Sunday is no longer just the calm before Monday. For a growing number of white-collar professionals, it has become a deliberate workday, chosen not out of obligation, but strategy.
Data cited by Business Insider shows that weekend work among office workers is rising, driven largely by choice rather than direct employer pressure. According to workforce analytics firm ActivTrak, 5% of US white-collar employees logged in during weekends in 2024, a 9% increase from the year before. On average, they worked around five and a half hours across Saturdays and Sundays.
Why Sunday works
The attraction is the silence. No meetings. No Slack notifications. No end-of-day urgency. Many workers use Sundays for deep focus, long-term planning or creative thinking, tasks that are harder to complete during fragmented weekdays.
In return, they reclaim flexibility during the week. A longer lunch, a mid-morning workout, an afternoon offline. Work-life balance, in this model, is no longer about strict separation, but redistribution.
The end of the 9-to-5 illusion
Remote work, smartphones and pandemic-era habits blurred professional boundaries long ago. The idea of a clean 9-to-5 schedule has quietly collapsed, even as organisations continue to reference it.
Some workers have responded by drawing firmer digital boundaries. Others are choosing a softer, more fluid approach, spreading work across the week in ways that feel more manageable and, paradoxically, more humane.
The numbers reflect this reality. In 2024, nearly 29% of employed people in the US worked on weekends, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with university graduates averaging around four hours. Mid-sized companies were the most likely to see weekend activity.
Enter the 996 mindset
This shift is also shaped by global work culture. Parts of Silicon Valley, particularly in the AI sector, have begun absorbing elements of China’s 996 culture, a work model built around 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. days, six days a week.
Once widely criticised in China, 996 is increasingly reframed in the US as a competitive necessity. Long hours are no longer an exception, but a badge of commitment in industries racing for technological dominance.
Financial data supports this trend. An analysis by Ramp, a corporate spending platform, found increased Saturday meal expenses in San Francisco between January and August 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier, suggesting longer and less conventional working weeks.
Choice or pressure?
For many professionals, Sunday work remains voluntary, contained and transactional. A few focused hours on Sunday can translate into breathing space later in the week.
But the wider question remains unresolved. When quiet Sunday productivity becomes normalised, the line between flexibility and expectation can blur.
Sundays may not have replaced Mondays yet. But they are no longer what they used to be.