Americans have long prided themselves on their work ethic: Dedicate yourself to a career and work hard and the American Dream can be yours.

But in the modern era, with technology allowing for instant communications at every minute of the day, that work ethic appears to be overwhelming many American workers. That’s according to research released by Microsoft, which culled data from its Microsoft 365 communications services.

The Redmond, Washington-based company found that meetings booked on its Power Point and Outlook services between 8pm and midnight have risen 16% this year compared with 2024.

Remote teams of workers, who live in various geographical parts of the US, are largely responsible for this trend.

Microsoft deemed this “the infinite workday. ” It “starts early, mostly in email, and quickly swells to a focus-sapping flood of messages, meetings, and interruptions, ” Microsoft said in a recent report.