Hybrid workers are putting in 90 fewer minutes of work on Fridays – and an overall shift toward custom schedules could be undercutting collaboration
In recent years, the dynamics of the traditional workweek have undergone significant transformation, particularly on Fridays. A study conducted by labor economist Christos Makridis reveals that since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many white-collar workers have embraced a more flexible work schedule, leading to a marked decline in productivity during the late afternoon on Fridays. The research highlights that between 2019 and 2024, the average number of minutes worked on Fridays by remote-capable employees plummeted by approximately 90 minutes. In contrast, the time spent working on Wednesdays has increased, with employees logging an average of 8 hours and 24 minutes in 2024—half an hour more than in 2019. This shift suggests that workers are reallocating their hours, favoring leisure and early weekends over traditional productivity patterns.
The American Time Use Survey, which tracks how Americans spend their time, provides a comprehensive look at these changes. The data indicates that remote work has blurred the lines between weekdays and weekends, with many employees opting to log off early on Fridays, a trend that has been amplified by the rise of hybrid work models. While Fridays have historically been a more relaxed day, characterized by casual dress codes and early departures, the current trend points to a more individualized approach to work where personal schedules take precedence over collective office rhythms. This newfound flexibility, while beneficial for work-life balance and employee autonomy, raises concerns about the potential erosion of team cohesion and collaboration. As remote work becomes increasingly prevalent, the challenge lies in maintaining effective communication and coordination among team members who may not share the same work hours.
The implications of these findings are profound, suggesting that while flexibility can enhance job satisfaction and recruitment, it may also disrupt the collaborative nature of certain professions. As workers increasingly choose to prioritize personal time over traditional work hours, organizations must navigate the balance between autonomy and the need for effective teamwork. The future of work may hinge on finding innovative solutions that allow for both flexibility and the essential interactions that drive productivity and morale within teams.
It gets lonely if you stick around an office until late afternoon on Fridays.
Dimitri Otis/Stone via Getty Images
Do your office, inbox and calendar feel like a ghost town on Friday afternoons? You’re not alone.
I’m a
labor economist
who studies how technology and organizational change affect productivity and well-being. In a study published in an
August 2025 working paper
, I found that the way people allocate their time to work has changed profoundly since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
For example, among professionals in occupations that can be done remotely, 35% to 40% worked remotely on Thursdays and Fridays in 2024, compared with only 15% in 2019. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, nearly 30% worked remotely, versus 10% to 15% five years earlier.
And white-collar employees have also become more likely to log off from work early on Fridays. They’re starting the weekend sooner than before the pandemic, whether while working at an office or remotely as the workweek comes to a close. Why is that happening? I suspect that remote work has diluted the barrier between the workweek and the weekend – especially when employees aren’t working at the office.
The changing rhythm of work
The
American Time Use Survey
, which the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts annually, asks thousands of Americans to recount how they spent the previous day, minute by minute. It tracks how long they spend working, commuting, doing housework and caregiving.
Because these diaries cover both weekdays and weekends, and include information about whether respondents could work remotely, this survey offers the most detailed picture available of how the rhythms of work and life are changing. This data also allows me to see where people conduct each activity, making it possible to estimate the share of time American professionals spend working from home.
When I examined how the typical workday changed between 2019 and 2024, I saw dramatic shifts in where, when and how people worked throughout that period.
Millions of professionals who had never worked remotely
suddenly did so full time
at the height of the pandemic. Hybrid arrangements
have since become common
; many employees spend two or three days a week at home and the rest in the office.
I found another change
: From 2019 to 2024, the average number of minutes worked on Fridays fell by about 90 minutes in jobs that can be done from home. That change accounts for other factors, such as a professional’s age, education and occupation.
The decline for employees with jobs that are harder to do remotely was much smaller.
Even if you just look at the raw data, U.S. employees with the potential to work remotely were working about 7½ hours per weekday on average in 2024, down about 13 minutes from 2019. These averages mask substantial variation between those with jobs that can more easily be done remotely and those who must report to the office most of the time.
