New research suggests that working after hours can mean lower levels of productivity rather than accomplishing more — and might suggest an employee is juggling too many tasks and needs help prioritising their time.
The data comes from Slack’s Workforce Index, based on a survey of more than 10,000 desk employees internationally.
It found:
- Employees who log off at the end of the workday register 20 per cent higher productivity scores than those who feel obligated to work after hours.
- Making time for breaks during the workday improves employee productivity and wellbeing, and yet half of all desk workers say they rarely or never take breaks.
- On average, desk workers say that the ideal amount of focus time is around four hours a day, and more than two hours a day in meetings is the tipping point at which a majority of workers feel overburdened by meetings.
- Three out of every four desk workers report working from 3pm to 6pm timeframe, but of those, only one in four consider these hours highly productive.
“We’ve long seen a focus on quantity over quality across many aspects of work, from how we spend our time to how we define productivity. Constantly feeling like you need to catch up is hurting employees and businesses,” says Christina Janzer, SVP of Research & Analytics and Head of the Workforce Lab, Slack.“This underscores the importance of building a culture of trust where employees feel safe enough to speak up when they need help prioritizing and have the right balance of time in the work day to get work done.”
