Bringing back the 40-hour work week
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More than 150 years of research proves that long hours at work kill profits, productivity and employees. So why are we working more hours than ever before?
Sara Robinson, senior editor at AlterNet.org, said it's time to bring back the 40-hour work week.
"Every hour you work over 40 hours a week is making you less effective and productive over both the short and the long haul," she wrote. "And it may sound weird, but it's true: the single easiest, fastest thing your company can do to boost its output and profits -- starting right now, today -- is to get everybody off the 55-hour-a-week treadmill, and back onto a 40-hour footing."
Robinson will join The Daily Circuit Thursday to talk about the 40-hour work week. Convincing companies to follow her suggestion won't be easy, she said.
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"Managers are taught as a matter of culture to value butts in chairs," Robinson said. "It shows motivation, drive, passion. But they believe this without looking at the actual quality of the output. It has to start with management. We have to suspend the whole notion of putting in time and turn it into looking at output."
Alexandra Levit, business and workplace author, speaker and consultant, will also join the discussion.
KERRI'S TAKEAWAY
Even though research says people get less productive every hour they work over 40 in a week, people feel like they have to do it to get their work done.
