We have mail.
And again a few seconds later.
As soon as all messages have been read, answered or deleted, it starts all over again.
Eleven years ago, SPIEGEL demanded the end of the email.
But there is no end in sight, on the contrary: The corona pandemic has given the means of communication from the 1980s another boost.
In February 2021, an incredible 40.6 billion more e-mails were sent worldwide than in February of the previous year - and that alone via Outlook, the Microsoft e-mail program, to commercial Microsoft customers and educational institutions.
The technology group has evaluated the use of popular applications such as Outlook and Teams for a “Work Trend Index”, “under the strict protection of all personal and company-related data,” as the group assures.
Only a few months ago, Microsoft received severe criticism from trade unions and data protection activists in this country because the new Microsoft 365 Office package can record, among other things, when and how many e-mails employees send on which days and how often and how long they last Teams talk or chat with each other.
As critical as the possible use of the software as a monitoring tool must be viewed, the keyhole view offered by the anonymized data is just as interesting.
Because they prove what many are currently feeling: The corona pandemic has made everyday work much more stressful.
Microsoft users around the world spent two and a half times as much time in online meetings in February 2021 as in February 2020
On the Teams communication software, the average meeting currently lasts 45 minutes, ten minutes longer than a year ago
The number of chat messages the average Teams user sends per week increased 45 percent from February 2020 to February 2021
The number of chat messages sent after 5 p.m. increased by 42 percent during this period
Chat messages are replied to within five minutes
Every second Teams user responds to a chat message within five minutes, according to Microsoft, and that number has not changed in years.
"This proves that the intensity of our working days and the demands on our employees have increased significantly," says the report that SPIEGEL had received in advance.
Interestingly, the number of people posting chat messages on Teams using dedicated channels fell by five percent between April 2020 and February 2021.
On the other hand, the number of those who posted chats in small groups or to individual colleagues rose.
Microsoft concludes from this that the relocation of work to the home office has shrunk our networks.
There are also indications of this in the use of Outlook: »Our analysis shows that in lockdown we cling to our immediate teams and neglect our broader network.
To put it simply: The companies are now more isolated than they were before the pandemic, «says the Microsoft report.
In countries like New Zealand, in which the corona rules have now become much looser, you can see that communication with people outside the narrowest circle is increasing again.
Every sixth person has cried in front of colleagues
In addition to evaluating software usage, Microsoft had more than 31,000 full-time employees and self-employed people surveyed around the world in January 2021.
The most important points of this survey:
42 percent of those interviewed said they would still miss important office equipment after working from home for a year.
Just under one in two said they had been supported by their employer in equipping their home office.
And one in ten did not even have stable internet at home
Of those surveyed who have a management position, 61 percent said that they are "doing well" at the moment.
Of those surveyed without a management position, only 38 percent said this.
And 37 percent said their employer asked too much of them.
"Managers have lost contact with their employees and need a wake-up call," says the report
Globally, four in ten respondents said they were thinking about changing employers this year
36 percent of those surveyed in Europe said they could now imagine moving where they already work from home.
In an international comparison, this value is rather low: Around the world, almost every second person said he or she wanted to use the location-independent work to move
Every sixth respondent said they had cried in front of colleagues since the beginning of the corona pandemic
The perceived level of stress is particularly high in Europe: 46 percent of the European respondents said they felt stressed on an average working day, 42 percent even spoke of exhaustion
"We need a new definition of productivity," said Jared Spataro, who is responsible for Microsoft 365, when presenting the results in the video chat.
“In many places, the number of hours worked is still an indicator of how productive a team is.
But that means you treat employees like robots. ”It is more expedient to look at performance, that is, the result of the work done.
"It's like with top athletes: the best result can only be achieved when stressful times and periods of relaxation alternate."
Icon: The mirror
