“Employees are interrupted every two minutes during core work hours—275 times a day—by meetings, emails, or chats. Calculated as a rolling 28-day sum of pings (meeting invites, emails, chats) per unique user per workday. The two-minute figure reflects the average time between pings during an 8-hour workday. 275 is based on the 24-hour day. Based on the top 20% of users by ping volume received.” - Microsoft's annual Work Trend Index
275 interruptions a day, and those are just the ones tracked through digital channels!
Is it any wonder people feel exhausted, unfocused, and frustrated?
And what’s most remarkable?
The very company building the software that facilitates these interruptions is the one warning us it's a problem 😜.
We already know the cost of each disruption. It can take 15 to 25 minutes to regain focus after every interruption.
👉 So why do we keep introducing technologies into our businesses that make it harder to think clearly or work deeply?
Why We Keep Buying the Tools That Break Our Brains
From email to BlackBerrys, smartphones to texting, Slack to Teams, the latest communication tool always arrives promising a productivity breakthrough.
But instead of replacing old tools, we just layer new ones on top. It’s “and” rather than “instead of.”
The result? A noisy, always-on workplace where focus is fractured, and people have to actively block out “thinking time” in desperation.
In a ridiculous “tail wagging the dog” way, tech companies have taught us to value volume and responsiveness over clarity and depth.
No wonder.
They’re incentivised to drive habitual use because our dependence is what sells subscriptions, licenses, and upgrades 🤑.
Unfortunately, it seems we’ve fallen in love with our captors. It’s Stockholm Syndrome for SaaS, and they’re using our own psychology against us.
Because at the heart of this problem is fear.
Leaders fear losing visibility and control.
Individuals fear being left out, overlooked, or seen as unresponsive.
If we really want to reduce the burden on our people and inspire more productive and positive collaboration and problem solving, more communications channels and more interruptions is not the way to do it.
👏 Being able to communicate effectively, is.
Ref: Microsoft’s annual Work Trend report 2025 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/2025-the-year-the-frontier-firm-is-born
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