More People Are Taking Work to the Bedroom

Employees' days are bleeding into the evening, new data show—thanks to a growing load of meetings, emails, and, yes, actual work

- Ray A. Smith

A cooling job market, especially for white-collar employees, has made it harder for some to push back on heavier workloads. If it feels like there aren't enough hours to get everything done during the workday, you're part of a growing club: More of us are working a second shift in the evening.

Workers slid into the habit of working at all hours during the pandemic, when many worked from home and could more freely change up their regular 9-to-5 schedules. Though fewer people are fully remote now, many are still toiling into the night—and say an expanding load of meetings, emails, and actual work are a big reason.

The number of meetings people logged after 8 p.m. over the 12 months through February, in fact, were up 16% from the year before, according to new data from Microsoft on the activity of millions of workers who use the company's business applications. By 10 p.m., nearly a third of them were back in their inboxes after pausing for dinner, the gym, or home duties.

Ravi Desai, who manages a global customer-success team for a software company, says his days have become stacked with meetings, many of them with team members and clients on the East Coast. That often leaves evenings for catching up on work, emails, and Slack messages.