The Common Thread
Without visibility
organizations can’t
organizations can’t
With visibility
organizations can
organizations can
State of Work 2025
What Work
Actually Matters?
We analyzed work time across thousands of professionals. Scan the highlights below, then download the full report to see where your time really goes.
Download the full reportChapter 1
The Invisible Workday
The Invisible
Workday
The Invisible Workday
Our analysis shows 28% of captured professional work never makes it onto a client bill. Is this work to automate? Or work to value differently?
This translates to
2-4 hours of work per day that generate zero revenue.
2-4 hours of work per day that generate zero revenue.
Approximately 11% of this time should be billed.
At an average billable rate of $450/hr firms are losing out on $30k+ per professional.
The Revelation
Until now, firms only tracked billable hours—never the massive volume of essential work happening between client engagements. When we measured everything, a different picture emerged: professionals spend significant time on training, interviews, business development, compliance, and operational tasks that keep firms running but never appear on timesheets.
Chapter 2
The Displacement Effect
The Displacement
Effect
The Displacement Effect
When 28% of billable work happens outside 9AM-5PM, something is consuming business hours that isn't revenue generation.
April 2025
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12 AM
1 PM
2 PM
3 PM
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5 PM
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8 PM
28.2% of work occurs outside of normal business hours
Roughly 62.9% of time spent during business hours
is spent communicating (meetings, chat, email, calls)
Of the 20.4 hrs of focused work done each week, 10.1hrs or 49.5% of the work occurs outside of normal business hours
Relative to business hours, time spent communicating decreases by 15% for after hours and week end work, while communicating increases by 13% for work completed before business hours.
12 AM
1 PM
3 PM
5 PM
8 PM
The Revelation
Until now, firms have operated with a fundamental blind spot. They track billable hours obsessively but have never quantified the massive volume of necessary work that happens between client engagements.
Time tracking systems show what gets billed, but they've never revealed what doesn't—and why.
The Hidden Reality
When we measure all professional work—not just what makes it onto timesheets—a different picture emerges. Professionals aren't just doing client work and taking breaks.
They're running training sessions, conducting interviews, developing business, maintaining compliance, mentoring junior staff, and handling the countless operational tasks that keep firms functioning.
"We realized our interruptions weren't just distractions — they were a systemic cost. Laurel’s data helped us redesign our communication channels to protect the focused time our team needs."
Corporate Associate, Lawfirm
Chapter 3
The Attention Fragmentation Crisis
The Attention
Fragmentation Crisis
The Attention Fragmentation Crisis
More than half of all work activities are interruptions masquerading as productivity.
Email and Teams Chat
now
56.1% of daily activities are email and Teams chat
Email and Teams Chat
now
Professionals interact
with email 110+ times
each weekday.
Email and Teams Chat
now
45% of time spent
in meetings is spent multitasking.
Email and Teams Chat
now
During business hours, professionals only get 15 min bursts of uninterrupted focus time.
The Implication
Business hours have become interruption hours. With only 15 minutes of focus time between disruptions and chat activity doubling in frequency, sustained concentration is nearly impossible.
Chapter 4
The Meeting Value Gap
The Meeting
Value Gap
The Meeting Value Gap
Meetings consume almost a third of every business day, yet professionals multitask through 45% of them.
Professionals spend 16.6 hours per week in meetings.
50% of meetings are external, and take up 20% more time than internal meetings.
1/3 of all meetings have 9+ attendees, while studies show meetings with fewer than 8 people are most productive.
The Meeting Value Gap
We're meeting frequently, multitasking throughout, and possibly including the wrong people.
"By identifying the exact points of organizational friction using Laurel's data, we automated our lowest-leverage tasks, instantly giving our team members 10% more time for client service."
Firm Leader Name, Client Operations
Chapter 5
From Visibility to Optimization
From Visibility to
Optimization
The Common Thread
The patterns are clear, but patterns aren't destiny. For the first time, you can get complete visibility into how organizational time is actually spent.
Can’t
Redesign their days around when they do their best work and what work requires their unique expertise
Can’t
Distinguish high-leverage from low-leverage work
Can’t
Identify which coordination work should be restructured or automated
Can’t
Price services accurately (when 11% of billable time goes untracked)
Can’t
Ensure senior expertise is deployed where it creates most value
Individuals
Redesign their days around when they do their best work and what work requires their unique expertise
Firms
Identify which internal coordination should be automated, made asynchronous, or restructured
Leadership
Identify which coordination work should be restructured or automated
Everyone can distinguish
between meetings that leverage senior expertise and meetings that consume it
Dig Deeper
in the Insights
in Detail.
in the Insights
in Detail.
Download the report