For example, among workers in the more remote-intensive jobs, they spent 7 hours, 6 minutes working on Fridays in 2024, but 8 hours, 24 minutes in 2019.
That means I found, looking at the raw data, that Americans were working 78 fewer minutes on Fridays in 2024 than five years earlier. And controlling for other factors (e.g., demographics), this is actually an even larger 90-minute difference for employees who can do their jobs remotely.
In contrast, those employees were working longer hours on Wednesdays. They worked 8 hours, 24 minutes on Wednesdays in 2024, half an hour more than the 7 hours, 54 minutes logged on that day of the week in 2019. Clearly, there’s a shift from some Friday hours, with employees making up the bulk of the difference on other weekdays.
Fridays have long been a little different
Although employees are shifting some of this skipped work time to other days of the week,
most of the reduction
– whether at the office or at home – has gone to leisure.
To be sure, Fridays have always been a little different than other weekdays. Many bosses allowed their staff to
dress more casually
on Fridays and permitted people to depart early, long before the pandemic began. But the ability to work remotely has evidently
amplified that tendency
.
This informal easing into the weekend, once confined to office norms, can be a morale booster. But as it has expanded, it’s become more individualized through remote and hybrid arrangements.
Those workers in remote-intensive occupations who are single, young or male reduced their working hours across the board the most, relative to 2019, although their time on the job increased a bit in 2024.
Office workers have always been eager to get started with their weekends.
Epoxydude/fStop via Getty Images
The benefits and limits of flexibility
There are
a few causal studies
on the effects of remote work on productivity and well-being in the workplace,
including some in which I participated
. A general takeaway is that people tend to spend less time collaborating and more time on independent tasks when they work remotely.
That’s fine for some professions, but in roles that depend on frequent coordination, that pattern can
complicate communication
or
weaken team cohesion
. Colocation – being physically present with your colleagues –
does matter for some types of tasks
.
But even if
productivity doesn’t necessarily suffer
, every hour of unscheduled, independent work can be an hour not spent in coordinated effort with colleagues. That means what happens when people clock out or log off early on a Friday – whether at home or at their office – depends on the nature of their work.
In occupations that require continuous handoffs – such as journalism, health care or customer service –
staggered schedules can actually improve efficiency
by spreading coverage across more hours in the day.
But for employees in project-based or collaborative roles that depend on overlapping hours for brainstorming, review or decision-making, uneven schedules can create friction. When colleagues are rarely online at the same time, small delays can compound and slow collective progress.
The problem arises when flexible work becomes so individualized that it erodes shared rhythms altogether. The time-use data I analyzed suggests that remote-capable employees now spread their work more unevenly across the week, with less overlap in real time.
Eventually, that can make it harder to sustain the informal interactions and team cohesion that once happened organically when everyone left the office together at the end of the week. As some of
my other research
has shown, that also can reduce job satisfaction and increase turnover in jobs requiring greater coordination.
For many professions, team interaction is easier to have when people work at an office.
Morsa Images/DigitalVision via Getty Images
The future of work
To be sure, allowing employees to do remote work and have some scheduling flexibility on any day of the week
isn’t necessarily bad for business
.
The benefits – in terms of work-life balance, autonomy, recruitment and reducing turnover – can be very real.
Flexible and remote arrangements expand the pool of potential applicants by freeing employers from strict geographic limits. A company based in Chicago can now hire a software engineer in Boise or a designer in Atlanta without requiring relocation.
This wider reach increases the supply of qualified candidates. It can – particularly in jobs requiring more coordination – also
improve retention by allowing employees to adjust
their work schedules around family or personal needs rather than having to choose between relocating or quitting.
What’s more, many women who might have had to exit the labor force altogether when they became parents have been able to
remain employed, at least on a part-time basis
.
But in my view, the erosion of Fridays may go beyond what began as an informal tradition – leaving the office early before the weekend begins. It is part of a broader shift toward individualized schedules that expand autonomy but reduce shared time for coordination.
Christos Makridis is also a senior researcher for Gallup, and provides economics research counsel for think tanks.
