If you clocked a few hours on the job over the weekend, you weren’t alone. New data shows that people are spending more of their Saturdays and Sundays working.
Driving the news: The average number of hours worked on weekends last year increased by 5% to a total of 6.6, according to data collected by productivity software ActivTrax from users around the world.
- The jump in weekend working hours was concentrated in sectors like media and tech, which have recently seen large-scale layoffs.
Why it’s happening: Changing norms driven by remote work have made it more common for some employees to set their own schedules—logging off early to catch Friday happy hour might be fine if you get your work done on Sunday.
- That sort of flexibility is something workers often say they value and can make it easier to balance the demands of work and family life.
But in sectors like tech, where nearly 300,000 people have been laid off since the start of 2022, working on the weekend is likely a symptom of employees being asked to do more with less.
- Tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Marc Benioff have said their businesses need to run more efficiently, which in practice often means pushing employees to log more hours.
Why it matters: Over 40% of workers already report feeling burnt out, a number that’s risen steadily in recent years. That’s likely to climb higher if days of rest turn into days of replying to emails.