The Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim, worth over $80 billion, recently called for a “radical overhaul” in our working lives, coming out in support of a three-day working week, made viable by 11-hour working days (instead of eight) and a later retirement age of 75. [....]
Sweden is already moving towards a six-hour working day across a number of sectors because of clear business benefits.
A recent experiment among care workers there showed that nurses who worked six hour days took half as much sick time as those in the control group, and were three times less likely to take time off. The nurses were also 20 percent happier and had more energy at work and in their spare time, allowing them to do 64 percent more activities with elderly residents, therefore increasing productivity. [...]
The growing evidence being that working in excess of eight hours a day is pointless; productivity plateaus as our focus slips. Not to mention Parkinson’s Law – work expands to fill the time available for its completion – meaning that if you give yourself 12 hours to do a six-hour task, the task will increase in complexity so as to fill that entire day.
A recent study found that only half of British workers spend six hours or more productively working on an average day, with one third admitting to wasting up to three hours a day by being unable to concentrate or distracted by chatter.
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