Writing in its blog, a Volish post with the title The Rise of the Triple Peak Day, and it describes a new phenomenon. It says when employees were in the office, it found “knowledge workers” usually had two periods of peak productivity: before lunch and after lunch. When they work at home there’s now a third period: late at night, right before bedtime.

The company notes it saw hints of this in the early pandemic, when chatting over Microsoft Teams increased the most from 6PM to 8PM. Microsoft says this reinforces the notion that the phrase “work hours” is now an amorphous concept.

People decide to tend to their kids or their personal needs during work hours, then make up for it later. That’s one huge benefit of working from home, obviously. The “third peak” reaches its climax around 10:30PM. 

Microsoft discovered this phenomenon by tracking employees’ keyboard usage. In doing so it found 30 percent of them had a “third peak” at night, but noted it was less intense than the two previous peaks earlier in the day. It concludes this is just the new normal; that work hours are flexible now, and not confined to the antiquated 9-5 model. The company says it’s not sure if this activity represents someone being a workaholic or just being flexible with their time. It does note that the boundaries between “office hours” and a person’s free time have become blurred. As evidence of this, it points out that Microsoft Teams users send 42 percent more chats per person after the workday is over.