Is overtime or longer hours really neccesary?
Here is my question to you how many work hours do you spend actually completing tasks?
According to an article by INC the average person is most productive three hours a day in a typical eight hour week. Adam ruins everything speaks about this in his videos about how the rest of time was wasted on non work related things such as social media, YouTube, etc. Is this time wasting beneficial to a company trying to compete in a innovate and money driven market.
For me personally when I worked as a intern from 9 am to 2 pm I was most productive from about 9 am to 11 am. Which conveniently was the time where I finished most if not all my tasks. Upon self reflection my job could have finished sooner but as stated in my contract I had to stay until 2pm.
If you think about it does it really make sense?. In your life does it take you eight hours do important tasks. Does the student naturally revise eight hours plus? Does the artist naturally take eight hours without fail to draw something? Does the solider always need eight hours out on the battlefield?
My point is that we should moving towards working hours that are flexible and take into account the individual. In which the benefits out weight the cons. Naturally the worker would be happier and healthier because they would be less vulnerable to health risks such as type 2 diabetes,obesity and even some cancers according to NHS. In addition the worker is more likely to be happier because they wouldn't spend all their time working and actually have more free time in their LIMITED LIFE to do other things.
Productivity would increase as well because the average worker is most productive for about three hours in a day. By cutting working hours employees are more likely to get work done because they would be less tired and more energised leading to less mistakes in their work and also helping to reduce work place accidents as well.
Finally its beneficial to the company because they would have healthier and happier employees which naturally reduces turnover and improves morale and the work culture. Also it helps profit wise as well because employees would still be just as productive as before.
Don't take my word for it though in 1914 Ford reduced its work hours to eight hours a day and also doubled wages when the norm at the time was ten hours or more. The result was increased productivity.
Sources
Inc
Adam ruins everything Youtube