Occasionally, I run across things that simply beg to be explored. Two such topics are inexorably linked and, in many ways, existential. One is individual “workplace well-being”; the other is the “infinite workday.”
For those who want the Cliff’s Notes version, these address how workplace well-being is not being addressed adequately and the chaotic effects of a never-ending workday. If this piques your interest, stay tuned!
In the book Why Workplace Well-Being Matters: The Science Behind Employee Happiness and Organizational Performance, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, shares a data analysis on the feelings and motivations of millions of job seekers and identifies key drivers that influence their workplace well-being.
His work explains what it is, why it is so important and why it varies across companies.
Related: 5 Reasons Why Good AV Talent Leaves (And One Surprise Bonus)
How We Feel at Work
At its core, workplace well-being is how we feel at work and how we feel about the work we’re doing. It is subjective.
As the author notes, “Everything around the workplace shapes that well-being, whether you’re being paid fairly, have kind and supportive line managers, and the flexibility that you need to maintain work-life balance, health and safety, or autonomy.”
The research shows that an individual sense of well-being has serious business implications. It affects productivity, employee retention and recruitment.
According to the center’s research, 84% of managers say, “Yes, if I can improve workplace well-being, it will be an advantage for my business.”
Yet, when asked about competing priorities, only about 30% of senior staff think of workplace well-being as a strategic priority. Only half of those have a strategic plan with actions to try to drive and positively shape well-being in the workplace. And an individual sense of well-being is where company culture starts.
Next, I’ll turn to data from a Microsoft research project under the heading “Breaking Down the Infinite Workday.” The research, they say, is “…based on trillions of globally aggregated and anonymized Microsoft 365 productivity signals.” It “…reveals a challenging new roadblock: a seemingly infinite workday.”
Buckle up for the numbers!
A Look at Microsoft’s Research
- 40% of people who are online at 6 a.m. are reviewing email for the day’s priorities.
- The average worker receives 117 emails daily, most of them skimmed in under 60 seconds.
- Mass emails with 20-plus recipients are up 7% in the past year, whereas one-on-one threads are on the decline (-5%).
- Messages per person are up 6% YOY globally — but up more than 20% in some regions.
- About 50% of all meetings take place between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. These times, research shows, are when many people have a natural productivity spike. Data reveals that we fill this time with meetings, leaving little room for deep focus.
- Tuesdays now carry the heaviest meeting load (23%); meanwhile, Fridays taper to just 16%.
- By 11 a.m., which is a time of peak productivity for many, message activity surges, with 54% of users active. Data shows it’s the most overloaded hour of the day, as “…real-time messages, scheduled meetings and constant app switching converge, making focus on any one task nearly impossible.”
- On average, employees are interrupted every two minutes by a meeting, an email or a notification that doesn’t appear on their calendar.
- About 57% of meetings are ad hoc calls without a calendar invite — and 10% of the scheduled meetings are booked at the last minute.
- Large meetings (65-plus attendees) are the fastest-growing type. According to the authors, this is “…likely a result of employees navigating increasingly complex, cross-functional teams.”
- Nearly a third of meetings now span multiple time zones — up 35% since 2021.
- Nearly half of employees (48%), as well as more than half of leaders (52%), say their work feels chaotic and fragmented.
A Never-Ending Maze
For many, the workday is now akin to navigating a never-ending maze, while reacting to others’ priorities and losing focus on what matters most. In short, the data shows that, for many, the modern workday has no clear start or finish.
According to the report, “As business demands grow more complex and expectations continue to rise, time once reserved for focus or recovery may now be spent catching up, prepping and chasing clarity.” The report continues, “Too much energy is spent organizing chaos before meaningful work can begin.”
According to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, one in three employees responded that the pace of work over the past five years has made it impossible to keep up.
If you couple the Wellbeing Research Centre data and the Microsoft data, the takeaway is both compelling and existential: It is time to rethink and retool our approach to employees to nurture the individual — the collective culture — so we can provide a healthy and sustainable environment to achieve business growth.
Fail to pay attention at your own risk.
Alan C. Brawn, CTS, DSCE, DSDE, DCME, DSNE, DSSP, ISF-C, is principal at Brawn Consulting.
