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A special Microsoft report notes that despite employers’ promises to make the working day normalized and balanced after the COVID-19 pandemic, the opposite happened.
As emphasized in the Microsoft report, more and more people are now working more than 12 hours a day and continue to work on weekends. This has a significant negative impact on overall productivity. And while the introduction of artificial intelligence systems can improve the situation, it can also make it worse.
In Microsoft’s special report on of the labor trends index as of June 2025, says that more and more workers are trapped in an endless workday that starts at 6 a.m. and continues even after 8 p.m. and does not end with the weekend. The report was compiled based on trillions of aggregated anonymous messages in Microsoft 365 from around the world. They demonstrate that about 40% of people who are online at 6 a.m. are reviewing email and setting priorities for the day.
The most productive working hours from 9 to 11 am and from 1 to 3 pm are reserved for meetings, which deprives employees of a natural surge in productivity. Around 11:00 a.m. is the time of the highest activity for messaging, scheduling meetings, and using most work applications.
У Microsoft has found that the number of meetings after 20:00 has increased by 16% compared to the previous year. The average employee now sends about 50 work-related messages outside of working hours. At least 29% of employees check their mailboxes around 10 p.m
On weekends, at least 20% of employees check their emails before 12:00, and more than 5% work with email on Sunday evening. The average employee receives 117 emails and 153 messages a day This means that employees using Microsoft 365 are distracted by a meeting, email, or message every 2 minutes.
У Microsoft emphasizes that this explains why at least half of all employees and more than half of managers consider their work to be chaotic and fragmented. According to the report, the company emphasizes that the use of artificial intelligence can improve the situation.
У Microsoft recommends deploy AI agents to use low-value tasks, focusing on the principle of 80/20, according to which 20% provide 80% of the work results.
Source: TechSpot
