Welcome to the ‘infinite workday’

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

Welcome to the ‘infinite workday’

A new Microsoft report—based on users of its software—reveals the hellish reality of working life. Employees are working into the night—and yet don’t get very much done. Here’s what the ‘work day’ looks like today:

The average worker using Microsoft 365 receives 117 emails and 153 Teams messages per workday.
The average employee sends or receives more than 50 emails outside of regular hours.
40% are already online and checking their email by 6 am.
Work meetings after 8 pm have jumped by 16% since 2024.
20% of employees actively check work email on weekends before noon.

The real killer: This relentless work schedule is terrible for productivity. The staggering reason: “Employees are… interrupted by a meeting, email, or notification every two minutes during ‘core business hours’.” The data is damning: 57% of work meetings occur without a calendar invite and 10% are booked at the last minute.

Here’s a quote from the report that sums it up:

As business demands grow more complex and expectations continue to rise, time once reserved for focus or recovery may now be spent catching up, prepping, and chasing clarity," Microsoft said. "It's the professional equivalent of needing to assemble a bike before every ride. Too much energy is spent organizing chaos before meaningful work can begin.

Why is this happening?: This is the long tail effect of the pandemic. Those ‘flexible’ WFH hours have turned into the ‘infinite’ workday.

The result: is, of course, employee burnout:

Mentions of burnout by employees on job-review site Glassdoor, meanwhile, jumped 32% in the first quarter from a year earlier, hitting their highest levels in nearly a decade. “A very common theme is workers who feel like they’ve had several years of mounting responsibilities,” says Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor…In a Gallup survey of more than 10,000 workers last summer, 63% said they had been asked to take on additional responsibilities, up from 47% in early 2023.

What about AI?: The report says AI can help create free time by taking over menial tasks—like drafting emails, scheduling meetings, making summaries of notes. But, but, but, a 2024 report showed that the introduction of AI increased workloads. Employers expect their AI-assisted workers to do more, not less.

Reading list: Morning Brew and Quartz have the data on the Microsoft study. Forbes analyses possible solutions—while this 2024 piece looks at how AI has amped up employer expectations.

Israel vs Iran: Wtf happened now

You’ll be happy to know we are still not quite at armageddon. Iran and Israel traded missiles yet again on day #6. The only surprise: Tehran is landing more than expected—in central and north Israel. Yes, residential buildings are fair game for both sides.

For more: Al Jazeera says it has evidence—including photos—of more Iranian strikes than reported by Israel. Wall Street Journal reports that Israeli air dominance is so complete that Tel Aviv destroys Iranian missiles even before they launch.

Anything else?: Yes, Donald changed his mind again—claiming the US “had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight” in a social media post—continuing to vigorously mix his messages:

“If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the U.S. Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before,” Trump adds. “However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!”

Yep, Mr Macho seems to have changed his mind about entering the war—though BBC News thinks Iran hawks are gaining the upper hand within the White House. But the wise man himself told reporters: “I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.” Including Donald.

For more: The Independent looks at Iran’s vast nuclear plant in Fordow—buried deep in a mountain and only vulnerable to US bunker buster missiles. The only reason any of this matters.

The new NASA X ISRO collab: A landmark satellite

NASA and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) are teaming up to launch a first-of-its-kind satellite from Chennai in July. Together, the space agencies have spent $1.5 billion on one of the most expensive Earth-imaging satellites ever built.

Why this one is special: Earth-imaging satellites offer critical information on weather prediction, emergency response planning, climate change forecasting etc. But they need sunlight—and can only work in daylight hours—without cloud cover. The NISAR satellite uses synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology—invented in 1951—to take images instead:

SAR satellites work by actively beaming a radar signal toward the surface and detecting the reflected signal. Think of this as like using a flash to take a photo in a dark room. This means SAR satellites can take images of the Earth's surface both during the day and night.

Since radar signals pass through most cloud and smoke unhindered, SAR satellites can also image the Earth's surface even when it is covered by clouds, smoke or ash. This is especially valuable during natural disasters such as floods, bushfires or volcanic eruptions.

Science Alert has loads more on this important collab.

The world’s tiniest violin is here!

UK scientists have created the world's smallest violin using nanotechnology! It is made of platinum and is just 35 microns long and 13 microns wide (a micron is one millionth of a metre). A strand of human hair typically ranges between 17 to 180 microns in diameter—and is thicker than this violin—as you can see below:

This is the violin itself:

The sad bit: you cannot play the world’s smallest violin for your whiny friends. (BBC News)

what caught our eye

business & tech

BBC News has a good read on how Air India’s tragic crash—just as the Tata-led turnaround was gaining steam—now threatens to derail the airline’s high-flying comeback.
Blackstone has snapped up Kolkata’s South City Mall for Rs 3,250 crore—marking the world’s biggest alt-asset manager’s grand entry into the city’s real estate scene.
Elon Musk’s X is suing New York over a new law that forces social media platforms to disclose how they track hate speech—calling it a First Amendment violation.
Netflix is jumping into broadcast TV—teaming up with France’s TF1 to stream shows like ‘The Voice’ and ‘Brocéliande’, plus all five of TF1’s channels and 30,000+ hours of programming.
Mattel’s AI tie-up with OpenAI is raising eyebrows, as a consumer group warns the toy giant may be running a risky experiment on kids without telling parents what’s really coming.
Meta’s clearly putting that WhatsApp ad money to work—offering OpenAI staff $100 million signing bonuses, per Sam Altman on his brother’s podcast.
MakeMyTrip is raising $2.5 billion to cut down China-based Trip.com’s stake—amid growing calls in India to curb ties with countries seen as pro-Pakistan.
Meta is bringing its AI smart glasses to Prada and Oakley—building on the buzz from its Ray-Ban collab with Luxottica in 2023.
Ola says drivers now keep 100% of fares under its new zero-commission model—but union reps say subscription fees still keep money flowing back to the platform.

