“Working” An 80-Hour Week? Yeah, Whatever.

12 hours a day for six days, maybe a few leisurely hours on a Sunday?

It isn’t clever, it isn’t productive, and in the strictest sense of the word “work”, it is probably a blatant lie.

I would class “work” as facilitating a change of state in any given process, in the fastest speed that enables you to do the most efficient job. You have to be actively “doing” something for the advancement of your company for it to count as work. Can anyone really “work” flat out for 12 hours every day?

This doesn’t include copious “networking” on social media unless that is your job. It doesn’t include countless long lunch meetings or constant after-work hospitality. If there is a valid business reason for it, then fine, but don’t kid yourself, most of the time it is for pleasure purposes, isn’t it?

In my view (and this is controversial), it doesn’t include the hundreds of minutes spent daydreaming over spreadsheets or presentations every week. Yes, you can check the figures just one last time with a fine-tooth comb, but do you need to? You can, of course, perfect the selection of images on the presentation, but does this change the final message or it’s impact? Probably not. 

Yet, far too many people come to work at 0800 and leave at 2000. The disease of “presenteeism” is rife at every level of the organization, and it is self-perpetuating. In the absence of other reasons, those who stay longer are the ones who are given bonuses for “hard-work”, fully independent of whether those hours have been spent at full throttle. 

It is those of us who “have a life” outside of work that suffer the unfair comparisons. We get more or less the same amount of work done in significantly less time, but for some reason, because people “choose” to stay at work longer, it is seen that they are more dedicated.

It isn’t a choice between work and life. You can have both.

The Scandinavians have it the right way around. With their 6-hour work days, they probably boast to each other how much work they have managed to pack in. Of course, they are still available for business out of the office, but they are not chained to their desks from dawn to dusk (although, to be fair, dusk comes pretty early in the winter there, so that is probably still the case!).

It is up to leaders to change the culture within their organizations.

If they challenge their people to work smart and not work long, they will get the most out of them, and they will come into work “ready and raring” every morning. If bosses insist on long days and maximum “face-time” (because it looks good to their bosses), that is a sure-fire recipe for burnout and absence through long-term stress.

I have seen so many people lose their spark because they were worn down by the drudgery of office life.

Do what you need to, do it well and go home to relax!

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