A post has gone viral on Reddit after a poster shared a screenshot from Twitter discussing Microsoft Viva's definition of "quiet days."
Redditor u/EdinburghMan posted the screenshot on the subreddit "WorkReform" that reads: "Microsoft Viva report is defining a "quiet day" as one where you don't have to work outside your normal hours. Folks, that should be every day."
The usernames have been redacted in the screenshot but the original tweet was posted on April 4 by Twitter user @mcc_cummings.
In a response to the original tweet, @mcc_cummings wrote: "I realise that this isn't always the case and I'm as bad about this as anyone else, but can we not normalise working overtime, please?"
The Redditor accompanied the screenshot with the message, "The Viva website repeatedly talks about how it helps improve well-being and yet..." The post has now received over 9,000 votes.
According to 2019 figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time employees were working an average of 8.5 hours working each workday. Though, according to a 2021 ADP Research Institute study, in the wake of COVID-19, unpaid overtime had jumped to 9.2 hours per week on average, up from 7.3 a year prior.
According to Microsoft, Microsoft Viva is "an employee experience platform that brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights in the flow of work."
The platform offers a "wellbeing" page which is intended to tell users how well they are "disconnecting" from work after hours.
"Quiet Days" as mentioned in the viral post are defined by the platform as "the number of days where you did not have significant collaboration outside your set work hours (as defined in your Outlook calendar)," the website said. "Significant collaboration includes sending and reading email, sending, and responding to chats, or attending calls and meetings in more than one one-hour period outside your working hours."
The site says weekends are considered "all-day quiet hours" and are included in the platform's calculations.
Reddit commenters below the post commiserated over how "normalized" working beyond a set of work hours has become.
"Entirely too many people wear burnout as a badge of honor. It's not a good thing if you work 60 hours or more on a regular basis. It just means that you're willingly sacrificing your physical and mental well-being for the benefit of capitalism..." one commenter wrote.
The Redditor responded to this comment sharing that rather management should "wear quiet days as a badge of honor instead."
Another commenter shared that the notion of burnout being a "badge of honor" as "uniquely American"
"It's weird to me that our society understands that children in school need regular breaks to avoid burnout and stress, but adults are expected to work long hours with very few days off until they either retire or literally collapse from stress and/or exhaustion," another commenter added.
One commenter who seems to be familiar with the Viva platform said they found its tracking of when a user is overworking themselves to be helpful.
"...I find it quite useful to get out the bad habits," the commenter said.
Another commenter shared a rather different opinion of the platform saying that Outlook restricts users from moving Viva email notifications to junk.
"Automated micromanagement was not the future I was hoping for...,' the Redditor responded.
Newsweek contacted u/EdinburghMan and @mcc_cummingsfor comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
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