Productivity
The 8–8–8 Rule
Work, Sleep and Leisure
This year when my husband and I travelled to New Zealand, on our way from Christchurch to Grey mouth in the south Island, we took this scenic Alpine train journey that took us through some stunning landscapes with live commentary on the struggles of the miners who worked there. How they had to fight for their right to 8-hour work life. And all that they desired was a simple triple 8 rule — 8-hours sleep, 8-hours work, and 8-hours leisure.
The situations back then were very different — forget HR policies; it was the era when we had just come out from the miseries of slave labour. Fortunately, things are different now, we don’t work for donkey hours, there are paid time-off from work, and policies favouring maternity and health and safety. So we have definitely come a long way. But as she rightly pointed out “we still desire this triple 8 rule”, I thought to myself, she’s so damn right. Although working conditions have improved tremendously over the last few decades, we still aren’t entirely there. In a lot of industries (especially financial services and banking), we work overtime much beyond the 8 hours for weeks and months and years at times.
