MacBook M1 Pro 16 2021 often freeze after updating to 12.6.1

Hi,

I am a new Mac user for less than a year. The MacBook M1 Pro laptop came 16GB RAM and an earlier versions of Monterey.

My usual apps/software used includes text editors, MS Office (Word, PPTs), browsers (with less than 5 open tabs), Terminal windows, Zoom and Slack. Using macOS was a very nice experience since Jan 2022. I usually 'Quit' unused apps and run at most 3 or 4 apps at one time.

I had never experienced any frozen or unresponsive moments on my Mac laptop.

However, all this changed after I updated to Monterey 12.6.1 yesterday due to advise from my IT department on security fixes.

Today, I had 5 incidents of frozen or unresponsive moments which needed me to perform a hard reboot using the power button.

Anyone else experienced this ? This is driving me crazy and really appreciate some advise or help on this issue.

My IT department is not allowing us to update to macOS Ventura due to some compatibility issues.

Thank you.