The ‘Infinite Workday’

According to Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index, the “infinite workday” has significantly eroded work-life balance normalcy. Workers, for example, are taking more meetings after 8 p.m. Some are also increasingly using the evenings as quiet catch-up time for work after a workday full of meetings.

Management professor and Assistant Dean of Experiential Learning Nicole Coomber at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business says the trend "signals a double-edged sword." Job activity outside traditional hours can increase both productivity and the risk for employee burnout. However, managers can effectively lower such risk. 

In weighing “burnout” against productivity, Coomber says, “It really boils down to employee agency within your organization… Did evening meetings come about as a result of interactive conversations with employees, where they expressed the desire to keep the daytime hours free from meetings? Or were they forced upon employees by management?”

If employees are able to opt in to late meetings and, importantly, feel they really do have a choice and aren’t being coerced into them, “late meetings have the ability to enhance productivity and empower employees, leaving them feeling more satisfied with their jobs overall,” Coomber says.

She also points to viable alternatives to evening meetings. “As long as there is true employee buy-in, there are other solutions. The software company Asana had employees cancel all recurring meetings and re-introduced any necessary meetings with a 15-minute time limit,” she says. “While extreme, these restrictions forced people to limit their agendas and prioritize their contributions in meetings.”

But Coomber says she usually recommends a simpler approach. “As a manager, you should never schedule a meeting without an agenda. Even if there are sensitive matters to discuss, such as budget or personnel issues, you should include at least high-level details so your employees can be prepared,” she says.

And, she adds, even those in non-managerial roles can always ask, "Is there an agenda for this meeting?”

Other options, she says, can include looking at four-day work weeks, scheduling a day for your organization when no meetings are allowed, or asking meeting participants to prepare written memos or presentations for the meeting that others can review in advance, limiting the need to spend as much time together. 

Ultimately, the biggest concern with the “always-on” worker mentality that took hold during and growing since the COVID pandemic is that burnout is real,” Coomber says. Burnout is recognized as a disorder by the World Health Organization, she notes, and there are actual physical risks, such as cardiovascular and respiratory issues that can result from burnout. “If employees feel they lack agency and can’t say no to 8 p.m. meetings, you are risking any organization’s most valuable resource— the talented people who work for you.”

Coomber says she also is curious if the increase in after-hours meetings is related to the “return to office” trend. “You may have returned to the office, but your kids are still getting home from school at 3:30 pm.” She notes that after-school programs, according to one report, are still down 25% from pre-COVID, meaning that childcare options for the elementary and middle-school age set are still lacking.

So, this may signal, she concludes, “parents are getting to work early, leaving work early, and then checking back in with colleagues once the homework is done, dinner dishes are cleared, and kids are snuggled up in their pajamas watching a show or playing Minecraft before bedtime.”