Clocking Productivity: How many is too many?

Is your organization relaxed about the number of hours you put in and concentrate instead on getting the work done and goals accomplished – or do you work for an organization where appearance counts too and you are told it’s business casual …on Saturday!

There are lots of organizations where the latter is the norm and the longer your hours with you in the office visible and working, the more the recognition, rewards and eventual promotions.

Elon Musk boasts of his “80 to 100 hour weeks that he claims are needed to be successful, but experts do not agree. His mantra is “nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.”

Productivity drops when you hit a 50-hour workweek, and those clocking more are not accomplishing more! 

As for multitasking, when we have too much on the go our productivity decreases up to 40%.

Everybody is different and there will be times where long hours are legitimately demanded of all of us, but the key message is that we are human, we have limits, and we need to be mindful of them when we ourselves are working, and especially when we are managing the time of others.

Create a culture of valuing quality over quantity, and where employees do not see insane long hours as a badge that leads to promotions and bonuses.

And remember, Elon Musk when asked how much he sees his kids stated, “I don’t see mine enough actually. But what I find is, I’m able to be with them and still be on email. I can be with them and still be working at the same time . . . If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to get my job done.”

Really?