Have the hours that bookend the traditional close of business become the new dead zone?
A recent sample of Microsoft Teams usage found a dip in meetings scheduled between 4pm and 6pm - leading the Wall Street Journal to brand it “the new workday dead zone when nothing gets done”.
“The 4pm-6pm dead zone is one reason so many executives are cranky about hybrid work,” the paper said.
The issue is that while most staff have now returned to the office, they have retained the lockdown-era flexibility to control their own hours. More now leave the office early for a school pick-up run, gym session or simply to beat rush-hour traffic. And those who’re working remotely go offline between 4pm and 6pm.
For their part, employees are annoyed bosses think they’re doing less work.
But Massey University Professor of Management Jarrod Haar says they’re doing more.
He points to the fact that Microsoft’s broader Work Trend Survey of 30,000 Microsoft 365 users in 31 countries found a new “triple peak workday” phenomenon has emerged post-lockdown.
Usage stats showed the two long-standing productivity peaks - one before lunch, the other after lunch - are now complemented by a burst in the evening after kids have been put to bed. Teams has its third peak at 10pm. Workers are knocking off earlier, but then making up for it - and then some - after dinner.
Haar - who co-ordinated a major study of employee attitudes and behaviour at AUT, before conducting his own Great Resignation and reappearing at Massey - says employers who grouse about the new 4pm-6pm dead zone need to “stop complaining and start embracing”.
Massey University Professor of Management Jarrod Haar.
“Managers are deluded if they think brilliant work was done between 4pm and 6pm. There were lots of afternoon strolls to the coffee machine,” Haar said.
A report written in the evening would be fresher, and better, than one demanded of a staffer before they left the office.
“The Microsoft Teams data is really just reminding us that there’ve always been fluctuations in productivity during the day. Today’s workers are embracing the ability to do things at a different time and place and ultimately get more work done.” It can mean better balance, which can mean less burnout.
A new study has found a third productivity peak - at 10pm. Photo / 123RF
The academic’s advice for managers who keep scheduling meetings for 4pm, with no one responding: “Make that request for 1pm, and you’ll get all the feedback and ideas you want and get decisions made. How many good decisions were ever made at 4pm?”
Haar also cites what, at first glance, seems like a curious choice of productivity stat.
A Stanford University study published in March this year used GPS data and AI analysis of satellite photos right across the US to determine a weekday afternoon golf boom since Covid hit. For example, 278 per cent more on Wednesday at 4pm in 2022 versus 2019.
Similarly, many New York restaurants are also jammed by 4pm, according to the Journal.
“These are probably highly paid, highly skilled professionals,” Haar says - simply because most others can’t afford the green fees or an entree at a Manhatten restaurant.
“And if your worker says, ‘Hey, it’s three o’clock, I’m done, I’m off for nine holes at the golf course, I’ll finish the report [in the] evening,’ I guarantee you the report you get is going to be way better than if you’d said, ‘Stay here and do it now’.”
The authors of Microsoft’s Work Trend Index say: “Data suggests the triple peak trend is here to stay.”
Haar’s advice to employers: “Embrace the new reality.”
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
