The 5-day workweek quietly became 6

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Today we need to discuss a small scheduling problem.

We spent years debating the four-day workweek.

Apparently we accidentally invented six.

Let’s get to work.

The American workweek has become very flexible.

So flexible, in fact, that it has started leaking into Sunday.

Owl Labs’ new State of Hybrid Work report found that 74% of U.S. workers surveyed do at least some work on Sundays. Twenty-one percent said they work a full or nearly full day. Another 24% regularly work a few hours. Eleven percent check messages, while 18% said they do so only rarely. Just 26% said they never work Sundays. Owl Labs

That is a strange outcome for a decade of workplace innovation supposedly designed to give people more control over their time.

The office became optional for millions. Commutes shrank. Schedules became flexible. Technology made it possible to work from almost anywhere.

And work responded by becoming possible almost everywhere.

That distinction matters.

Flexibility can mean I can move work to the hours that fit my life. For a parent who needs to leave at 3 PM and finish something later, that can be genuinely valuable.

But flexibility can also mean there is no longer a convincing moment when work is over.

Laptop at home.

Slack on the phone.

Email on the watch.

Sunday afternoon suddenly looks like an excellent time to “just get ahead.”

Owl Labs found something else revealing: 47% of workers said they would accept a pay cut of at least 10% in exchange for flexible working hours. More than one in four said they would sacrifice 15% or more of their salary for greater flexibility in schedule or location. Owl Labs

People clearly value control over time.

The question for managers is whether the company is actually giving them control—or simply expanding the hours during which work can occur.

There is a management signal hidden in Sunday work.

Occasional Sunday work is normal. Deadlines happen. Customers happen. Businesses do not always respect calendars.

But if a team routinely needs Sunday to prepare for Monday, finish what meetings prevented them from finishing Friday, or catch up on work that never fit into the week, that is no longer an individual productivity habit.

That is operating data.

Maybe there are too many meetings.

Maybe priorities change too frequently.

Maybe staffing is too thin.

Maybe people are being rewarded for appearing endlessly available.

Maybe managers have created an environment where nobody explicitly requires weekend work, but everyone understands that the people answering at 8:13 PM seem extremely committed.

The company can honestly say:

We never asked anyone to work Sunday.

Everyone can honestly reply:

Correct.

And still open the laptop.

In Owl Labs’ survey, 21% said they work a full or near-full Sunday, while 24% regularly work a few hours. Only 26% reported never doing Sunday work.

The weekend has requested a meeting with HR.

Forty percent of respondents said they participate in “coffee badging”—showing up at the office long enough to be visible before leaving—and among those who do it, 83% were managers.

Leadership by example remains alive and well.

Just briefly.

Thirty-eight percent reported meeting fatigue, and Owl Labs found that hybrid meetings lose an average of six minutes just getting started. Eighteen percent said they regularly lose ten minutes or more.

Perhaps Sunday would be less necessary if Tuesday could locate the HDMI cable.

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For one month, don’t ask employees whether they work weekends.

Ask what they work on.

Look at the tasks that repeatedly escape normal working hours. If Sunday keeps absorbing the same report, preparation, admin task or deadline, investigate the process instead of celebrating commitment.

A useful question for Friday afternoon:

What are you planning to finish this weekend that should have fit inside this week?

The answer may tell you more than another productivity dashboard.

When nearly half of workers say they would surrender at least 10% of salary for flexible hours, employers should treat flexibility like compensation, because employees clearly do. Owl Labs

That doesn’t mean every company should become remote. Some businesses simply cannot.

But when comparing compensation packages, flexibility belongs next to salary, bonus, insurance and retirement benefits.

Time is an economic benefit.

Especially when the alternative includes Sunday.

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EMPLOYEE: I’m not working today.

Checks Slack

EMPLOYEE: Just seeing what happened.

Opens laptop

EMPLOYEE: I’ll answer one thing.

6:47 PM

EMPLOYEE: At least Monday will be easier.

MONDAY: No.

Owl Labs also found 59% of workers had started a side hustle within the previous year, while 53% said they had participated in—or planned to participate in—“career minimalism,” deliberately reducing career ambition in favor of health and sustainability. Owl Labs

Maybe people have not stopped wanting to work.

Maybe they have become much more selective about which work gets their best hours.

Maybe people have not stopped wanting to work.

Maybe they have become much more selective about which work gets their best hours.

Vote below and tell us whether Sunday work has quietly become normal where you work.

And send this issue to the person who says “I’m just getting ahead for Monday” every Sunday afternoon.

They are not getting ahead.

Monday moves.

Technically Monday. Emotionally apparently Day 6.

— The Still Monday Desk