Is 40 hours a week too much?
okta.com
Is 40 hours a week too much?
1–10 of 230 posts
Re: Is 40 hours a week too much?
#2There is so much variability in the kind of work people do it's hard to make a rule that fits everyone. For knowledge workers I think 40 hours is near the top of productive time you are able to wring from people. Certainly some individuals could work much more if engaged, but on the whole, without a strong incentive otherwise, I think 40 hours is a maximum limit.
Re: Is 40 hours a week too much?
#3Great blog post. Does Okta have a four day work week yet?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/business/four-day-work-we...
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/16/four-day-workweek-is-new-sta...
Re: Is 40 hours a week too much?
#4If you want to find the optimal number look at how many hours startup founders put in. Incentives are 100% aligned in how they benefit from their work. They have no incentive to work less or more than the optimal number of hours.
Re: Is 40 hours a week too much?
#5Too much for whom? For businesses, definitely not too much; if you're awake you could be working. For workers? We worked less when we were hunter-gatherers, and even peasants up to the industrial revolution worked seasonally and thus had an average of 20 hours a week. Now we work 40 hours a week for 44-48 weeks a year. And for what? To pay too much for health care, be stressed out constantly, sit in traffic commuting, and waste away sitting in a chair ruining our eyes staring at screens.
Re: Is 40 hours a week too much?
#6There is so much variability in the kind of work people do it's hard to make a rule that fits everyone. For knowledge workers I think 40 hours is near the top of productive time you are able to wring from people. Certainly some individuals could work much more if engaged, but on the whole, without a strong incentive otherwise, I think 40 hours is a maximum limit.
I agree with you on this. It is not only task based but individual based. When I am at my desk doing tech type work I max out 'productively' at about 30 hours +/- depending on what I'm doing. But when I'm out doing farm stuff I can run 60 or 70 hours without much trouble when on the tractor etc., or a bit less when stacking hay bales.
Mentally tired, for me, is much harder to recover from than physically tired. I'm not saying I want to work 70 or 80 hours a week lifting heavy things, but this type of hourly rating system can be very subjective by the individual.
Re: Is 40 hours a week too much?
#7Many companies think their employees are being productive for 40 hours a week, while it's actually somewhere between 10 and 20, with the rest being a big void. If you are actually doing 40 hours a week you are productive as hell.
Re: Is 40 hours a week too much?
#8There is so much variability in the kind of work people do it's hard to make a rule that fits everyone. For knowledge workers I think 40 hours is near the top of productive time you are able to wring from people. Certainly some individuals could work much more if engaged, but on the whole, without a strong incentive otherwise, I think 40 hours is a maximum limit.
I think if there were more variability in scheduling a lot of people would exceed 40 hours on average without much issue.
If office workers had the ability to have more relaxed PTO I think it would alleviate a lot of that. But even in places where that's possible via the type of work, it's still culturally not acceptable to just take a day off here or there without a "reason."
Re: Is 40 hours a week too much?
#9tl;dr
Yes
Re: Is 40 hours a week too much?
#10Many companies think their employees are being productive for 40 hours a week, while it's actually somewhere between 10 and 20, with the rest being a big void. If you are actually doing 40 hours a week you are productive as hell.
> If you are actually doing 40 hours a week you are productive as hell.
I disagree. But I think what we qualify as "work" is more rigid than it needs to be. Is spending 5 minutes looking at HN every few hours work? Most people would say no, but it absolutely helps developers to know what's going on or new or what other devs outside their company are saying.
If I spend 20 minutes reading about a language/app that my company doesn't use is that work? I think a lot of the "yes" answers would be accompanied by rolling eyes.