Tech Tip of the Week

This week, step away from tech using my printable V.E.N.T. Checklist to reset your rhythm. No apps required!

I read a recent Microsoft report on the ‘infinite workday’ and I haven’t stopped thinking about it.

It puts words and numbers around something career coaches have been quietly witnessing for years.

Clients aren’t just tired. They’re unraveling.

Slowly and steadily like a thread being pulled just a little too far, for a little too long.

And the worst part?

They think it’s their fault.

If you're coaching clients through career dissatisfaction, it's vital to understand that what they're struggling with may not just be their job, or even their employer. 

Increasingly, they’re stuck in something deeper: the infinite workday.

Based on data from Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index, we're seeing an erosion of boundaries between work and life so profound that people are working before breakfast, after dinner, and through the weekend.

I’ve seen how this trend is driving a new wave of burnout, so today I want to breakdown what this report means for career coaches and our clients.

The workday now starts before sunrise and ends sometime after dinner.

According to the report, 40% of professionals online at 6:00 a.m. are already checking their inboxes. 

Teams messages overtake email by 8. Meetings surge mid-morning. Focus windows collapse. 

And by 10:00 p.m., a third of employees are back in their inboxes.

I’m not surprised.

Aside from the fact that they are online at all at this time of day, it's so bad for our mental and physical wellbeing. Tj Power is a neuroscientist who does a lot of research on this subject.

I’ve had clients tell me they feel guilty not checking Slack at night. That taking a full lunch break feels “self-indulgent.” That even on vacation, they keep their laptop nearby “just in case something comes up.”

(That’s if they’re taking a lunch break at all…)

They don’t call it hustle or ambition. They call it survival.

Which tells you everything you need to know.

This isn’t about poor time management. This is system design.

We’ve somehow built a work culture where attention is a free-for-all, and urgency is the only language anyone speaks.

• Meetings get booked five minutes before they start.

• Teams pings are treated like emergencies.

• Inbox zero has become a badge of honor.

And the emotional fallout is real:

Clients don’t just feel busy. They feel fragmented.

Like they’re always reacting and never creating.

They finish the day exhausted and unsure what they even did.

And when you ask them what they want from work? They often hesitate because they can’t remember the last time they had the space to think about it.

It’s the performance of productivity with none of the payoff.

One of the most telling stats in the Microsoft piece?

The spike in PowerPoint edits ten minutes before a meeting.

122%.

You know what that is? That’s cramming. That’s the adult version of pulling an all-nighter before a test, hoping to look competent for long enough to get through.

Even seasoned, confident professionals are living in this space of performative readiness. Not because they’re trying to impress, but because they’re afraid of being seen as “not enough” in a system that demands more than anyone can realistically give.

This is the new burnout. Not the loud crash.

But the quiet erosion.

And it doesn’t stop on Fridays.

The infinite workday doesn’t clock out for the weekend. 

Sunday inbox activity? Up. 

After-hours messages? Normalized. 

Work, it seems, has moved into every corner of people’s lives and no one really agreed to it.

This matters for us as career coaches.

Because our clients are showing up in sessions thinking they need a career change when what they really need is relief.

They think they need a new role when they may actually need a new rhythm.

But you can’t fix what you can’t name.

And the infinite workday is slippery because it wears the disguise of “dedication.”

So what do we do with all this?

We don’t need to rush to problem-solving.

And don’t need to panic our clients or tell them to burn it all down.

But we do need to help them see what’s actually happening.

To reflect what’s true.
To normalize the exhaustion.
To ask better questions that start with:

“What’s the pace of your life actually costing you?”

Then, and only then, can we chelp them think differently about what they need, what they want, and what they’re no longer willing to tolerate.

Because the infinite workday isn’t just a productivity issue.
It’s an identity issue.
It’s a values issue.
And it’s quietly shaping how our clients see themselves, their worth, and their future.

Let’s not sleep on that.

Talk soon,

Heather
Coach to Career Coaches | Defender of deep work and actual lunch breaks

P.S. Read the full Microsoft article here 

🚀 Become a credentialed career professional by enrolling in my FCD COURSE