Microsoft study finds “infinite workday” is hurting productivity

In brief: Remember during and immediately after the lockdowns, when so many companies promised a new era of work-life balance and flexibility? According to new research from Microsoft, the opposite is now true, with most people working an “infinite workday” that lasts more than 12 hours and bleeds into weekends. It’s impacting productivity, and while AI could make things better, it could also make them worse.

Microsoft’s June 2025 Work Trend Index Special Report warns that more people are now trapped in a seemingly infinite workday. It starts at 6 am, goes on after 8 pm, and doesn’t stop when Saturday and Sunday arrive.

The findings, based on trillions of globally aggregated and anonymized Microsoft 365 productivity signals, show that 40% of people who are online at 6 am are reviewing email for the day’s priorities.

Much of the most productive hours of the day, between 9-11 am and 1-3 pm, are when half of all meetings are held, wasting people’s natural mid-day performance spike. 11 am is also when peak messaging activity is reached, as real-time messages, scheduled meetings, and constant app switching converge.

For many people, work continues late into the evening. Microsoft found that meetings being held after 8 pm are up 16% compared to the previous year. Moreover, the average employee now sends more than 50 messages outside of core business hours, and by 10 pm, nearly a third (29%) of active workers check their inboxes.

The weekend brings little respite. Around 20% of employees are checking their email before noon on Saturday and Sunday, and over 5% are working on emails on Sunday evenings.

The data shows that an average worker receives 117 emails and 153 Teams messages daily. It means that employees using Microsoft 365 are interrupted every 2 minutes by a meeting, email, or notification.

Unsurprisingly, almost half of all employees and more than half of leaders feel their work is chaotic and fragmented.

Microsoft says that AI offers a way out of this endless workday, though it could also accelerate the current system. The company recommends deploying AI and agents to streamline low-value tasks and focusing on the 80/20 rule, where 20% of the work delivers 80% of the outcomes. It also suggests moving from rigid organizational structures to agile, outcome-driven teams augmented by AI.

AI agents are highlighted repeatedly in the report as a solution to these unending workdays. There’s no mention of the humans they could put out of a job, of course.

This isn’t the first time a study has shown working excessively long hours, especially without stopping, can have a negative impact on productivity. Another report found that the most productive employees operate on a 75/33 work-to-rest ratio: work for 75 minutes then rest for 33 minutes. It also claimed that being in an office, where people stop working for tasks like talking to colleagues or even walking around, can be more productive than working relentlessly at home.