Trends in Work Hours

In today’s fast-paced corporate environment, the emphasis on relentless work hours often overshadows the importance of work-life balance. Ashwin Yardi ,CEO of Capgemini India, stands out as a leader who prioritizes a healthier approach to work. Advocating for a 47.5-hour workweek, he encourages employees to focus on productivity without compromising their personal lives. His commitment to a structured schedule of nine hours a day across five days is a refreshing perspective amidst the prevailing culture of 70-90 hour workweeks. Yardi's stance goes beyond mere numbers; it reflects a profound respect for personal time. By discouraging weekend emails, he fosters an environment where employees can recharge, ultimately leading to enhanced creativity and efficiency during the workweek. This approach not only boosts morale but also contributes to a more sustainable corporate culture. In a world where the hustle often overshadows well-being, Yardi’s leadership serves as an inspiring example for industry peers. By promoting a balanced work model, he is not just reshaping the expectations of employees but also paving the way for a more humane corporate landscape. Leaders across various sectors should take note of his philosophy—prioritizing employee well-being is not merely an option; it is essential for long-term success and innovation in any organization. LinkedIn LinkedIn News LinkedIn for Marketing LinkedIn News India

The modern workplace was not built for women. And honestly? It shows. The 9–5 workday wasn’t designed for our lives, our responsibilities, or even our biology. It was built in 1926, at a time when most workers were men with stay-at-home wives. It was built around their productivity rhythms, their needs, and their lives. Fast forward to today, and workplaces still favour men. 📌 RTO mandates? Benefit those without caregiving duties. 📌 Late-night meetings? Safer for men who don’t have to worry about getting home. 📌 Promotions? For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 87 women and 82 women of colour move up (link to stats in comments) Women and marginalised genders are still doing the most - the invisible admin, the office housework, the emotional labour - only to be told we’re “not leadership material” when we burn out. It’s not about working harder. It’s about changing the system. 💡 More flexibility. 💡 More autonomy. 💡 More inclusive ways of working. The way we work is broken. We can fix it.

Manila ranked 59th out of 60 in the 2024 Global Life-Work Balance Index. This is not something to celebrate.    But this ranking is not a cultural trait. It is a systems failure that smart companies can solve for competitive advantage. Filipino professionals are not choosing poor work-life balance. They are navigating an environment where long hours and constant availability became normalized through decades of fast-paced economic growth that prioritized client demands over employee wellbeing. What most companies miss to consider is that you can be part of the solution while building better business results. If you  make some simple changes you can get truly committed employees without overworking them. We implemented strict boundaries with our teams three years ago. No weekend messages unless true emergencies. Mandatory use of paid time off. Clear expectations that responding at 2 AM is not expected or rewarded unless that is your job The result is a significant  improvement on retention rate. Productivity during working hours increased because people were actually rested. Quality went up because burnout went down. (and let’s not start with the wasted hours commuting in traffic) The business case is straightforward. High turnover costs you institutional knowledge and onboarding expenses. Burned out employees make more mistakes and deliver lower quality work. Creating sustainable work environments is not charity. It is a strategy. Filipino professionals are increasingly choosing employers who respect boundaries. The companies still operating with "always available" expectations are losing their best people to those who figured this out. Practical steps that work are: Set clear working hours and enforce them from the top. If your executives send messages at midnight, your team thinks that is expected. Require people to use their paid time off. Track it and have conversations when utilization is low. Measure output and results, and not hours logged or response speed outside working hours. Build redundancy so no single person is critical for weekend coverage. Be part of raising that score, and not perpetuating the problem.

France was first. Spain, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg and Portugal followed. Each adopted Right to Disconnect (RTD) laws, protecting employees from late-night emails and weekend calls. For years, critics said these laws would hurt competitiveness. The new evidence says the opposite. Great research by Mark Ma (Business Professor at University of Pittsburgh) & team. Their fresh OECD-wide study shows: * Profitability goes up. Firms in RTD countries post 5–6% stronger ROA/EBITDA. * Productivity is the driver. Revenue per employee rises, operating costs per employee fall. * Design matters. Countries like France, Spain and Cyprus that attach fines or contractual clauses see the biggest gains. * Work-life balance improves. In Ontario, Canada, employee ratings of balance rose sharply after its RTD law. The lesson is clear: boundaries are not a drag on growth, they are a performance strategy. Europe is showing the way. The next wave of high-performing companies will not be those with the longest email threads at midnight. They will be the ones that make every working hour count. Disconnect to grow. #FutureOfWork

