Microsoft report: Employees feel burnt out from 'infinite workday' of constant emails, meetings

Microsoft employees receive an average of 153 messages per weekday. (File photo)

A new work trend report from Microsoft reveals a concerning reality for employees: the traditional 9-to-5 workday has dissolved into an "infinite workday," characterised by a relentless flood of emails, messages, and meetings that stretch from before dawn well into the evening and even across weekends. The findings are based on reports from employees who use Microsoft's services, paint a picture of a fragmented, chaotic work experience, leaving many feeling overwhelmed.

“We know from survey data that people are feeling very burnt out,” Alexia Cambon, senior research director at Microsoft, told CNBC Make It. “The multiplication, the intensity and the length of the workday is really creating a lot of friction for a lot of employees.”

The day for many employees begins before they're even out of bed, the report stated. By 6 am, 40 percent of users are already sifting through overflowing inboxes to pinpoint the day's priorities. The average worker is bombarded with 117 emails daily, most of which are merely skimmed in under a minute. As the morning progresses, Microsoft Teams takes over as the dominant channel by 8 am, with employees receiving an average of 153 messages per weekday. Globally, Teams messages are up 6 percent year-on-year, with a sharper rise of over 15 percent in regions like the UK.

"Each email or message notification may seem small, but together they can set a frenetic tempo for the day ahead," the report stated.

Midday offers little respite, the Microsoft report added. "Half of all meetings take place between 9–11 am and 1–3 pm—precisely when, as research shows, many people have a natural productivity spike in their day, due to their circadian rhythms. But our data reveals that we fill this time with meetings, leaving little room for deep focus," it stated.

The digital noise is constant; employees using Microsoft 365 are interrupted, on average, every two minutes by a meeting, email, or notification. Adding to the chaos, 57 percent of meetings are impromptu calls without a calendar invite, and nearly a third now span multiple time zones.

The workday's erosion of boundaries continues into the evening, the Microsoft report found. A "triple peak day" is now the norm, with meetings after 8 pm up 16 percent year-on-year. The average employee sends or receives over 50 messages outside core business hours, and by 10 pm, nearly a third of active workers return to their inboxes. This digital tether even extends to weekends, as close to 20 percent of employees actively working on Saturdays and Sundays check email before noon, highlighting a pervasive "Sunday scaries" phenomenon.

For many, this constant reactivity and loss of focus on core priorities are draining energy and hindering progress. Nearly half of all employees (48 percent), and over half of leaders (52 percent), describe their work as chaotic and fragmented, with one in three stating the pace of work has become impossible to keep up with.

Based on this data, Cambon predicts that workplaces will mitigate these issues using AI. “By deploying AI and agents to streamline low-value tasks — status meetings, routine reports, admin churn — leaders can reclaim time for what moves the business: deep work, fast decisions, and focused execution,” the Microsoft report concluded.