The Infinite Work Day

June 23, 2025

Good morning! For my readers in the Southern Hemisphere, your long dark winter is ending as light returns to brighten your dreary existences. Feel that?!Seems as if a July the #4 vibe has started ten days early — hastened in no small way by the 90+ degree days. Vintage cars are cruising up and down Main Street, motorcycle engines are fueled by testosterone, and watermelon is everywhere. It was a good week to have been long on hogs and short on their foods — corn, that is.  Curious.

• The recipient of communication is, de facto, the best evaluator of its quality and effectiveness.  (YT)
  • Hardly anyone truly believes this — or practices it.
• Beware of circular logic…’
  • “We’re hitting our targets!”  Hooray.
  • But, how were your targets established?
  • When was the last time you searched for helpful hidden gems in your data to shed light on your circular logic?
• Too often, bosses discover why their stars leave when it’s too late to do anything about it.
  • Ask them these four questions on a regular basis…visit with them in meaningful ways on a regular basis.
    1. When was the last time you almost quit?
    2. When was the most recent time that work didn’t feel like work?
    3. What trade-offs are you making to stay in this role?
    4. If this job disappeared tomorrow, what would you choose to do next?  (Bernstein, Horn)
• Are biorhythms really a thing?
  • Some swear by them, others consider them a hoax, but…
  • … you could benefit from paying more attention to them — even if they don’t exist.
  • Leaders, bosses, managers, and supervisors must often deliver sensitive information to employees.
  • When and how to best do it?
    • Do it early
    • Aim for midweek
    • More is more; i.e., communicate more often and in (much) shorter clips — as long as it isn’t nagging or micromanagement
    • Avoid an ambush (Duh-oh!)
    • Quality or quantity; e.g., no dump trucks — think before you dump  (Thompson)
• Wanting your next family gathering to be less stressful and toxic?
  • Hire a family therapist to join the mix!  (O’Brien)
• “You ask why such flight does not help you?  It is because you flee along with yourself.”  (Seneca)
• The Infinite Work Day, as Microsoft calls it, began as an anomaly with the rise of remote work during the plague,
  • but has since become the norm for many who are unable to disconnect completely.
  • Microsoft sorted through trillions of data to arrive at its conclusions.
  • Forty percent of people on their computers at 6:00 AM are checking work e-mail;
  • Workers receive an average of 153 messages per week day;
  • Half of meetings take place between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM and/or 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM, right when people are at their most productive levels;
  • Fifty-seven percent of meetings occur without a calendar invite… 10% are booked last-minute.
  • Meetings at 8:00 PM (local times) are up 16% over last year,
  • and the average employee sends or receives more than 50 e-mails outside of regular business  hours.
  • The average employee is interrupted every two minutes by an e-mail, message, notification, or meeting…
    • … not to mention co-workers just stopping by to chat.
  • On weekends, ~20% of employees check work messages before noon.
    • Artificial Intelligence could help — and hurt… stay tuned.  (Forbes/ Microsoft data, 2025)
• The skills that define great leaders:
  • Staying in a good mood in the absence of things to be in a good mood about.
  • Complexity kills clarity.
  • Employees go where they are celebrated, not where they are tolerated.  (Eades)
• In a recent survey of 2,000 people, forty percent of middle-to-senior level employees reported they had no time to reflect on how to plan and prioritize…
• … 24% were too busy to speak about and reflect upon failures…
• … and 59% of them described their meetings as rushed.
  • “What is the likelihood they were engaging in high-quality discussions and decision-making?  (Reitz/ Higgins, 2025)
• Allegedly the world’s best restaurants; do you agree?  How many have you patronized:  50 Best
  • I asked my son who gets around to different parts of the world more than most, and even he has been to only two.
  • Where does this leave Olive Garden and Red Lobster… while Chili’s continues to gain ground?