The average American works five days a week. We are long used to the social
norm “eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.” However, it has little to
do with efficiency or productivity. Personally speaking, I prefer working long hours instead of
spending time traveling to work on daily basis.
First, working long hours means one can have more time for vacation. For one thing,
time professionals spent commuting everyday can be spent with their families, doing exercise
routine, or taking care of diet. In this way, when they come back to work, employers will have
energetic workers with clear mind, thus boosting their output and profit as a result. If it’s not
enough, people who have long time to relax have been proved to be more
creative and productive. When Henry Ford in 1914 famously took the radical step of doubling his
workers’ pay, and cut shifts in Ford plants from nine hours to eight, he got bitterly criticized
by the association of manufacturers. However, when his competitors saw Ford’s business boomed
in the next few years,they adopted the same hourly rate. Especially in innovative
industries, employees with more spare time always tend to be more creative, for they have more
time to reflect on their current works and breed new ideas.
Second, working long hours also means achieve consistency. People cannot guarantee that all ones
' works can be finished within eight hours. Here comes the dilemma. One can either working late
to finish it, or restart the work next day. Anyone who has been in this situation knows the
latter one means spending more time on it and low efficiency, while the first one means, willing
ly or not, one has to work in unpaid overtime. In this respect, allowing people to arrange their
time flexibly is a way to fix this problem. If employees choose to work long hours to finish
their work within a day, they should get paid and be allowed to rest in the following day to
compensate “off-the-clock” hours.
Admittedly, working long hours can increase health risks and generate more stress. But we are
not talking about it as daily routine. We are talking about having this schedule
less than half of a week. So by allocating time wisely, in most cases one can avoid those
negative impacts and enjoy their lives more.
People take for granted of the eight hour workday, rarely raising questions about the
efficiency and the effectiveness as consequences. If professionals are given other options,
I believe they will appreciate the shorter week more,
and so as for employers.