I think that's probably the norm. One part of this study that isn't really being discussed is that they were able to increase productivity by making the work day more efficient.
That was done by decreasing the amount of time wasted in superfluous meetings, overly long meetings, the ability to remote call into meetings, and limiting overly long emails.
I can guarantee that those workers were already working in excess of 40hr weeks and probably still do.
MS workers are still working 5 days a week and over 40hr per week even after this. So I expect they'll just take some of that data to make the worker more efficient while maintaining a 5 day work week.
here's the thing. if you're not doing manual labor and programming. you should not be working 40+ hours a week ALL the time unless its a startup or you just implemented a brand new large scale SYSTEM. if that aint the case. you're most likely wasting 10+ hours on bs you could avoid.
especially if we're talking management/project managers, etc that live in meetings. people meet TOO much, and for TOO long and with TOO many people at once.
What the hell are you meeting about every single day? nothing. you're rehashing something that hasnt moved much. common sense would tell you if i meet with said person again tomorrow and this isnt some special project. odds are, nothing will drastically change in that short amt of time. so why am i meeting with said person so soon? give it a week or 2 or 3 or a month.
part of the reason people meet like that is for multiple reasons. #1 some people just like to talk. it is what it is. thats their nature, they like talking to people so more meetings is a good excuse to chit chat. but that aint productive.
#2. some people do it to LOOK the part. they grew up watching people over them do it so they continue the same thing because they feel it looks Managerial to meet a lot.
#3. some people in charge dont trust their own people(that a lot of them they also hired). so they meet a lot like they're children and not responsible enough to handle business with out them holding their employees hands.
#4. They meet a lot to LOOK as if they are working really hard when in reality they aint doing ish...
notice no of those above reasons are legit efficient reasons to meet. yet they are some of the main reasons you see people constantly meeting at places we work. pure waste.