Why should we spent less time at work?

Daily routine

8 hours for work, 8 hours for family/leisure time and 8 hours for sleep. This is the way of everyday life for millions people in our country. It’s utterly depressing in my eyes. I know I won’t be able to work like this for the rest of my working life. But let’s be honest, nobody who says they work 8 hours per day actually work 8 hours per day.

8 hours working day has been around for little over 100 years now. That’s a long time. The way, how people were working in the beginning of 20th century was way different then we work now. Everyone knows that. Isn’t it already a time to reconsider the optimal working hours per day? Many researches claim, employees don’t work more than 5 hours a day. Like really work … And yet the majority of companies force you to stay in office for those 8 hours anyway. This kills productivity, creativity and also have a negative effect on people’s self development. How do you want to motivate a person, who leaves home at 7am, arrives at work at 8am. Works 8 hours and returns back home around 6pm (traffic jam). This person wants to have a dinner, maybe just turn off his/hers brain for a moment and watch a TV show for 30-60 minutes. It’s 7 by then and another day is almost over. No wonder, one of the most common phrases nowadays is “I don’t have time”. 

Working hours – your employer neglected benefit

For the last 1,5 years, I’ve been working for a company that looks more on an amount of job done, rather than on the number of hours spent in the office. And I couldn’t be more happy about it. Of course this can be abused, but if you trust your boss and your boss trust you, then this system can work. The question about job salary is usually one of the most crucial ones at the interview, but I think, that the actual working hours should not be neglected. Let’s be honest, it might be only logical to think that more working hours = higher salary. I bet there is someone at your own company, who you think isn’t working as much as you do, however you suspect he gets more money than you do, right?

Sometimes less is more and even I do realize now, that even though I might get higher salary, if I went to a different company, this benefit of trust has a significant added value to me, because when I feel like I am wasting my time in the office I can go home. Honestly, I sometimes take a nap right after I get from work. Even more honestly, who doesn’t?! But sometimes, I work on myself in my free time. And I think this pays off to the company overall.

“How much hours a day do you have to sit here?” It’s and awkward question on your job interview I know. But I am going to ask it on my next interview anyway. Because, isn’t the picture below kind of true? Every peak of productivity is followed by a really deep drop down and you spend time mindlessly going through your Facebook, looking for nothing.