Microsoft is facing widespread technical problems after an outage affected several of its most popular services, including Outlook, Microsoft Teams and its AI assistant, Copilot.

The disruption began on Thursday evening (12 November) and continued into Friday (13 November), affecting users across the UK, Europe, the US and parts of the Asia-Pacific region. Thousands of users reported difficulties accessing their emails, sending messages and using online calendars, while businesses and public organisations also experienced disruption.

The disruption extended beyond personal and workplace accounts, with several UK public services reporting problems.

Some police forces, including Hertfordshire and Dorset Police, warned that online crime-reporting forms were not working properly, advising members of the public to call 101 for non-emergency reports or 999 in an emergency. Parts of the NHS also experienced disruption, with some healthcare organisations warning patients that emails might not be received. Educational institutions, including schools, colleges and universities, also experienced issues with some Microsoft services.

Microsoft confirmed that it was working to restore its services, with the disruption linked to problems affecting its server infrastructure. The company initially admitted that its attempts to fix the issue were not working as expected, forcing engineers to explore alternative solutions.

Microsoft later reported improvements across parts of its infrastructure, particularly in Europe and North America, but warned that service capacity had not yet returned to normal levels. Some users could continue experiencing intermittent access problems and delayed emails as recovery efforts continued.

The company also said it had no evidence that the outage was caused by a cyberattack.

While many users have been left frustrated by the disruption, others have taken a very different approach, with some celebrating the unexpected break from work. Social media has been flooded with memes and jokes from office workers who appear less than eager for Outlook and Teams to return.

Some users have even urged Microsoft engineers to take their time fixing the problem, joking that there is little point returning to work with the weekend approaching. Others have suggested shutting their laptops and enjoying the unexpected time away from emails, meetings and deadlines.

The reactions have turned the global technical disruption into an unexpected social media talking point, with some workers seemingly enjoying the break more than others!