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Time of India
10 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Microsoft study reveals workers trapped in ‘Infinite Workday' cycle; says average worker receives 117 emails daily
Representative Image Microsoft's latest research paints a troubling picture of modern work life: employees are caught in what the tech giant calls an " infinite workday " that starts before dawn and stretches well into the evening. The company's June Work Trend Index Special Report, released on June 17, reveals how digital communication has created an "always on" environment that's fragmenting focus time and blurring the boundaries between work and personal life. Based on analysis of trillions of productivity signals from Microsoft 365 users worldwide, the study shows workers are experiencing constant interruptions, with the average employee being pinged every two minutes during work hours. From early morning email triage to late-night meetings, the traditional 9-to-5 workday has evolved into something far more demanding and chaotic. The findings suggest that without a fundamental rethink of how work gets done, artificial intelligence could end up accelerating an already broken system rather than fixing it. Microsoft argues that organizations need to become "Frontier Firms" that redesign their processes around AI and human-agent teams to break free from this cycle. The research reveals how dramatically the workday has expanded beyond traditional hours. By 6 am, 40% of early risers are already sorting through their email inboxes, trying to get ahead of the day's demands. The average worker now receives 117 emails and 153 Teams messages daily, creating a constant stream of notifications and interruptions. The problem intensifies as the day progresses. Peak productivity hours between 9-11 am and 1-3 pm – when research shows people naturally have energy spikes – are now dominated by meetings rather than focused work. Tuesday has become the heaviest meeting day, carrying 23% of the week's scheduled calls. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 2025 年最紓壓的農場遊戲！無需安裝 東加：島嶼農場 立即播放 Undo Even more concerning is the evening surge. Meetings after 8 pm have jumped 16% year-over-year, and nearly 30% of workers are back in their email by 10 pm. Weekend work is also on the rise, with 20% of employees checking email before noon on weekends. Over 50% meetings are ad-hoc calls: Report The study highlights how fragmented modern work has become. More than half of all meetings (57%) are now ad-hoc calls without calendar invites, and one in 10 scheduled meetings are booked at the last minute. Large meetings with 65 or more attendees are growing fastest, reflecting increasingly complex cross-functional teams. The coordination challenge is global – nearly a third of meetings now span multiple time zones, up 35% since 2021. This has created what Microsoft calls "the most overloaded hour of the day" at 11 am, when messages, meetings, and app switching converge to make focused work nearly impossible. The stress shows in employee behavior: PowerPoint edits spike 122% in the final 10 minutes before meetings, resembling digital cramming before an exam. Nearly half of employees (48%) say their work feels chaotic and fragmented, with leaders feeling even more overwhelmed at 52%. LAVA SHARK 5G: 5 reasons to buy! AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Axios
16 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
Welcome to the "infinite workday"
Working 9 to 5 was once a way to make a living, in the parlance of Dolly Parton, but the workday today? It never ends. Why it matters: That's the startling finding of a report out Tuesday from Microsoft on the "infinite workday," which starts before many knowledge workers get out of bed, ends late at night and stretches into the weekend. "The modern workday for many has no clear start or finish," write the authors of the Work Trend Index Special Report, which looked at anonymized data from millions of global users of Microsoft 365's productivity apps like Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint, etc. By the numbers: It's difficult to stay focused during formal business hours. Knowledge workers are interrupted by a ping from an app — such as email, calendar or messaging — every 1.75 minutes, or 275 times, during the official eight-hour work day, finds the analysis, which looked at data from 12-month period ending February 2025. Meanwhile, as workers are more distributed around the country and world, thanks to the rise of remote work, one in five meetings are now happening outside "regular" work hours. Meetings after 8 p.m. are up 16% from last year, and the average employee now sends or receives at least 50 messages outside of core business hours. These folks aren't sleeping in come the morning, either. A "broad base" of workers are up at 6 a.m. working, says Colette Stallbaumer, cofounder of Microsoft WorkLab and the general manager for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Zoom in: A lot work happens on the fly, according to the authors. 57% of meetings are ad hoc calls without a calendar invite and 1 in 10 scheduled meetings are booked at the last minute. "For many, the workday now feels like navigating chaos — reacting to others' priorities and losing focus on what matters most," they write. The big picture: Even as more companies are pushing people back to the office, the rise of remote work has normalized working around the clock wherever you are. "People are figuring out how to do their job and work when it works best for them," Stallbaumer says. That may mean people jump back online in the evening after putting kids to bed or catch up on the weekend. The downside of such "flexibility" is that the workday never ends. 💭 Our thought bubble: The inability to unplug is a surefire way to burn out a workforce.
