More workers are having meetings after 8 PM
Business leaders are pushing for increased productivity, while the majority of workers say they simply do not have the time or energy to do more work.
This is according to Microsoft’s latest work trends study, which is based on anonymised data from Microsoft 365 users and a global survey of 31,000 office workers.
“The telemetry is telling: During the 09h00–17h00, employees are
interrupted every two minutes by meetings, emails, or pings. Factor in activity outside of core work hours, and it adds up to 275 interruptions a day. 60% of meetings are ad hoc versus scheduled,” Microsoft said.
Edits in PowerPoint spike 122% in the 10 minutes before a meeting. Chats outside the 9-to-5 workday are up 15% YOY, with 58 messages now arriving before or after work hours. Meetings after 20h00 are also up 16% YOY, driven by an increase in cross–time zone work.
“It’s no surprise that nearly half of employees (48%) and more than half of leaders (52%) say their work feels chaotic and fragmented,” the group said.
Not slowing down
While modern office life is a frantic mix of meetings and ad-hoc requests, the report makes it clear that this is the new way of working, and it’s not slowing down any time soon.
Nearly half of leaders (45%) say expanding team capacity with digital labour is a top priority in the next 12–18 months, second only to upskilling their existing workforce (47%).
In some functions, the next new hire may not be a person, but a digital colleague. And while a third of leaders (33%) are considering headcount reductions, there are also new roles emerging.
78% of leaders are considering hiring for AI-specific roles to prepare for the future. Top roles under consideration include AI trainers, data specialists, security specialists, AI agent specialists, ROI analysts, and AI strategists in marketing, finance, customer support, and consulting.
