If your workforce is always working, your business must be winning — right?

Not quite.

The truth is the infinite workday has become one of the most expensive illusions in modern business. What looks like hustle on the surface is actually draining your talent, bloating your operating costs and suffocating innovation from the inside out. Every extra hour worked past peak productivity isn’t free labor — it’s a trade-off. And, often, it’s a costly one.

While many leaders focus on visible line items, such as headcount and tech stacks, few calculate the hidden expenses of an always-on culture: burnout, preventable errors, missed opportunities and inefficient workflows disguised as dedication.

The effects of an always-on culture are personal and financial. When employees are constantly working without boundaries, the quality of that work suffers. Productivity plateaus, creativity declines and decision-making become reactive instead of strategic.

Let’s examine four ways the infinite workday is quietly hurting your bottom line — and what you can do to stop the financial bleed before it becomes a full-blown crisis.

1. Burnout drives attrition, and attrition is expensive

Employee burnout is one of the leading causes of turnover, and turnover is a costly phenomenon. As early as 2019, experts saw the financial impact of employee burnout and turnover.

According to Gallup, the cost of replacing an employee can range from half to double their annual salary. That includes recruiting, training, onboarding and the loss of institutional knowledge.

Voluntary turnover is an inevitable part of business operations. Experts estimate an attrition rate hovering around 10% is average. But, as any leader or manager knows, turnover has hidden costs that never appear on a spreadsheet.

“Losing your best people means losing your reliable winners, your constant innovators and your most effective problem solvers,” said Shane McFeely and Ben Wigert, researchers at Gallup. “Internally, it breaks down team morale. Externally, it can mean lost customer relationships. Depending on the quality of the exit, it can threaten your brand or, at worst, lead to litigation.”

If your best performers are quietly burning out because they feel they can never fully disconnect, your business is quietly bleeding talent — and budget.

2. Overwork reduces quality and increases errors

The longer the workday, the more mental fatigue sets in, which creates a higher risk of mistakes.

Picture this: After a long day packed with back-to-back meetings and constant context switching, a sales manager logs on late in the evening to finish a few remaining tasks. Tired but determined to “get ahead,” they rush through their inbox and send out a pricing proposal meant for a strategic enterprise client.

Except, it goes to the wrong recipient.

Instead of the intended enterprise client, the email is sent to a mid-market customer with a significantly lower contract value. The proposal includes discounts, terms and confidential pricing details that are now exposed. The mistake triggers a cascade of consequences: a breach of trust with both clients, an uncomfortable round of follow-up apologies and involvement from legal and finance to contain the damage.

It wasn’t incompetence — it was fatigue. Decision-making slows, attention to detail drops and the likelihood of errors rises sharply when someone is mentally exhausted. In this case, an avoidable late-night task turned into a costly brand and revenue risk.

Did you know one accounting error can result in a $225 million loss? Did you also know that four mistakes occur out of every 100 data entries? Research shows that “out of 100 cyber breaches, 95 are caused by human error, meaning they were likely preventable.”

When employees are stretched thin across too many hours, attention to detail drops, errors increase and the cost of rework rises. In high-stakes industries such as finance, healthcare or technology, even minor errors can have significant consequences, both legally and reputationally.

3. Innovation takes a back seat

Innovation requires white space: time to think, experiment and collaborate creatively. But when every hour is filled with meetings, late-night emails and reactive tasks, there’s no mental margin left for innovation.

The most productive hours of the day are often lost to someone else’s schedule. Microsoft research shows that many people reach their natural peak in focus and energy between 9 and 11 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m., partly due to our circadian rhythms. Yet that’s precisely when half of all meetings are booked, eating up the very hours best suited for deep, meaningful work. What should be prime time for progress has turned into a back-to-back blur of video calls and check-ins, leaving little room to actually think, create or solve problems.

Businesses locked in the infinite workday are more likely to stagnate because employees are stuck in execution mode — never stepping back to ask, “What if we did this differently?”

4. Inefficient work spreads across the day — without driving better results

The most counterintuitive truth about the infinite workday is this: working more hours doesn’t mean getting more done. The Microsoft study found that 57% of meetings were called at the last minute and without a calendar invitation being sent to attendees. This context-switching and rapid-fire decision-making over a very long day takes a toll on productivity and one’s emotional well-being.

Research from UC Irvine’s Institute of Psychology found that just 20 minutes of disruptions during work can elevate stress and frustration levels while also impacting workload. And those last-minute texts, emails, meetings or task requests marked ASAP are indirectly costing companies $136 billion every year in health-related lost productivity.

Solutions for breaking up the infinite workday

Companies that prioritize sustainable performance over endless hours are seeing higher retention, sharper execution and stronger sales outcomes. But it takes more than good intentions to shift the culture — it takes structure.

Here are four proven ways to reduce the hidden costs of the infinite workday:

1. Protect focus time with calendar guardrails

Encourage teams to block dedicated “focus hours” during peak productivity windows (typically 9 to 11 a.m. or 1 to 3 p.m.). Leaders should model this by declining unnecessary meetings and respecting time blocks.

Why it matters: Preserving deep work hours improves decision-making, accelerates innovation and minimizes costly errors from fatigue.

2. Normalize disconnection — from the top down

Make it clear that logging off is not just allowed but expected. This starts with leadership: when executives send emails at midnight or praise late-night activity, it quietly sets the tone.

“As someone leading a mostly remote team, I can relate to receiving hundreds of pings a day, and I recall just as many interruptions when I was in the office,” said Natalie Ruiz, CEO of Answerconnect. “Culture is everything here. Leaders set the tone for what’s acceptable, including actually logging off. Without that, it’s easy to slip into the trap of the ‘infinite workday,’ and that’s not sustainable for anyone.”

Rethink the company’s meeting culture by auditing the frequency, length and necessity of meetings. Ask, “Could this be an email?” “Could it be shorter?” “Could it happen less often?” Empower teams to cancel low-impact meetings, introduce clear agendas and adopt async updates where possible.

Why it matters: Reduces burnout, improves retention and supports healthier work-life balance — without sacrificing output.

3. Shift from hours-based to outcomes-based performance

Rather than valuing who stays online the longest, measure what gets done. Emphasize goals, project milestones and results instead of time spent in the digital office. Utilize tools like OKRs or KPIs to measure and track actual impact.

That’s where Fullcast’s Sales Performance Management system comes in. By aligning performance metrics with outcomes, not hours, Fullcast helps revenue leaders build smarter incentives, drive focus and eliminate costly inefficiencies.

Why it matters: Reduces busywork and encourages smarter, more strategic use of time.

4. Track the cost of overwork like any other business metric

Start quantifying the hidden costs of the infinite workday: burnout-related attrition, rework due to errors, missed opportunities and lost productivity due to stress. HR and finance teams should collaborate on tracking these indicators quarterly.

Why it matters: What gets measured gets managed. Once leaders see the price tag, they’ll be more motivated to create sustainable practices.

By allowing or encouraging the infinite workday, businesses may think they are increasing commitment or output. But in reality, they’re paying more for less. The most competitive companies are now the ones designing workflows and expectations around sustainable performance, not endurance.

J’Nel Wright is a content writer at Fullcast, a Silicon Slopes-based, end-to-end RevOps platform that allows companies to design, manage and track the performance of their revenue-generating teams.