Is the 6-Hour Workday Finally Here?

 This opening paragraph of a recent Fast Company article couldn’t fail to catch my eye:

“The eight-hour workday hasn't changed much since Henry Ford first experimented with it for factory workers. Now, Americans work slightly longer—an average 8.7 hours—though more time goes into email, meetings, and Facebook than whatever our official job duties actually are. Is it time to rethink how many hours we spend at the office?”

Some would say an article about cutting the typical work day to six hours is little more than “click bait,” but when an entire country seems to hop on the bandwagon, we should read a little a deeper. And whether or not you choose to pursue a shortened work day, the Fast Company article and this one from HC Online do have good ideas we all should apply today.

HC Online tells us about an app development company in Sweden who has switched to the six-hour workday approach without losing productivity or profits. Executives say, “Workers are asked to stay off social media, avoid other distractions and keep meetings to a minimum.”

The article goes on to share the example of Toyota service centers that made the switch 13 years ago. The results? Profits increased by 25%, turnover is down, and recruiting new employees is much faster and easier.

On the surface, this can sound like whining or even laziness, but I don’t think so. I think it might just be a realization of the promises of “modern management” decades ago that by now we should be working far fewer hours thanks to efficiency tools invented throughout the years.

How are Swedish companies able to realize the dream while the rest of us are left floundering in ever longer days, feeling more and more overwhelmed by the demands of work and home? They found a way to help employees be their most productive while in the office. But there’s no reason we can’t learn and apply the same lessons ourselves.

How to Get There

1. Eliminate the busy work – How much of your day-to-day job (and that of those on your team) is inefficient? How much time is spent reading emails you’ve been cc’d on but likely didn’t need to know about? Are the processes in place necessary or really more about “the way we’ve always done it?” We would all be far better served if we took a hard look at “the job” and determined what actions and outputs truly advance the goals and objectives of the team, the company and the customer vs. which are more busy work in the vein of TPS Reports made famous in the movie Office Space. (Email subscribers, click through for the video clip.)

  

2. Help people better manage distractions – Email notifications, instant messaging systems, “Sorry to interrupt, but can I cask you a quick question?” – All serve to distract, disengage and delay needed outcomes. What can we do to support people in breaking a culture of expectation for “instant response, instant gratification?” If we learn from energy experts such as Tony Schwartz, we all work far better, more efficiently, and more productively in 90-minute bursts without distraction or interruption. Encouraging people to shut off messaging systems and close out email to only check it times a day can make us all more efficient and effective.

3. Be sure the work getting done is the work that needs to be done. Too often, we look at our to-do lists and tackle first those we know we can complete quickly or easily. It’s human nature to want that sense of accomplishment. Yet often, these are not “Most Important Items” (as referred to by Kevin Kruse in his latest book on this topic, 15 Secrets Successful People Know about Time Management). If we focus on the most important items first, when our energy levels are highest, we often find the “busy work” takes care of itself.

What’s a normal workday in your organization? I’m willing to wager it’s longer than eight hours today. Do you foresee a possibility for a six-hour workday? What busy work and distractions could be eliminated from your day?

As Globoforce’s Vice President of Client Strategy and Consulting, Derek Irvine is an internationally minded management professional with over 20 years of experience helping global companies set a higher ambition for global strategic employee recognition, leading workshops, strategy meetings and industry sessions around the world. He is the co-author of "The Power of Thanks" and his articles on fostering and managing a culture of appreciation through strategic recognition have been published in Businessweek, Workspan and HR Management. Derek splits his time between Dublin and Boston. Follow Derek on Twitter at @DerekIrvine.

Comments

[Drew]

Interesting stuff. I can see how this could affect jobs where the vast majority, if not all, of the work is done when a person is at the office/work location.

But when you factor in the “always connected” piece of modern day professional work, it would require a cultural shift to how work outside of the office is viewed, in addition to the lessening of hours spent in the office.

A senior consultant I worked with once shared that she told her husband one of the great benefits of consulting was that it allowed her flexibility in her schedule. Her husband responded “yeah, you have the flexibility to work whatever 12 hours of the day you choose.” I’ve always laughed at that, but too true in many cases.

But like you point out, even if a major shift may seem unlikely in the near-term, we can certainly still learn some lessons that can be applied in our companies, teams, or even just personally.

I recently made the shift to not have outlook messages pop up on my screen when they come in. I know it's a little thing and others probably do it, but it was actually a bit hard for me at first. That said, I have certainly seen the benefit of not being distracted by every little thing that comes in.

[Karen Kervick]

You mean I shouldn't read my Compensation Cafe emails first thing in the morning? I do get distracted sometimes....

If exempt people actually tracked their time, as they may do for charging hours to projects, they would see exactly where their time goes. And could easily see room for improvement to make better use of time.

In the HR worlds I have lived in, most staff are busy enough for 8 hours and would have to delay more projects and requests for information if they worked fewer hours. We operate lean as it is. That being said, there is plenty of work we could stop, if the regulations and legal requirements we are encumbered with would be reversed.

One tip I have found entertaining as well as in line with what Derek wrote. It's called "Eat that Frog!" by Brian Tracy, which speaks to doing the most important task first in order to be energized the rest of the day. It is inspired by an alleged quote of Mark Twain's but I just read there is no evidence of that quote and may actually have originated in France. Regardless, the message is clear, do your hardest or most unpleasant task first and stop procrastinating. So much for eating my frog first this morning!

http://www.briantracy.com/blog/time-management/the-truth-about-frogs

Of course this is also influenced by your own personal best time of day to work. Rather than simply cutting a work day to 6 hours, I would also advocate for flex time to allow employees to work when they do their best work, wherever possible.

If you are not a morning person, I suggest you do not get a job at a bakery. Your best work has to be done in the wee hours.

[E. James (Jim) Brennan]

While noting that people generally do best what they most enjoy doing, the old advice to tackle your toughest job first is always a good idea. If it has to be done eventually, you might as well get it out of the way, per "first begun, first finished." Why waste time & energy fretting? Just do it and put it behind you.

"Presenteeism" is a long-standing issue that only got worse with the creation of the FLSA: it inspired attitudes where hours spent at the workplace are considered productivity value measures. Expansion of required OT to more currently exempt workers will bring great challenges to efforts to control work hours. The future is more uncertain than ever.

[Karen Kervick]

Auf Deutsch, "Frisch gewagt ist halb gewonnen!" as my father always said to us when complaining about school work. "Well begun is half done" I am sure every culture has the same advice and those who don't take it!

Of course it is easier to measure productivity in some roles than in others. Widget creation has specific tasks and the # finished at the end of the day is measurable production. Creative jobs or management roles that don't necessarily result in a product every day are much harder to measure. Lots of time is spent not working by those who are at work too. So the clock should not be the measure.