Do you know people who claim to work 80 hours a week? They’re almost certainly lying - or exaggerating - or just deluded.
Back in 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produced a report called, The Overestimated Workweek Revisited. It found that people tend to overstate how many hours they actually work by between 5-10 percent.
But the really interesting result was that the more hours people claim, the bigger the error. So people who claim to work over 75 hours per week overestimate on average by a whopping 33 percent! Interestingly, people who log less than 24 hours per week tend to underestimate how many hours they work.
Part of this can be explained by the fact that people often include things like their long commutes. But the BLS believes that one of the important reasons for this tendency to exaggerate is “social desirability”: working a lot is seen as a good thing. Not working is seen as indicating laziness or irresponsibility. This is all quite understandable.
From a businesses perspective, it isn’t a good thing. Even if a company’s programmers spend 70 hours a week at the office, it doesn’t mean much if 20 of those hours are spent playing nerf football between cubicles.
But there is a reason why many employees feel that they need to put in lots of hours at work, even if what they are doing isn’t productive. Many businesses have a culture that looks down on people who aren’t working until nine at night. Working ridiculous numbers of hours shows a commitment to the company. Plus, there is an unstated assumption that the more time people work, the more productive they will be.
Businesses are starting to question this assumption.
Many businesses are seeing that by having their employees work less they can actually get more things accomplished. And it isn’t just about raw productivity. Having a full and varied life can make employees more creative when they are on the job.
Find out how innovative companies are changing the way they look at work, and in the process creating happier and more productive workers.
Infographic Sources:
24. Bamboohr Careers
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