Microsoft Study Finds That 9-To-5 Has Morphed Into 'Infinite Workdays' And Employees Can't Stop Checking Mail Even At Midnight

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) warns that the traditional 9-to-5 has dissolved into an "infinite workday," with employees signing on before dawn, moving between impromptu meetings all day, and rechecking email near midnight.

What Happened: Microsoft’s June Work Trend Index Special Report, based on trillions of anonymized Microsoft 365 signals, shows 40% of users are already triaging messages at 6 am, while 29% return to their inbox around 10 pm.

57% of meetings are scheduled on the fly without an invite, and half of all gatherings cluster between 9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. — hours the research identifies as prime focus time.

Evening obligations are rising fast, too. Virtual meetings after 5 pm jumped 16% year-over-year, and the typical employee now handles about 50 Teams messages outside core hours. 20% of staff work on weekends, with many opening emails before noon on Saturday and Sunday.

Workers are pinged roughly every 1.75 minutes and about 275 interruptions in an eight-hour span. Microsoft thus calculates that the median employee enjoys just two consecutive minutes of deep focus during the day.

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The company calls meetings "the primary thief of concentration" and notes that mass emails to 20-plus recipients climbed 7% in the past year.

Why It Matters: Microsoft argues the always-on culture could stunt productivity unless firms rethink calendars and adopt AI tools to triage low-value tasks. The findings arrive after JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon urged corporate managers to abandon meetings designed to impress bosses and instead focus on being transparent about business problems.

Similarly, Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB) chief Brian Chesky has admitted he doesn’t do email and doesn’t attend meetings before 10 am. Similarly, Meta Platforms Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:META) Mark Zuckerberg says the secret to his calendar management is leaving it empty and not packing it tight.

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