Stanford University study finds that employees who work 55 and 70 hours get the same amount of work done.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
A Stanford University study has found that employees who work 55 and 70 hours get the same amount of work done.
OregonLive.com writes:
The Stanford study is relatively new, but it draws on research going back 100 years — all of which, taken together, puts the ideal workweek in the 40- to- 50-hour range. A 1962 study, for example, found that cutting back 10 percent from a 40-hour workweek would “result in a six percent reduction in output.” The obvious reason for limiting weekly work hours is that stress and fatigue from long hours diminish productivity and can lead to high employment turnover. But most of the evidence for this comes from the study of industrial workers. There’s another reason for limiting hours that also applies to desk jockeys: additional free time provokes more creative thinking that increases both productivity and the quality of the work.
One of the new study’s findings that may align with this conclusion is that working at night appears to be “slightly more productive” than working during the daytime. This shouldn’t be surprising. After all, nighttime workers tend to have less oversight from managers, perhaps freeing them to just sit and mindlessly stare — until, unbidden, the perfect solution to the problem of the moment comes to them.