sports & entertainment

India and Pakistan will face off at both the 2025 Women’s ODI and 2026 T20 World Cups—just months after one of their worst military escalations in years.
The CBFC has cleared ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’—but only after asking Aamir Khan to add a Narendra Modi quote right after the opening disclaimer—amongst other changes.
The distributor for Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan’s ‘Thug Life’ in Karnataka will not release the movie in the state despite the Supreme Court ruling.
Stoner comedy enthusiasts, rejoice! ‘Harold & Kumar 4’ is in development with John Cho and Kal Penn expected to return!
Army, rejoice! After a two-year wait, K-pop group BTS will stage their highly anticipated full-group comeback in March 2026.

health & environment

A new MIT study asks the big Q: Is ChatGPT making us dumber? The answer is unfortunately but unsurprisingly a ‘yes’.
Doctors offer hope to patients with lupus with cutting-edge cancer therapy. Why this matters: About 3 million people in the world live with lupus disease with 90% of them being women.

meanwhile, in the world

Al Jazeera has the deets on how Iran’s hypersonic missiles are slipping past Israel’s vaunted air defences.
One of such weapons are the Fattah-1 hypersonic missiles—built to dodge even the Iron Dome and Arrow systems. NDTV has the details on them.
There are now 52 million “everyday millionaires” around the world—people with $1 to $5 million in assets—four times as many as in 2000, and together they hold $107 trillion in wealth, according to UBS.
Canada’s spy agency blamed India for Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing—just as Mark Carney shook hands with Modi to reset ties after the diplomatic fallout.
New York Times (splainer gift link) has a good read on how Pakistan’s move to ban black magic has spooked astrologers—who fear the vague law could lump them in with occult scammers.
The US is reopening student visas—but wants a peek at your social media for any anti-America posts first.
After years of hype, lab-grown meat is finally hitting Aussie plates—Vow Foods just got the green light to sell products derived from cultured quail cells.
NYC mayoral hopeful Brad Lander was arrested at an immigration court protest—but walked free after Governor Kathy Hochul stepped in and got the charges dropped.
For the second time in recent months, Pakistan’s Jaffar Express was bombed—this time around six carriages derailed in Sindh’s Jacobabad, but no casualties were reported.
LA Mayor lifted the downtown curfew imposed during anti-Trump immigration raid protests and riots.

meanwhile, in India

In an exclusive, Wall Street Journal reports that Air India Flight 171’s emergency generator was running before it crashed—raising fresh questions about whether its engines failed at takeoff.
The airline is slashing its long-haul international flights by 15%—cutting back on widebody routes.
Insurers are in a bind after the Ahmedabad Air India crash—with both policyholders and their nominees among the dead, claim settlements just got a lot more complicated.
Just before Donald Trump sat down for lunch with Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir, PM Modi rang him up to remind: India doesn’t do third-party mediation—never has, never will.
Immediately after the phone call with Modi, however, Trump trotted out his ‘I stopped an India-Pakistan war’ claim—for the 14th time.
A flight carrying 110 Indian students evacuated from war-hit Iran under Operation Sindhu has landed safely in Delhi.
Hindi will now be the default third language in Maharashtra’s Marathi and English medium schools from Classes 1 to 5—unless 20 students per grade opt for another Indian language.
Two weeks after a mob assault by alleged cow vigilantes, 21-year-old Junaid Shehzad has died of his injuries—while another victim, Arman, remains critical in a Bhopal hospital.

Three things to see

One: In recent weeks, the IDF hit a new low—shooting scores of desperate, hungry Gazans at aid centres. Well, the Israelis have now discovered that ‘crowd control’ is more effective with tanks. They killed 59 and injured over 200. Not the bloodiest day of killing starving Palestinians… but close. Btw, the IDF says it is reviewing the incident—and always aims to “minimise harm.” Watch the Al Jazeera report of the massacre? Mass killing? How many Gazans need to die in one shot before we can use those words? (Reuters)

Two: The biggest headline out of the lame duck G7 Summit in Canada is Giorgia Meloni’s expertly-timed eye roll—caught on camera as French President Macron leaned in to whisper a special something in her ear. Trump was speaking at the time as well. Catch it below. (The Hindu)

Three: We have always known that bats are prime culprits for the spread of lethal viruses to humans. Predatory animals eat them—and pass the disease on to people. But until now, most scientists have not seen how it happens—and at what scale. A new video from Uganda captures many different wild animals—including leopards, baboons and eagles—snacking on 50,000 fruit bats in a single cave. Looks like the opening scene of a pandemic horror flick. (New York Times)