Working longer hours does not equate to higher productivity. The world's most economically competitive nations actually work fewer hours: 🇩🇰 Denmark: 32.2 hours 🇳🇱 Netherlands: 33.2 hours 🇩🇪 Germany: 34.3 hours In contrast, 🇬🇷 Greece recently introduced a law allowing 48-hour or 6-day workweeks in certain sectors. Despite working the longest hours in Europe (41.4 hours), Greece has the lowest productivity. 😬 The same pattern applies to organizations: The longer you work ↳ the more your productive rate of return diminishes. Long hours lead to ↳ burnout, high turnover and disengagement. Critics of the shorter work week often miss that where it has been implemented successfully, it has: → Improved work quality → Improved life quality ↓ ↓ ↓ The foundation of successful economies isn't 'hard work' measured by long hours it’s Smart work - achieving more with less.

We've spent years telling people that overwork is unsustainable. We've talked about burnout. Fatigue. Stress. Mental health. What we haven't said, because the research hasn't been there, is this: Overwork may be physically changing the structure of your brain. A pilot study published in Occupational & Environmental Medicine used MRI scans to compare the brains of healthcare workers who clocked 52+ hours a week with those working standard hours. The overworked group showed significant changes in the regions responsible for executive function, emotional regulation, attention, working memory and decision-making. One region, the middle frontal gyrus, showed a 19% increase in volume in overworked participants. The researchers suggest these may be neuroadaptive responses. The brain restructuring itself in response to chronic occupational stress. This matters because we have been framing overwork as a performance problem, a wellbeing problem, a culture problem. It may also be a structural neurological problem. The cognitive and emotional difficulties that overworked people report — the short fuse, the inability to focus, the poor decisions, the emotional flatness, may not just be symptoms of tiredness. They may reflect an organ that has been physically altered by the conditions it's been working under. This is a small pilot study. Causality isn't proven. More research is needed. But the direction of travel is significant. If we needed a more serious argument for why working hours are an organisational health issue and not just a personal resilience issue, this is it. What would change about your organisation's approach to workload if you treated it as a brain health question, not just a productivity one? https://lnkd.in/eJWHaN_Q

𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫-𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥-𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 ! 📆 Reducing work hours is more than a scheduling change—it’s a game-changer for well-being. 💡 Whether done at the company-wide or individual level, scaling back hours consistently correlates with stronger employee wellness. 🔥 But here’s the standout insight: greater personal hour reductions lead to even bigger boosts in well-being. What’s driving this? ✔️ Enhanced self-rated work ability 😴 Fewer sleep issues ⚡ Lower fatigue levels And the impact? Absolutely energizing: ➡️ 70% reported less burnout ➡️ Over 40% saw better mental health ➡️ 38% enjoyed improved sleep quality These findings highlight a simple truth: when organizations prioritize time, people unlock their full potential, according to a new interesting research published by a team of Boston College researchers using data from 2,896 employees across 141 organizations in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. Researchers explored three core questions: 1️⃣ How did workers’ sense of well-being evolve throughout the trial, especially when compared to their counterparts in control organizations? 2️⃣ Do deeper cuts in working hours—whether across an entire company or for individual employees—correlate with greater boosts in employee well-being? 3️⃣ When reduced working hours lead to improved well-being, what mechanisms explain this connection? Researchers revealed that companies implementing reduced work time saw notable improvements in employee well-being, unlike those in the control group. ☝️ 𝙈𝙮 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬: I’ve always believed that reducing work hours or embracing remote work isn’t just a lifestyle upgrade—it’s a strategic move for long-term productivity. That’s why this four-day workweek study really resonates with me. The findings are compelling: employees working just 32 hours a week, with no pay cut, reported being happier, healthier, and more productive. Burnout dropped, mental health improved, and even sleep quality got better. What’s especially interesting is that over 90% of the companies involved chose to stick with the new schedule after the six-month trial. Of course, I recognize the study’s time limitation—six months isn’t long enough to capture deeper shifts, especially in physical health or organizational culture. But even within that window, the results show how leaders’ decisions around time investment can ripple out into meaningful change. For me, this reinforces a core belief: when people are given more time to live, they show up better at work. And that’s not just good for employees—it’s a win for businesses too. 🙏Thank you Boston College researchers team for sharing these insightful findings: Wen Fan Juliet B. Schor Orla Kelly PhD. Guolin Gu 🔑 What if fewer hours meant deeper engagement—would leaders embrace the change? #WFH #4dayworkweek #wellbeing #productivity

