Fewer hours at work

In the past, when you went to the HR Department of an organisation or policymakers at the workplace and asked them to reduce the working hours by working less hours a day or a week — they would look strangely at you, thinking that you were coming from a different planet.

Now, the imaginary question arises: How can fewer working hours be more productive? As employees, can we dream to have a less burnout working environment, a less stressed one, with more rests and better work-life balance? Yes, I believe we can dream of this, and the dream may come true.

Possibly, we can reduce the working hours by 20% or so and give an additional rest day to the employees, i.e., work 4-days a week instead of 5. Statistics and studies have shown that human beings cannot work for a continuous 8 hours per day, and in fact, productivity reaches the highest (95% productive) in a total of 6 hours per day.

In one study during 2019, Microsoft found that reducing working days from 5-day-a-week to 4 had increased productivity by 40%. In addition, Scandinavian countries, like Sweden and Iceland, were among the pioneers (during 2017) in applying fewer working hours, with evidence of productivity increasing by 30–40% in many business fields.

The UK and our neighboring country, the UAE, have recently started trials for shorter working hours and longer rests in both their government and private sectors, with the aim to observe productivity during the trial period. It is believed that the bet is on completing tasks in fewer hours, resulting in more productivity!

It is time now for our country, our organisations, our employers, and decision-makers to reconsider changing our working patterns with fewer hours and more rest days and forget about the 8-hour-day routine. What is the point of having an 8-hour per day schedule when 50% of the actual time is wasted by many employees/workers surfing the net, communicating in social media, exchanging unnecessary emails, conducting unproductive meetings, extending coffee and refreshment breaks, etc.?

It's time to think about employees’ wellbeing and work-life balance, as well as cost savings on some operational costs (electricity, water, papers, and other utilities)!

Salim bin Said al Riyami

The author, with over 20 years of experience as an HR practitioner and executive in the private sector, is currently an Executive Business Developer at Nama Holding.