The traditional 9-to-5 is being replaced by the 'infinite workday'

While most of the conversation around the post-pandemic workplace has focused on remote working and RTO (return to office) mandates, new research is pointing to an emerging trend.

Microsoft’s latest Work Trend Index has found that the traditional nine-to-five workday is becoming obsolete, and is being replaced by the "infinite workday” instead.

The Work Trend Index found that the average American employee receives 50 work-related messages outside of standard business hours, 40 percent who are online at 6am are reviewing emails, nearly 30 percent check emails after 10pm, and one in five review work correspondence on weekends.

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This shift represents a fundamental transformation in how Americans work, with potential ramifications for everything from overtime regulations to employee wellbeing initiatives.

The pandemic’s lasting impact

While the pandemic didn't directly create an out-of-hours work culture, it made it more normal, particularly in jobs that would have never been done remotely before.

The shift to a more flexible attitude to working hours was necessary as adults juggled childcare or caregiving responsibilities during the traditional workday.

However, this trade-off has now become embedded in workplace culture, several years after restrictions have become a distant memory, and mandatory RTO policies are paradoxically exacerbating the problem rather than solving it.

This is because workers now feel pressure to demonstrate their productivity and commitment by working additional hours, particularly those who are desperately trying to cling onto whatever remote working privileges they have left.

After all, how can any boss argue with an employee looking for workplace flexibility when they are visibly online well into the night?

Another pandemic hangup that is affecting how we work is the amount of meetings we’ve become accustomed to.

While camera-on video calls became a necessary evil during the pandemic, the default option to ‘jump on a call’ when an email chain would suffice means workers are spending much of their in-office hours on calls or in meetings that leave little time for focused work.

In fact, 57 percent of meetings are arranged on the fly without a calendar invitation.

Most meetings take place between 9am and 11am and 1pm and 3pm, and Tuesdays are the day when most meetings take place (23 percent).

However, being trigger-happy when it comes to sending emails en masse isn’t the solution either.

Microsoft’s research uncovered that the average worker receives 117 emails daily and mass email threads with 20-plus participants are up 7 percent in the past year. One-on-one emails are on the decline (down 5 percent in the last year).

This means evenings and weekend hours are increasingly becoming the only times real tasks can be accomplished.

Microsoft’s research found that 29 percent of workers are diving back into their inbox at 10pm and 50-plus messages are sent and received outside of core working hours.

Additionally, 20 percent of workers are actively working over the weekends and check their emails before noon on Saturdays and Sundays. Around 5 percent will also check their email after 6pm on a Sunday in anticipation of the working week.

Hanging in the balance

This transformation raises important questions about existing labor protections and overtime regulations.

And while some off-hours work represents legitimate flexibility which allows employees to attend to personal responsibilities during traditional business hours, Microsoft’s research also suggests that many workers are experiencing genuine work expansion rather than redistribution.

One solution could lie in HR departments implementing screen time monitoring to get a better overview of working patterns, but this kind of intervention could also create a toxic work culture where anyone not working overtime could be viewed less favourably by management and lead to even more burnout.

As such, when off-hours work becomes the norm, it creates what the report refers to as an "infinite workday" where employees never truly disconnect.

The death of the nine-to-five workday may be inevitable, but how America manages this transition will determine whether it leads to greater work-life integration or simply longer working hours disguised as flexibility in the long run.

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