A reminder for the managers and leaders: more hours ≠ more output.
 In fact, the opposite is true (after a point). Stanford economist John Pencavel studied the productivity of workers putting in long hours. Here’s what he found: 🔹 Productivity per hour peaks at around 49 hours per week 
🔹 After that, each additional hour is less effective 
🔹 By 70 hours, people are producing the same total output as those working just 56 hours YEP, you read that right: 14 extra hours for *zero* extra results. So why does total output still rise for a while after 49 hours? Because you’re still adding time so yes, work is still being produced – but it’s lower‑quality time. 
The rate of output slows, until eventually more hours stop helping at all. What’s worse: those extra hours carry real costs, like stress, errors and attrition. And, just as importantly: time away from friends, family, hobbies, rest etc. NONE of this helps the bottom line. In fact, it’s a very obvious highway to burnout and a generally miserable life. So here’s a reminder: high performance doesn’t come from pushing harder. It comes from designing work to be focused, energising and sustainable. Here’s a question to ask yourself, or even to discuss in your next standup: 
What hidden team habits make long hours feel necessary — and what could we redesign instead? — I’m Caitlin 👋 I help ambitious teams find more sustainable productivity through workshops and consultancy - 94% give our sessions five stars and I didn’t bribe them to do it. DM me to find out more!

📢 New Research: The Consequences of #AfterHoursWork on Employee Wellbeing 🕒 Recent study published in the Scand J Work Environ Health: 👉 The consequences of after-hours work: a fixed-effect study of burnout, pain, detachment, and work–home conflict among Norwegian workers by Vilde Bernstrøm, Mari Holm Ingelsrud and Wendy Nilsen. This research sheds light on the impact of working outside regular hours on employee health and wellbeing. Analyzing longitudinal data (fixed effects) from 1,465 full-time employees in Norway, the study examined four types of after-hours work: 1️⃣ Long daily hours (>10 hours/day) 2️⃣ Late evening work (after 9 PM) 3️⃣ Quick returns (<11 hours of rest between shifts) 4️⃣ Long weekly hours (>40 hours/week) 💡 Key Findings: 🔹 #Burnout, #Detachment & #WorkHomeConflict: Late evening work, long daily hours, and long weekly hours were associated with higher work–home conflict and lower psychological detachment. Weekly work hours were directly linked to increased burnout. 🔹 #WorkTimeControl: Limited Work Time Control worsened the impact of quick returns on burnout, highlighting the need for balanced scheduling practices. 👉 Implications for Employers: These findings underscore the importance of rethinking after-hours work policies: ✅ Prioritize healthy scheduling to reduce burnout risks. ✅ Enhance work-time control for employees to mitigate negative impacts. ✅ Design family-friendly practices that balance productivity with wellbeing. For organizations navigating the challenges of flexible work, this study offers actionable insights into fostering a sustainable and supportive work environment. Read the full study here: doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.4198 #WorkLifeBalance #EmployeeWellbeing #BurnoutPrevention #FlexibleWork

More hours don’t equal better work. Period. This one’s for the leaders who believe that pushing people harder doesn’t always lead to better results. In a world where deadlines rule and performance is key, it’s easy to forget that true productivity thrives on balance, not burnout. Work doesn't improve just because you're clocking in more hours. In fact, overworking often leads to fatigue, stress, and a drop in creativity. Why a Healthy Work-Life Balance is Key: 1. Rest Fuels Creativity When employees are well-rested, they bring fresh ideas and innovative solutions. More hours can kill that spark. 2. Sustainability > Burnout Pushing people too hard may get short-term results, but in the long run, it costs you more: higher turnover, disengagement, and lost talent. 3. Wellness Drives Results A team that’s mentally and physically well is more productive, engaged, and motivated. Healthy employees lead to better outcomes. As a leader, it's time to rethink the hustle. Work smarter, not harder—because the best results come from a team that’s energized, not exhausted. How are you ensuring your team stays energized and engaged?