The never ending work day is killing us – how should we respond?

Karoshi is a Japanese term meaning ‘death from work’ – fatalities resulting from a heart attack, stroke, or suicide due to extreme overtime and chronic work related stress. In 2023, 883 Japanese people were officially recognized as having died from Karoshi – the highest rate on record. But this is no longer just a Japanese phenomenon – a 2024 World Health Organisation report citing data from 2016 estimates approximately 745,000 global deaths that year as a result of long work hours: an almost 30% increase since 2000. The WHO report also states that working 55+ hours a week equates to a 35% higher risk of a stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease (compared to working 35-40 hours a week).

Bloody hell – imagine dying from work.

And then there are the productivity costs of overwork – globally an estimated 12 billion working days are lost annually to stress related illnesses such as depression and anxiety at a cost of US$1 trillion a year.

In all honesty – this sort of data is exactly why I choose to work for myself. After flirting with burnout in my corporate role many years ago, I now relish the freedom and agency I exercise over my work by being self employed. I call the shots. I decide when and where I work, for whom, for how long, and at what rate. I have absolute and ultimate control over my time instead of being controlled by it. However, I am in the vast minority of workers who get to call all of the shots (only 7.5% of Australians and 6.2% of Americans are self employed).

What about the rest of you?

Recent data from Microsoft

The 2025 Microsoft Work Trend Index (including survey data from 31,000 workers across 31 counties and trillions of Microsoft productivity signals) makes for interesting reading on the state of the working world, so to speak. The report lists some alarming data across interruptions, meetings, overtime and so on, and provides an abundance of AI solutions – which makes complete sense, Microsoft is, after all, a tech company.

But more tech could well be the heart of, or exacerbate, the problem. So, let’s not lose sight of the human solutions to the current over work epidemic and 4 of the core symptoms:

1) Interruptions:

In 2019 when I wrote SMART Time Investment for Business: 128 Ways the Best in Business Use Their Time, the data at that point in time had the average professional being interrupted roughly every 3 minutes. According to Microsoft’s report, the average knowledge worker is now interrupted every two minutes (that’s 275 interruptions a day). That’s plain crazy – especially when you consider that it takes an average of 23 minutes to fully return to a task after an interruption. Massive productivity loss. The maths is pretty simple – if you are being interrupted every 2 minutes and it takes 23 minutes to return to the task you are working on – you are not getting any work done.

A Human Solution: Organisations (and individuals) need to build a 6 foot high, bullet proof fence around batches of time where interruptions are not allowed. Obviously this needs to come with some common sense – my general rule of thumb is: ‘Do not interrupt me between 8am and 11am unless: (1) I am on fire; (2) you are on fire; (3) the building is on fire. As a team, agree on blackout times when you leave each other alone so you can get some work done.

An AI Solution: AI tools can filter and prioritise notifications real time to protect focussed time and only pass on urgent notifications.

2) Unscheduled Meetings

According to Microsoft, 60% of all meetings are unscheduled – what the hell?For mine, this shows a culture of disrespect, where disorganisation dictates the operating rhythm of the day full of last minute catch ups.

A Human Fix: Set the rules around your Meeting culture. For example – meetings must have an Agenda which is shared with the meeting invite (this allows people to determine whether they need to attend); meetings are for decision makers and subject matter experts, not spectators (my exception to this is where attendance is a development opportunity); attendees can leave when their bit is done; meetings are for 2 reasons only (for decision or for discussion, and never for information) and so on. Think about allocating each executive a ‘meeting budget’ – much in the same way as they have a financial budget. Rule out last minute, unscheduled meetings unless (yep – you guessed it): (1) I am on fire; (2) you are on fire; (3) the building is on fire.

An AI Fix: AI scheduling assistants can help check whether a meeting is required or if the topic can be handled asynchronously (such as an FYI communication) limiting unscheduled disruptions.

3) The Workday Creep

Teams messages outside the traditional 9-to-5 workday have, according to Microsoft, increased 15% year on year with workers receiving an average of 58 after-hours messages a week. More than ever we are switching on rather than switching off at night and sacrificing rest and personal time for work.

A Human Fix: Since 2024, Australian workers can legally disconnect from work-related communications outside normal working hours. This legal right to disconnect is also the status quo in France, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Argentina. If you are a leader – get used to modelling the right behaviours – just don’t communicate outside of work hours. It is not that hard. As a team member, switch off to switch off, walk the company talk and resist getting on your device after hours.

An AI Fix: AI tools can schedule Teams messages and emails to be delivered during work hours, and can also be set up to flag patterns of excessive after-hours communication to help address the issue before it becomes a problem.

4) The Global Grind

Microsoft also shares that meetings after 8pm have increased 16%, with 30% of all meetings now spanning multiple time zones. This is a big (and fatigue inducing) issue in Australia – where we are on the other side of the world from many of our international colleagues.

A Human Fix: Experiment with ‘follow-the-sun’ teamwork, where regions hand off tasks asynchronously to avoid everyone needing to be online at the same time. Rotate meeting times to share the after hours’ inconvenience fairly across different time zones.

An AI Fix: AI scheduling tools can automatically distribute meeting slots more equitably considering all time zones as well as suggest when topics would be better covered with asynchronous updates rather than live calls.

It’s time to take back control

Ultimately, the current slippery slide into a never ending workday (and the associated stress and risks) isn’t just about time management. It’s also about mind management and changing personal and cultural behaviours. Absolutely AI can help block or filter distractions, ease scheduling pain, speed up some tasks and even replace some roles altogether, however, the real solutions need to come from people agreeing and committing to new ways of working together. If we don’t, dying from and on your job could well become the next epidemic.