Spotlight: Working hours, more productivity

There is a soaring number of employers who are beginning to realise that less working hours can result in more productivity. There have been too many researches which have all attempted to quantify the kind of relation shared between total number of hours worked and productivity of the task. Such researches have revealed that the output among employees falls crucially after they work for long hours. Ahmed al Hinaei, owner of Al Bustan Company said: “The expenses of running the machinery like computers, printers, scanners, etc and providing the employee with ACs, light, ventilation is also accountable for further high costs. The entire idea behind the fact that it is possible to cut down working hours without harming productivity should definitely be worthy for both workers and their employers”. While Mohammed al Abri, HR manager in a highly reputed company, focuses on the mental and physical health for employees saying that “both physical and mental work can lead to fatigue and tiredness which restrains the bodily and cognitive resources which people put towards their work. It is not about how many hours you work. It is all about the size of output you produced in a certain time. People can finish their duty in few hours when focusing on work. This way you will abide by the safety requirements and also produce more”. “Healthier employees will have more energy and be more motivated to do their job versus overworked, stressed, exhausted employees who will have less energy and motivation, and ultimately take longer to do a task because they lack the same level of alertness that someone working shorter days has”, Al Abri explained. Some employees requested also decreasing the working days to four days instead of five. This will result, as studies show, in reduced stress, increased productivity, happier and more engaged employees. Amjad al Dhuhli said: “I am pretty sure that working longer hours doesn’t increase efficiency but also not sure that working less will increase it. Some employees are used not to be productive at all. “From my own experience, I think that eight hours are not enough for some employees to finish their work. While some positions don’t require these long hours it depends on the duty assigned to you”, he added. Lisa, fitness trainer at one of the gyms, says that she works from 8 am to 4 pm. Her job requires moving, dancing, jumping, and all other exercises. “It is quite difficult for me to finish the day with the same activeness. In the last class, I feel that I can’t give my best”. How many hours did you work this week? Why don’t you try cutting down your hours next week — and see if you reap the rewards in your productivity levels as a result?