I just read an excellent article in the Harvard Business Review arguing what has long been obvious to me: productivity is not equal to hours spent sitting in a chair.
It’s not just the number of hours we sit at a desk in that determines the value we generate. It’s the energy we bring to the hours we work. Human beings are designed to pulse rhythmically between spending and renewing energy. That’s how we operate at our best. Maintaining a steady reservoir of energy — physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually — requires refueling it intermittently.
The author argues that taking long lunches, working out in the middle of the day, and even naps during the day can make employees more productive and produce higher quality output.
As a number of the comments note, however, doing these things that actually increase worker happiness and productivity is not always possible.
One comment, by user Montmaitre stands out:
Employees are judged on what their managers can easily see and measure- the number of hours they put in. So the ‘high-performers’ in organisations are those who come in early, work late and work weekends. This of course is stupid, because it creates a perverse incentive: people are actually rewarded for being inefficient.
The guy who does as you suggest, takes power naps, improves processes and uses his time efficiently so that he can go home on the dot of closing time is considered a slacker. He is overlooked for promotions and in short, punished for being efficient.
In this environment, people are afraid to leave their desks. People even eat lunch at their desks, and work long hours so they can be seen to work hard. Take a nap during working hours? Might as well hand in your resignation. Unfortunately, in real life there is no ready solution for this except maybe eliminating performance appraisals altogether (a whole different discussion). As long as managers have to evaluate performance, easy signals like hours worked will always have a high weight. So forget about that nap and get to work!
American workers enjoy fewer vacation days than their counterparts just about anywhere in the world and in many ways, our culture stigmatizes relaxation and taking time for one’s self as laziness. Workaholism (14 hour days, 6 days a week…) is venerated (“I’m always the last one in the office!” “I pulled an all-nighter on the case!” “I came in on Saturday!”) and balance is vilified (those who leave work at the close of business at 5 PM, take an hour for lunch or have a rich home or family life are often made to feel like slackers who are inadequately contributing to their places of work.
We as a society ought to rethink quantifying work in “hours” as was fitting in industrial factories. Productivity should be measured in output, something that is significantly enhanced when workers take sufficient time to unwind, refresh and enjoy life and are imbued with a renewed sense of purpose.
