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Increase Productivity or Reduce Working time — Which Comes First?
Productivity on the stand.
Does working fewer hours per week bring more productivity? Or should companies first aim to raise productivity and then reduce the weekly schedule?
Many countries have been arguing that if you decrease the amount of time spent at work, productivity will also decrease [1]. Chile, for instance, has been debating on whether to reduce their 45 hours work week to a 40 hours work week (still in debate as of 2020). The Chilean National Productivity Commission forecasts that there will be up to a 3.5% decrease in productivity [2] which means that fewer work hours will be harmful to firms.
In this case, the thought process is as follows:
First you have to raise productivity and then reduce working hours.
It seems reasonable, right? First, you try to make your day more efficient, and then as you’ve gained that optimization you long so desire, you don’t need to work as hard as you did.
The thing is, we’re paid by the hour. More hours worked, the more income we get. We even calculate our fees when we’re freelancers on an $/hour basis, which we shouldn’t (read this article for better insights on the matter).
