If you feel like your workday stretches into your night, leaving you with no breathing room to get a break from your work life, you are not alone. Microsoft’s new “infinite workday” study just revealed how workers are constantly on the job even after their working hours have technically ended, and this leaves employees feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. The infinite workday has business impacts that are more negative than positive, as the constant saturation with work leaves workers further disinterested in their jobs after being inundated with it constantly.
The official Microsoft report on burnout as a result of this infinite workday makes it clear that employees and leaders are both left feeling like their work is “chaotic and fragmented.” This trend of overwork helps no one. Microsoft’s Work Trend Index 2025 puts the impact of constant notifications and emails into numbers, so if you aren’t inclined to believe employees, the numbers might better help you understand just how overwhelming the typical employee’s day can feel.
The infinite workday has become a normalized part of our lives but we need a more controlled approach to work. (Image: Pexels)
Microsoft’s Infinite Workday Study Highlights the Standards of Employment in 2025
On June 17, Microsoft’s Work Trend Index 2025 revealed some startling facts about the state of work and its impact on employers and employees. To set the stage for its revelations, the report showcased just how much time employees spent on the job every single day. According to telemetry data, 40% of employees come online by 6 am to try and go over their emails and get ahead of their tasks.
To understand just what Microsoft means by this infinite workday study, it laid out how many notifications employees deal with every day. The average worker fends off around 117 emails every workday, most of these emails getting around 60 seconds of attention. They also receive an average of 153 Microsoft Teams messages. The average time between interruptions from meetings, messages, and emails was found to be only 2 minutes.
These numbers from Microsoft’s Work Trend Index 2025 paint a clear picture of just how much time is spent on interacting and communicating, leaving little time for actual work. While communication is a mainstay in the workplace, it should occur in an effective manner that clarifies what is necessary quickly.
Meeting Mania: Microsoft Infinite Workday Study Explores the Time Spent on Discussions
Every organization is built on principles of collaboration, and meetings are an essential way to bring that collaboration to the forefront, however, this too can be overdone. According to Microsoft’s research, the most productive time slots between 9-11 am and 1-3 pm are when half of all meetings take place. During this period, the message activity also surges at 54%.
The study also revealed that 57% of meetings are unscheduled, without a calendar invitation. This approach might ensure that the meeting occurs when key personnel are available, but it also consumes an employee’s time, distracting them from completing their work.
The Over-Emphasis on Work Is a Real Concern
If this wasn’t enough data to suggest that we may be spending too much time on meetings, the Microsoft data also showed that meetings after 8 pm have spiked 16% year over year. This could be due to the globalized nature of work and the need to connect with international teammates, but it is an inefficient system nonetheless. On average, employees send or receive more than 50 messages outside of their core business. By 10 pm, 29% of active workers turn to their email inboxes again.
If we overlook all of these details and assume that at least workers get the weekend to disconnect, this does not appear to be true either. Microsoft’s “infinite workday” study also revealed that almost 20% of employees work on the weekend, checking their emails before noon on both Saturday and Sunday. Over 5% check their emails on Sunday evening, work on their minds even before the workday begins.
How to Stop the Endless Workday and Bring Some Order Back Into the Workplace
Organizations need to investigate their workplaces and understand just how much of this data applies to their operations. Understanding how constant work hurts companies is an essential step in fixing the problem, because if ignored, it could lead to workers burning out and losing all motivation to perform their jobs.
Yes, corporate work can involve high-stress, pressure-intensive scenarios, but if every regular workday follows the same overwork pattern, employees will soon find themselves struggling to keep up and stay focused on what is essential to their duties. Around 48% of employees and 52% of leaders believe that their work is chaotic and fragmented, which shows that these frequent meetings and communication channels are not helping to bring order in the way they were intended to.
It’s Time to Bring the Infinite Workday Under Control
There are a few different ways that companies can try and curb the “infinite workday” and make the work done during work hours count for more.
- Conduct surveys to understand what an employee’s workday looks like and where they get the most done
- Understand where employees feel most time is wasted in creating changes across the organization
- Reduce the number of meetings and focus on making the necessary meetings more targeted and solution-driven
- Prioritize scheduled meetings over contacting employees out of the blue—this gives them time to prepare and ensures the meetings are productive
- Give employees time at the start and end of the day to check emails and set targets instead of pushing for work until the last second on the clock
- Avoid contacting employees outside of working hours, even via email, and enforce a culture of doing the same across the organization
- Improve goal-setting and set targets that help employees prioritize their tasks better, so there is no need for unnecessary discussions throughout the day
- Create a better system for cross-functional teams and globalized teams to meet each other
- Use AI to optimize work rather than complicate or cut it
- Encourage workers to take breaks and disconnect from work outside of work hours—this requires a cultural shift and not just a sentence in the policy books
- Explore strategies that can help employees manage stress and offer better benefits to support their well-being
The infinite workday is evidently upon us, and with the tense atmosphere in the job market, it’s no wonder employees are hyper-focused on work in a way that is detrimental to their well-being. The numbers don’t lie—change is needed to create a better system to ensure that the time spent on the job is productive and doesn’t necessitate additional attention outside of work hours.
Do you agree with the findings of Microsoft’s infinite workday study? Let us know what you think. Subscribe to The HR Digest to keep up with the ever-evolving landscape of work and employment in 2025.