Working Smarter, Not Longer
Bottom Line: The World Health Organization’s recent work study has gained the most attention worldwide of anything they’ve put out over the past year that’s not related to a virus. According to their findings the average person who works in excess of 55 hours weekly is at an elevated risk of premature death. The most common way the long-hard work will kill you, stroke and what’s already the top killer – even during the pandemic -heart disease. Now for most of us that regularly work in excess of 55 hours per week what’s our takeaway supposed to be? Are we just supposed to do less? Stop pursing our dreams or excellence (which is seldom achieved within the confines of a 40-hour work week)? Naturally the WHO, which doesn't exactly embrace capitalist values or the American exceptionalism model - would say yes. The WHO’s three recommendations were these:
- governments can introduce, implement and enforce laws, regulations and policies that ban mandatory overtime and ensure maximum limits on working time;
- bipartite or collective bargaining agreements between employers and workers’ associations can arrange working time to be more flexible, while at the same time agreeing on a maximum number of working hours;
- employees could share working hours to ensure that numbers of hours worked do not climb above 55 or more per week.
Ahh yes, predictably they suggest government mandates to limit work and secondarily the union model for limited workloads. I’d expect nothing less. Notice how there’s no recommendation which is applicable to entrepreneurs or business owners? Rather than giving up your dreams or simply sacrificing your health there could be another path forward.
I've always been a big believer in playing to one's strengths. There's endless research demonstrating that one's time and energy is best spent on doing what you're best at doing rather than attempting to work harder to compensate for your weaknesses. A few years ago, Gallup produced research putting hard numbers to it for employees and employers. Here's what it means to you.
Those who are able to focus on their strengths at work are 8% more productive. On one hand, that might not seem incredibility significant, but look at it this way. That's the equivalent of getting and extra 4+ hours of work in during a 55-hour work week. And if you’re working 60 hours a week – that shaves about 5 hours off your weekly load to get you down to that 55-hour mark. For employers the impact is even more significant. For most businesses the single most expensive cost of doing business that's preventable is turnover. Employees who feel they're able to focus on their strengths at work are 15% less likely to leave. That’s plenty of motivation for employers to allow employees to focus on their strengths:
- 8% more productivity
- 15% lower turnover
That's a no-brainier once you structure your business with people of complementary strengths. It's also motivation for employees who aren't able to employ their talent in their jobs. Working smarter rather longer may be the key to achieving the closest many of us will get to balance.
Photo Credit: Getty Images