The Hidden Costs of the 8-Hour Work Day
Or “Just Because We Invented The Wheel, It Doesn’t Mean We STILL Have To Use The Beta Forevermore”
There we go again. Why does everyone still insist on following the 8-hour work day? I can’t help but think of the little stone car that The Flintstones used to get around. By foot. It should be so obvious that it’s not a system that really works, and yet we continue.
What’s with this 8-hour work day obsession, why is everyone still into it, and how can we stop it?
Well, it all started in the 19th century, as part of the 8-hour day movement of the Industrial Revolution. At that time, implementing it was a real achievement — the work day before used to be closer to 16 hours, and that was among the better parts of life those days.
The slogan that gained popularity then, “Eight hours’ labour, Eight hours’ recreation, Eight hours’ rest” is, of course, unrealistic. We also have…laundry to do and meals to cook. Or so that pile of clothes on my chair says. Shush.
Skimping on whatever number of hours of sleep you need in order to feel rested is, for reasons I won’t go into now, just a bad idea. And I’m not even going to start with how the “Eight hours’ recreation” bit looks like for parents. And then there’s the commute eating up about an hour of your time every day. So that leaves us with roughly…4 hours’ recreation, at best. Still not counting parents there.
4 hours a day to split between the need to explore, relax, interact, move, and whatever else you need to be happy. And, well, it’s just not enough.
I’m curious about how much variation there is in this area between people. In my case, 5 hours is the Goldilocks Zone for productivity and creativity. I actually get a bit of time to interact with friends and colleagues, which energizes me, and to be by myself writing, which I need in order to focus and get in the flow. It also gives just a bit of time to procrastinate for a moment or two :). And work through that resistance. And yet to still actually come up with something worthwhile by the end of the day. Weirdly enough, in my case changing the scenery often seems to help a lot. Work for a bit at the office, a bit in the park, a bit at home. A bit in another city, every now and then. Definitely not all of it in front of a computer. It’s almost as though if I stay 8 hours tied to the same place, or to *shudder violently* the same chair. I start to stagnate, or even worse.
And then the 8-hour work day comes in. No, you. I actually also need to declutter my mind in order to free it up for creativity. I actually also need to explore a bit, walk down the streets and look around, go for a swim or a bike ride, meet some friends, watch a movie or read a book. AND rest. AND spend a little time by myself. And guess what? All these things are actually connected with work. They are actually part of that 8-hour work day, which is more like 24 hours, because your whole self and life go into your work. At best, the quality of your work is directly proportional to how satisfied you are with all aspects of your life (in which case you are also more likely to choose something that truly suits you as your work, but this is a topic for another time). That weird little YouTube video you watched after lunch just shaped your experience and creative output.
I would argue that the most important work one does when working creatively is keeping themselves rested and satisfied (leaving tormented poets aside for a moment) and working through the blockages also known as procrastination.
And yet on we march with the 8-hour work day.
So what’s wrong with that picture?
Man, where to start. Everyone ends up losing with this deal. Employees are tired and bored, reach burnout faster, the quality of the work they do suffers. Back issues, sight issues, more frequent colds. Employees doing jobs unsuitable for them because they think that what is really suitable is actually unsuitable because they don’t feel like doing it for 8 hours in a row (you’ll need to read that a couple of times, probably). Less time for more basic aspects of life that bring the kind of joy from which good work spurts. A higher employee turnover. I’m hoping I don’t need to spell out how that is bad for managers too, and the companies themselves.
Oh, and forget about creativity. Newsflash, creativity is not something on which you can impose a schedule. Take care of your stress levels and different aspects of your life, learn to work with your emotions and inner self (including the blocks), listen to your needs, and creativity will come by itself, no coaxing needed. That’s just what it does. It’s like a force that requires being expressed, by itself.
But let’s leave that aside for now and focus on something different for a moment. The quality of your work after 5 hours, whatever you’re doing.
Something magical seems to happen after the 5-hour mark. Brain (or was it Brian? This funny little guy upstairs) seems to just go on a trip. Boredom sets in. Sluggishness. You get itchy feet. You feel like changing your task, and even more, completely changing the TYPE of task you’re doing. If you were doing something mental, you suddenly feel like going physical (Must.resist.urge to write “getting physical”). If you were creating something, you might feel like observing something, taking it in. And the most important part is that doing all that actually improves the quality of your work.
I think that the reason why the obsession with the 8-hour work day persists among so many companies and managers is fear. Fear of being cheated and not being able to move their goals forward — “Oh, I pay them for 8 hours and they just want to avoid work, I will never get my business needs satisfied” — and fear of the unknown too. If this was the status quo for, I don’t know, about 160 years (and it was even worse before), it will be hard to start believing that it might not be the best way to work and that everyone will gain from shifting to a 5-hour work day. We need to start paying for skills and the quality of the work done, not the amount of time spent doing it, especially where we easily can. Everyone will benefit from it. I believe in this so much that I will test it myself, in fact. For science, of course. Oh, and not wanting to do the same thing for 8 hours in a row doesn’t mean one doesn’t like what they do. It’s just simply unnatural for most people to be stuck on the same task for 8 hours.
You, over there. Just go for it! Your boss might be more receptive to the idea than you imagine. You can always test it out and see if it works or not (it will). It takes guts to try it, because no one wants to be seen as the employee who slacks. But the benefits will be huge if you do it, regardless how scary it may be. And everyone is different, so try to listen to your own rhythm. If you feel like changing the place after a few hours, go for it. Take the breaks you need before starting to get unhappy about it. Go watch a movie, take a walk with some friends. Try to get over the guilt and stress about it. You’ll soon see that, after you recharge, you will suddenly have new ideas that you need to get out, or have a solution to an issue you had, or feel like completing a task.
Managers, this is where you come in. Encourage your employees to figure out for themselves how they work best. Make it clear that you’re supporting them, to help reduce the guilt most of them will probably feel over it. It’s not easy to go against expectations of what it means to be a good employee, even when you know better. And have a little faith. You’ll soon be surprised by striking gold. It’s like in those movies when you have a land where you just wanted to plant some potatoes and it suddenly turns out there’s petroleum there. Just try it out. And for the love of all that’s holy, just stop it with this 8-hour work day nonsense.
And so they lived happily ever after.
Just kidding, that’s only the beginning of it.
to be continued
