Research Suggests Companies Are Wrong About the 8-Hour Workday. Here’s How to Prepare for Flexible Schedules
- Why, when, and how long we work could change everything.
Source | www.inc.com |
Microsoft Japan announced the results of its four-day workweek experiment–where 2,300 employees got to take every Friday off. The result? A 40 percent increase in productivity.
This finding raises a lot of questions about the way we work, how much time we spend working, and when we work. An eight-hour workday, for example, is currently the standard. And, in many companies, that’s far below the average number of hours employees spend working.
In fact, I interview leaders and employees all over the world. Many salaried employees proudly attest to working 10- or even 12-hour days. Those numbers might be a stretch from the truth. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the average office worker in America clocks in at 8.8 hours each day.
Some of you reading this might chuckle at a mere 8.8 hours. Some leaders actually might see it as a insult to the old slogan, “If you want more, you’re going to have to put in your time.”
