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Does Working Less Increase Productivity?

2 Replies Last post: Oct 1, 2009 1:11 PM by Rob Enderle  
Patrick Avery   50 posts since
Oct 3, 2008
Reply

Dec 16, 2009 1:35 PM

Does Working Less Increase Productivity?

A new Harvard Business School study says making workaholics take some time off improved their performance. What do you think of this conclusion? Does working less increase productivity?

Loraine Lawson   9 posts since
Oct 3, 2008

I'm sure rested people are more productive in general. But I think the real gain, especially in terms of IT and business leaders/managers, comes in improved strategic thinking. It's hard to see a situation clearly when you're knee-deep in it all the time. I'm always surprised at how much more deeply and broadly I can think about a problem when I'm on vacation or relaxing. I'm able to think of better, more creative and more effective solutions to on-going problems when I'm living a more balanced life.

 

And this is from someone a recovering work-aholic who knows a thing or two about working less.

 

Although, having said that, I've been trying to eat lunch for nearly two hours and here I am, working. Which goes just to show that work is like water - it will fill up all of the available space if you let it.

 

Now I'm going to have a salad with goat cheese.

Rob Enderle   9 posts since
Oct 3, 2008

It depends, productivity is measured by product output and more time in generally means more product out.   However after a point the returns, because of fatigue, are diminishing and this traditional measurement doesn’t take into account quality which declines as fatigue increases.    For those that work excessively, and the concept of “excessive” can very largely individual to individual, they may actually have less high quality results than others who better manage their work and leisure.

The more creative the task, it seems, the more critical rest seems to be, the more repetitive and instrumented (the less thinking that is involved), the less critical the requirement but even here injuries tend to increase with fatigue and injuries clearly adversely impact productivity.  

So the key isn’t working less for everyone, but in working optimally and optimally means balancing work and leisure so that high quality results are optimized. 

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