It’s 9 p.m. Supper is over, the children are in bed. Some take the opportunity to read a book, others to watch TV. For many workers, it’s time to get out the computer and finish the day’s work.
“We call it the third peak phenomenon,” explains News Javier Hernandez, principal investigator in the Human Understanding and Empathy division of Microsoft Research.
His team recently published the results of a study, carried out last summer, on the teleworking habits of 50 employees of the company. Using software tools, the researchers were able to find out when the participants typed on their computer or telephone keyboard, which provided a more accurate portrait of work in the evening than with simple questionnaires.
Observation: in addition to the two peaks of productivity at work already documented, one before and one after lunch, 30% of participants also have a third peak, from approximately 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
« Maybe this phenomenon existed before the pandemic, we don’t know, » said Mary Czerwinski, research manager at Microsoft Research. Now that it is known, it is however important to better define it. Does this happen to any employee or only to parents? Is it the result of a corporate culture? These are the kinds of questions the researchers hope to answer in their future work.
The right to do nothing
The right to disconnect, the principle according to which an employee should not be able to consult their professional digital tools outside of working hours, is a workhorse of the Québec solidaire party. However, in the final report of the Advisory Committee on the Right to Disconnect, published by the Government of Canada in February 2022, the parties concerned — unions, NGOs and employer representatives — mainly agreed on the fact that the committee lacked data to carry out its mandate. The study already published by Microsoft and those that the company plans to launch could help to help stakeholders see things more clearly.
In particular, it would be necessary to verify to what extent the “third peak” is a positive effect of the flexibility offered by teleworking, or on the contrary a burden resulting from an overly busy schedule. Above all, does it allow you to train in the afternoon… or to get through too much work?
The 9 to 5 may have its flaws — for those who want to spend more time with their children at the end of the day, for example — but the fact that work has a beginning and an end helps to separate one’s personal and professional lives, and facilitates rest after the day’s work.
“It has been shown that rest is essential. It affects our level of exercise, the quality of our diet, our productivity and our creativity,” explains Mary Czerwinski. Not resting can lead straight to burnout, hence the importance of knowing more about the causes of this third peak, and the other effects it has on the personal lives of workers.
Strategies for living with the third woodpecker
Managers whose employees are telecommuting or hybrid working do not need to wait for the next studies to become aware of the phenomenon and adjust. “People have different working styles. You have to adapt to it, but also make sure that it will be sustainable in the long term,” believes Javier Hernandez.
For example, employees should be able to take advantage of the benefits of hybrid working and working from home, such as flexible working hours, but teams should clearly identify when a response to a message is expected and when it is not. And all of this should be written down in black and white, in team agreements.
“We all have natural cycles where we are more productive at times and want to recharge at other times. A team agreement makes it possible to plan the work around these time slots,” adds Mary Czerwinski. In his team, for example, no meeting is organized after 2 p.m.
Different strategies also exist for those who take advantage of the third peak (or suffer from it). Some email software and services, such as Gmail and Outlook, allow you to plan the sending of a message to take into account the different schedules of your colleagues. “Someone may want to send an email at 11:30 p.m., but the recipient may not need to receive it at that time,” the researcher believes.
One thing is certain, the possibility of sending a message late at night should improve his personal life — thanks to the time freed up elsewhere in the day — as much as his professional life. Otherwise, the third peak is one peak too many.
