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Company implements 5 hour work day to amazing results (Business Insider)
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YuriLowell
Member
Same here. I wish I could work through lunch and go home at 4.
I'm in from 8 to 4:15 doing the same. Monday is generally busy all day, Tuesday/Wednesday are busy in the morning and middling in the afternoon, Thursday is busy until about 9 and then big lulls, and Friday is busy until 9 and then quiet until about 3:30 when everyone panics before going on vacation.
I have other projects I've taken on to fill the gaps but, really, we could easily cut to half shifts three days of the week (have some people work morning, some people work afternoon) and still meet volume. Hell, even if we kept the same shifts (owing to operational requirements), telecommuting would be a great option given the idle time + fact that I literally do all my work remotely.
Tal Shiar Agent
Member
3 hours of actual work seems about right for an office job.
I probably do just 5 hours of real work per day but the nature of the work requires that some of it be early in the morning and some late in the afternoon.
Theoretically I could be doing work during my downtime, and sometimes I do, but it's not like my job has performance based pay raises or anything so killing myself everyday for a pat on the back and a flat raise every year that barely keeps pace with inflation isn't doing much for me. There's probably one more promotion I could get but I've had two here already and it'll probably be a few years before they look at my position again and realize it's inadequate.
Theoretically I could be doing work during my downtime, and sometimes I do, but it's not like my job has performance based pay raises or anything so killing myself everyday for a pat on the back and a flat raise every year that barely keeps pace with inflation isn't doing much for me. There's probably one more promotion I could get but I've had two here already and it'll probably be a few years before they look at my position again and realize it's inadequate.
ClosingADoor
Member
That's all nice, but it doesn't work in most (office) settings. I might be doing nothing all day, but that company that emails at 16:00 still needs an answer within 30 minutes. And I don't know when he'll email, or if he is going to at all.
So unless most of the country movies to less hours, it won't work. For certain companies it can of course.
So unless most of the country movies to less hours, it won't work. For certain companies it can of course.
Necromanti
Member
Since time at work is rarely used efficiently, I wonder how that relates to things like overtime. Would it be considered fraud if people do it since they aren't being as efficient as they could be? Or maybe the workload may be different for jobs that require it.
I'd take the afternoon/after-luch shift if they had one - some latent night owl tendencies make it hard to be or feel productive by 8a.m., but somewhat later in the day would be fine.
Less, but more sporadic working hours are the future. With modern technology people don't need to be in the same place at specific hours of the day, and may also need to work outside that time
My position would be untenable if it was a hard 9-5, I do a lot of stuff out of hours (systems administrator). My company is really flexible though and I've only set foot in the office once this year. I don't mind working a few hours on a saturday or late in the evening when I know they're not clock-watching me during the day. Compare that to my first desk job where they made us clock in and out, you'd better believe that if I'm getting written up for working 15 minutes under for the week, I'm not working 15 minutes over either.
My position would be untenable if it was a hard 9-5, I do a lot of stuff out of hours (systems administrator). My company is really flexible though and I've only set foot in the office once this year. I don't mind working a few hours on a saturday or late in the evening when I know they're not clock-watching me during the day. Compare that to my first desk job where they made us clock in and out, you'd better believe that if I'm getting written up for working 15 minutes under for the week, I'm not working 15 minutes over either.
Cool companies provide a paid lunch hour.
entremet
Member
Depends on the location.
In NYC, which has a workaholic culture, it's more 9-6 instead of 9 to 5.
I've worked in other states and it's 9-5 with lunch included.
JimiNutz
Banned
Fuck I hope this takes off.
I know for a fact that the majority of my colleagues do not do 7 hours work a day. Most are sat at their desks daydreaming, chatting, browsing the internet or shopping.
I know this because I see it and hear it every day. It's not something that's hidden, it's something that people have just come to accept. Spend 8 hours in the office, work for 3 hours (some probably do less).
I know for a fact that the majority of my colleagues do not do 7 hours work a day. Most are sat at their desks daydreaming, chatting, browsing the internet or shopping.
I know this because I see it and hear it every day. It's not something that's hidden, it's something that people have just come to accept. Spend 8 hours in the office, work for 3 hours (some probably do less).
entremet
Member
Software sales.
astroturfing
Member
yeah.. and for most of us in our team at our hospital it's not that uncommon to work almost the full day without stopping once. just recently i did an 8 hour shift without eating anything, because there just wasn't any time to stop. it's brutal sometimes.
a 5 hour work day would be absolute heaven..
