In 7 Words, Adam Grant Revealed What’s Wrong With Work. Every Leader Should Pay Attention
The Wharton professor challenges our basic assumptions about our jobs.
“For the vast majority of our human history, we worked far less than what we do today. This doesn’t make much sense. Our increased productivity (due to technology) means we should be working far less than what we do. The fact that we’re told we have to show up for half of our waking hours and spend time away from family and away from leisure, despite how far we’ve come as a global society, is just as egregious a lie as what our forebears were told by the wealthy business owners over a century ago.”
I think when I was working f/t adding another 2 to 3 hours to my work day wouldn’t have made much difference, so I’m a fan of 4 days 10 hours per. I currently work 3 days a week and I’m so much more productive than when I worked 5.
I dropped from 5 clinic days to 4, years ago. I didn’t lengthen the days. In 32h/week I saw more patients than I ever did prior. It was the best work move I’ve ever made.
I don’t think I “got” that - I will say that 18 years ago when I negotiated a 3 day workweek (24 hours total) I assured my boss that they’d still get 40 hours of work from me, but in 24 hours…just less bs time; get the work done; and be efficient. It can be done. WFH has been a godsend to me, now I don’t even need to drive the 5 miles, pack lunch, or even think about work clothes. I’m probably even more efficient!
I hate 4-10s. Especially in the winter. Go to work when it is dark, come home when it is dark and then so exhausted I just zone out, go to bed and do it all over.
I honestly work 7 days but not fully. My colleague texted me a work question at 10p New Year’s Eve. I have ‘customers’ who are car dealers that have texted me at 1a.
I love it.
Not a fan of lesser work weeks. Regardless the issue is I don’t believe people are working the hours they claim now. I’d say attending but not working.
I suppose it’s the job. I’m a corporate guy. We get paid the same regardless so unlike a doctor that needs to see patients.
I see a lot of complaining about hours but not a lot of work being done. And employers afraid to attack give the current employment situation. The employees, at least through last year, had the upper hand. Companies are afraid of alienating them.
I’ve experienced this as well. It’s the “on call” model. And it’s part of why colleagues like working from home. They can check in to answer questions and perform tasks, but they also aren’t working (on work stuff) all the time.
I suspect many of them, with a different schedule and better management, could cut a day out of their work week.
For quite a while, I worked 4 days a week (for 80% of salary) and the work life balance was great. There were also times I worked 7 days a week. While there wasn’t balance, because the schedule was to accomplish certain tasks, I was very busy and happily engaged. Showing up to do work that doesn’t seem important or fulfilling, or simply to be available, is awful - in however many days. That could be cut.
Wonder where/how the 40 hour work week concept was created? What is the “magic” in 40 hours?
D2 works a 4 days/10 hours week in a healthcare profession. She is in her first job out of grad school and the position open also was a M-Th position with Fri/Sat/Sun off. It would be tough for her to go traditional. Yeah, it’s dark to dark right now. But at other times of the year she can leave in the light and come home and still have a couple hours of daylight easy to live a little.
I’m salaried but work in a small office where some people are union and hourly. I feel guilty if I leave work a little early even though I often am still checking email when I’m home. I’m really come to dislike being “tied” to a 40 hour mostly in office week.
“In the 1920s, Henry Ford famously adopts an eight-hour workday, though, in part, that is so he can run his factories 24 hours a day. But it took the Great Depression to make 40 hours the norm. Government saw a shorter workweek as a way to fight the massive unemployment crisis by spreading the remaining labor out over more people. That led to a series of laws that eventually enshrined 40 hours as America’s workweek in 1940.” How the 40-hour work week became the norm : NPR
I really bristle at the idea that people slack off at work. I worked more than 40 hours a week, and I can assure you that I actually worked the entire time I was at work. I had measurable results that had to be achieved in a timely manner. In my case, it was clear that I had more than 40 hours of work a week, and I asked numerous times for the job to be reviewed so that I could shed some responsibilities (never happened).
OTOH, I had coworkers who worked fewer than the 40 hours (if that) they spent in the office. But they didn’t have measurable results to meet. I blame upper management for being too clueless to quantify their job responsibilities - and too clueless to hire people who were qualified enough to know what they should be doing in the absence of management telling them detailed information about what their job entailed.
So I guess my point is that some jobs are set up to be more than 40 hours. If that’s what you want, fine. I got tired of it, and the organization lost a good employee. Some jobs are allowed to be less than 40 hours because employees can put in fewer hours and are not held accountable - or think that they have done everything they should be doing in less than 40 hours.
As for how many hours a week people “should” be working, I don’t know. But I do believe that typical office jobs should be set up to allow parents to drop off/pick up kids from daycare, allow people time in the day to work out, allow people to be able to prepare and eat dinner at home. If there is no time for balance in life, health and relationships suffer.
This is what I didn’t know how to put into words! Employers need to set employees up to be more productive more efficiently. Work smarter, not “harder” (meaning longer!)"
I think it’s more about flexibility than actual hours, especially if you love your career. My H has always worked way more than 40 hours. On average he works 65-70 hours/week But, he essentially has unlimited vacation time (and vacation time is very protected in their company in that no one will email/call if they know someone is off), lots of flexibility if he wants to work from home, or needs to cut out early. And there are a lots of fun perks, that include me ; )
His last employer he worked similar hours but with zero flexibility. Being at the office 6 days/week was essentially required and if you didn’t pick up the owner’s call, even at 2 am, he was ticked. Very little flexibility and scheduling vacation time was a nightmare and when on vacation, he was still expected to be working/checking emails/being available. Felt like awful work/home balance for the family even though he was working similar hours.
I worked 3 twelve hour shifts during my years of hospital nursing (actually more than that when you consider you have to be there early to get shift report on each of your assigned patients).
I usually did not work 3 in a row because I was so exhausted I needed a day to physically recover. I have never worked so hard in my life as I did in those shifts. Nursing is very hard work physically, mentally, and often, emotionally.