Number of work hours vs productivity

Recently, the debate of whether reducing the number of hours of work each week will lead to increase in productivity has been a hot topic. Of course, we all envy citizens of Guthenburg, Sweden for starting a six-hour work day experiment. You can read more about that here.

It turns out, that significant number of companies and/or cities have tried out the mandatory reduction of hours of work in order to improve quality of life and productivity. Some programs succeeded, and some did not. Number of hours is not the only factor when considering better quality of work and productivity. It depends highly on the type of job and timing. This story from BBC Capital is a thorough compilation of different experiments, and why some worked and some didn’t.

What do you think is the best work schedule for your position? How would you feel if your company cut hours without cutting your pay? 


- Yumi Zaic