I work on a television show, so I'm not the best barometer for standard work life.
I can work anywhere between 8 and 14 hours on a given day. But the benefits are insane. Free breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day plus all the snacks in-between. And each break is paid for.
Isn't this culture why doctors and nurses get burntout, which can lead to carelessness and mistakes that wouldn't have occurred had the person had proper rest?
TarpitCarnivore
Member
It's pretty funny to be honest. I get in around 9/9:15 and most of the engineers are not in until 10/10:30, so that's already an hour gone. I have 3 stand ups a day that are 15 minutes max, so theres another 45 minutes. Add in lunch over lap which can be 12-1 or 1-2. If it's a sprint planning or sprint retro day that's easily another 2-3 hours gone. So yeah, no way people are super efficient for the full 8 hours of the day.
I'd say even in NYC it varies. Software/Tech can be 10-6 or 10-7 even.
It rings true for just about any profession. I've worked manual labor jobs where people, myself included, would bust ass for 5 hours straight if we knew we could leave when the job was done. On the 8 hour days people stretch out tasks to take more time, as well as take more breaks.
The company I work for implemented half day Fridays during the summer where everyone left at 2pm. Most come in at 9 (I come in at 7 so I would leave at 1) and the results were VERY similar. I work for the home office of a retail decor company as well. Obviously on the IT side, SOMEONE gets the short end of the stick because there's an on call person for each level of support but the amount of work we got done on Fridays was astounding.
The other big implementation and frankly, I believe this was the biggest change to our departments Friday productivity, was no meetings after 11am on Fridays. It's amazing how much more you get done when you're not getting dragged into meetings every six times a day.
This post is just a sort of rebuttal to people saying "This could never work at my company". It totally could. If you work at a retail chain home office, especially the support side, you'd assume this would be impossible but I promise you it isn't. The work culture in this country borders on toxic in some companies.
The other big implementation and frankly, I believe this was the biggest change to our departments Friday productivity, was no meetings after 11am on Fridays. It's amazing how much more you get done when you're not getting dragged into meetings every six times a day.
This post is just a sort of rebuttal to people saying "This could never work at my company". It totally could. If you work at a retail chain home office, especially the support side, you'd assume this would be impossible but I promise you it isn't. The work culture in this country borders on toxic in some companies.
entremet
Member
Yeah.
9-6 and 10-7 were the most common I saw.
But yeah, during crunch good luck at working only 40 hours per week lol.
It's actually not that bad!
You don't want to be a farmer in the Middle Ages lol. However, work and home were more integrated back then too.
It was the Industrial Revolution which created tons of ills. Union pushback gave us the modern weekend and reasonable hours.
SuperBowser
Member
Yea, pretty much. When I first graduated as a doctor, I was doing 10-12 hour days consistently while skipping lunch. I was unlucky with the workload I was given, but it was awful, inefficient and not sustainable.
I still have occasional 12 hour shifts that are unavoidably horrendous (no time for food, water or toilet breaks) but I will absolutely give myself breaks in normal work. In my experience, people that don't take breaks are no more efficient; they're just anxious, stressed, irritable, slow and mistake-prone.
If they doubled up on staff, that would be possible today.
evilromero
Member
Post-industrial work culture. Hasn't been with us long but it quickly planted rigid expectations about working life. That coupled with very pro-corporate sentiments snd you have modern slave labor.
I'm pretty sure in general mental productivity plummet as a rock after 3-4 hours. 8 workhours exist because we used to do mostly manual labor which is way less effected in term of productivity. Our brain isn't as good as our muscle at doing long prolonged work. It's pretty logical if you think about it, our muscle have been evolved for almost a billion year to do what they do, our brain has started to do "creative" thought in ten million year at most. It scarcely had time to refine its intellectual power.
A study of only office workers is a very narrow field. Engineering and manufacture working life is very different, 100% effort all day every day, if you aren't working product isn't getting finished and you aren't getting paid.
Coinspinner
Member
Seems like it would work for companies that produce something, not for companies that provide service. At the company I work for we have to be available from when our clients open to when they close (and at all other times too, though at a higher rate.)
