The Work Trend Index: A Pulse on Employees’ Wellbeing, Six Months into the Pandemic | Microsoft 365 Blog

As remote-work at scale has now been in place for over six months, this Work Trend Index report by Microsoft looks at how the pandemic has impacted workers’ well-being around the globe. The study analyzed trillions of information from meetings, emails, and chats to identify patterns and trends while safeguarding personal and organizational data. Among the six key findings are: 1) The pandemic increased burnout at work – in some countries more than others. In Brazil, for example, 44% of respondents said they felt more burned out due to the coronavirus pandemic. This result compares with 31% of US respondents and 10% of Germans who reported this increase in burnout. These findings underscore that, while the pandemic impacts everyone, people are experiencing it differently. 3) Six months in, there are more communications and fewer boundaries as workers adjust.  “People are in significantly more meetings, taking more ad hoc calls, and managing more incoming chats than they did before the pandemic. After-hours chats, or chats between 5pm and midnight, have also increased.” 4) No commute may be hurting, not helping, remote worker productivity. Although remote-work has eliminated the “dreaded commute” that many workers experience, ironically, the commute helped maintain work-life boundaries—and our productivity and well-being. Said differently, for many people, commutes provide “blocks of uninterrupted time for mentally transitioning to and from work, an essential aspect of well-being and productivity. Organizations can leverage these findings as they continue to refine remote work strategies that enable productivity and worker well-being.