm in a leadership position and A.) I want to know of any forest fires that need to be put out before I return and B.) I don't like returning to a thousand emails and trying to figure out which ones are important (very few) and which ones are not (the vast majority of them). I don't want to very few important emails to slip through the cracks.

[Justa]

Get a passport.

Travel to Thailand.

Take a train across the street from the airport down to Surat Thani.

Take a ferry to Ko Samui.

Rent a scooter and explore, eat the local food and stay in hotels and resorts along the beach.

Of the several islands off Surat Thani there’s at least a years worth of travelling and visiting. Nearly the whole area is devoted to that.

No hassels, no maniacs, no politics. Hindu nation. Everyone is polite and deferential, even the Muslims down south. In fact especially the Muslims down south. Just be conservative in return (cover knees and shoulders).

[ChicagoConservative27]

I am not in leadership but I like to know what’s going on and what a waits for me when I get backI am not in leadership but I like to know what’s going on and what awaits for me when I get back

[crusty old prospector]

I work in the oil field. It is 24/7.

[Republican Wildcat]

remote access and its consequences...

people aren’t ‘working from home’ - they’re living at work.

[webheart]

I hardly ever checked my email. I would sign in twice a day on most days. I prefer a face to face meeting, if someone sent me an email, i would go see them and say, I am responding to your email. If they called me on the phone, I would answer right away unless i was in the bathroom. I don’t feel right talking to someone while I am sitting on the toilet.

As an IT professional, you would think that I would be keen to get on email, but no, I like human contact. I use real cashiers instead of self checkout. I like to order food from a real person, not from a kiosk. I use the mcdonalds kiosk because they will have a tough time staying in business with 20 dollar per hour employees.

[fastrock]

I worked for a great company that took very good care of me. Great raises, benefits, lots of latitude.
I was a valued employee and I reciprocated by checking projects while traveling, on vaca and evenings and early mornings. We were a global company and I took calls any time of the day. I only time I felt stress was when I didn’t have access to tidbits of info when checking in or when I took a call.
I know this may not happen in every company, but I took the approach that if the company was profitable then I would prosper and that more profits would result in more prosperity for me.