Always on, always tired, sometimes rude – how to avoid the ‘triple-peak trap’ of modern work

If your first task of the day is triaging a bulging inbox at 6am, you are not alone. A recent Microsoft report^[1] headlined “Breaking down the infinite workday” found that 40% of Microsoft 365 users online at this hour are already scanning their emails – and that an average worker will receive 117 emails before the clock rolls around to midnight.

But that’s not all. By 8am, Microsoft Teams notifications outstrip email for most workers, and the typical employee is hit with 153 chat messages during the day.

The report states that, while meetings swallow the prime 9am–11am focus window, interruptions arrive every two minutes throughout the day. This perpetual work overload means a third of professionals reopen their inbox to answer more emails at 10pm.

In short, Microsoft’s telemetry of this “triple-peak” day (first thing, mid-morning and late at night) paints a vivid picture of a work rhythm that never stops.

From an occupational psychology perspective, these statistics are more than curious trivia. They signal a cluster of psychosocial hazards.

Boundary Theory^[2] holds that recovery depends on clear and solid boundaries – both psychologically and in terms of time – between work and the rest of life. Microsoft’s findings show those limits dissolving. This includes 29% of users checking email after 10pm.

Similarly, a four-day diary study of Dutch professionals^[3] found that heavier after-hours smartphone use predicted poorer psychological detachment and exhaustion the next day.

This can have wider consequences. When people are busy, rushed or harried, one of the first things to suffer is their regulation of online behaviour. Large-scale survey research^[4] shows that ambiguous or curt digital messages occur when we are depleted. These can obviously sap wellbeing in recipients.

In a 2024 study^[5] of workers in the UK and Italy, incivility in emails between colleagues predicted work-life conflict and exhaustion via “techno-invasion”, as workers reported being exposed to an ongoing torrent of unpleasant messaging.

My ongoing doctoral research^[7] examines how workers respond to messages they receive, and exposes the nuance on different communication platforms. Among the 300 UK workers involved, identical messages were rated as more uncivil on email than on Teams, particularly when they were informal. Frustration on the part of a recipient (in terms of how they interpret a message) accounted for nearly 50% of perceived incivility on email, but only 30% on Teams.

These findings suggest that choice of platform significantly influences how messages are received and interpreted. Using these insights, organisations can make informed decisions about communication channels, and potentially reduce workplace stress and improve employee wellbeing in the process.

Microsoft suggests that AI “agent bosses” will rescue workers. These tools could summarise inboxes, draft replies and free up humans for higher-order work.

The data, however, exposes a cultural contradiction. Managers tell staff to switch off, yet their appraisal spreadsheets tell a different story. In one set of experiments^[8], the same bosses who praised weekend digital detoxing also ranked the detoxers as less promotable than colleagues who were glued to their inboxes.

Little wonder Microsoft’s own data shows the same late-night peak, despite widespread wellbeing guidance to switch off after hours. Without changing how commitment is signalled and rewarded, faster tools risk accelerating the treadmill rather than dismantling it.

1. Individual level – let people feel they have control

Encourage “quiet hours” and teach employees to disable non-urgent notifications. Boundary-control research^[9] shows that when workers feel they have control over connectivity, it creates a buffer against fatigue caused by after-hours email.

2. Team level – communication charters

Teams should agree explicit norms for communication. This could include capping the numbers invited to meetings and insisting on agendas. Simple charters^[10] along these lines restore predictability for workers and cut “decision fatigue”.

3. Organisational level – redesign metrics

Organisations could shift from visibility (green dots and instant replies) to outcome-based metrics for productivity. This removes the incentive for workers to stay online and aligns with evidence that autonomy is a key resource^[11].

4. Technological level – AI for elimination, not acceleration

Workplaces should deploy AI assistants to remove low-value tasks (for example, sorting email or drafting minutes), not just speed them up. Then they should conduct workload audits to ensure the time saved is reinvested in deep work^[12], not simply swallowed up by extra meetings.

The Microsoft dataset is enormous, but there are two important points to note. First, European jurisdictions with “right to disconnect” laws^[13] may be missing from the figures. Second, some metrics (for example, interruptions) are calculated on the most active fifth of users, potentially overstating a typical experience.

But if the numbers in Microsoft’s report feel familiar, that is precisely the point. The technology designed to liberate workers is now scripting their day minute-by-minute. Occupational psychology researchers warn that without deliberate boundary setting^[14], rising digital job demands will continue to tax wellbeing and dull performance.

AI can be a circuit breaker, but only if it is accompanied by cultural and structural change that gives employees permission to disconnect.

The infinite workday is not a law of nature, it is a design flaw. Fixing it will take more than faster software – it will demand a collective decision to prize focus, recovery and civility as fiercely as workers currently prize availability.

References

1. ^{^} recent Microsoft report (www.microsoft.com)
2. ^{^} Boundary Theory (www.jstor.org)
3. ^{^} Dutch professionals (psycnet.apa.org)
4. ^{^} survey research (link.springer.com)
5. ^{^} 2024 study (link.springer.com)
6. ^{^} fizkes/Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com)
7. ^{^} ongoing doctoral research (profiles.sussex.ac.uk)
8. ^{^} set of experiments (www.sciencedirect.com)
9. ^{^} Boundary-control research (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
10. ^{^} charters (psycnet.apa.org)
11. ^{^} autonomy is a key resource (dx.doi.org)
12. ^{^} reinvested in deep work (iaap-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
13. ^{^} “right to disconnect” laws (theconversation.com)
14. ^{^} boundary setting (doi.org)
15. ^{^} Sign up to our daily newsletter (tcnv.link)