Grizzlyjin
Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
It was the same thing at my university. Productivity took a nose dive after lunch. By 3pm it sorta feels like people are just running out the clock.
synchronicity
Gold Member
Industrialization tried to turn humans into another piece of machinery, turns out we're not. The system may request/require it, but it's never going to happen. Our rhythms don't work that way.
HarryHengst
Member
Not much worth of any real value is produced in the Valley. not sure which comes first, the ridiculous working hours or the useless stuff they produce.
Admiral Woofington
Member
This is nice and all but it doesn't work for every industry. Those with a major project with milestones and an end date don't have the luxury to take 5 hour days. In 5 hours absolutely nothing gets done in a day
Productivity is seen throughout the whole day
Productivity is seen throughout the whole day
Muppet of a Man
Member
This is the damn truth. You may think you are an atheist in America but even most atheists subconsciously subscribe to this bullshit even though it is another hegemonic control/exploitation mechanism ascribable to Protestantism. Wake the fuck up, people.
I dunno, sounds too good to be true.
There are plenty of jobs where there's a lot of downtime, true. But there are plenty jobs where there is a lot of downtime AND uptime. I know from experience there'd be days where I'd get only 3-4 hours of actual work done, but then there'd be days where I need every single hour of the day to complete my work (and possibly still not even finish). While I like the idea of a shorter workday, many jobs just need to require 8 hours so that employees can fill them if necessary.
I think a better alternative is 4 9-hour days with a day off on Friday. You only lose 4 hours from the entire week and your employees are happy they get a 3 day weekend all the time.
There are plenty of jobs where there's a lot of downtime, true. But there are plenty jobs where there is a lot of downtime AND uptime. I know from experience there'd be days where I'd get only 3-4 hours of actual work done, but then there'd be days where I need every single hour of the day to complete my work (and possibly still not even finish). While I like the idea of a shorter workday, many jobs just need to require 8 hours so that employees can fill them if necessary.
I think a better alternative is 4 9-hour days with a day off on Friday. You only lose 4 hours from the entire week and your employees are happy they get a 3 day weekend all the time.
Yep same. I dont believe in the work long hours crap businesses have. Most of the time you are managing perception of long work hours etc its so annoying i have to play this game. If i could find a good company that would go for the 5 hour a day work week id be so happy.
Working smarter > just working hard for the sake of working hard.
If more hours are put in before a projects ramp up and planning i dont see why it wouldn't work even with milestones. The largest issues with projects is awful planning and risk management.
The's probably part of it; it helps productivity if your "carrot" essentially functions as a de facto stick because there's no other place those guys are gonna' be able to go to get paid for a 40 hour workweek while doing less.
Also given that this is a new business, I'm still not inclined to believe much in its long-term prospects. They seem like they've got that pie-in-the-sky startup glow about them. If they're happy with what they're doing, that's great, although I don't imagine it would scale well. A 9-person team is different and has different accountability needs than a massive workforce, and the fact that there are bonuses to productivity plus "if you have to you work a 12 hour day" makes me think that he's still pressuring his employees whether he realizes it or not.
For my job, I might only have 2-3 hours of work some days (and then 10 hours during the busy conference season) but there's no way our office could function on such reduced hours, because pressing inquiries, last minute corrections, new compressions or updates to old projects are always coming in.
I think people should be more focused on telecommuting than the hours themselves, but that's just me.
Can apply to businesses that don't have much actual work to do during a day and are overstaffed, sure. Works great for sales and office environments. I work in a warehouse and can tell you a person's twelfth hour is almost as productive as their first, and people who do four hour shifts don't work any more efficiently.
My old job was miserable. Office job that was 40 hrs but after working there I could barely actually work maybe two whole hours s day unless there was a crunch.
Now my job is 30 hours a week at a much slower, smaller business and I do so much more work.
Yeah I dunno. Some people also don't have the temperament for sitting in a cubicle and concentrating on boring shit for the better part of their day. I feel like that's a huge part of it.
Now my job is 30 hours a week at a much slower, smaller business and I do so much more work.
Yeah I dunno. Some people also don't have the temperament for sitting in a cubicle and concentrating on boring shit for the better part of their day. I feel like that's a huge part of it.
Zantetsuken
Member
Getting off in the middle of the day has to be the best feeling in the world. The damn sun is still out. It sure beats my 11-8 shift.
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