he UK is one of the hardest-
working countries in the world,
when it comes to hours clocked
up. The TUC estimates that 1.4
million people now do some work
on every day of the week, with 3.3
million working 45 hours or longer.
Yet, in terms of global productivity,
we’re dragging our heels.
Workers in Germany, for
example, work almost six hours
per week less than their UK
equivalents, yet are 36% more
productive. Looking at 2017
Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development
(OECD) data, the most productive
country in the world (GDP per
hour worked) is Luxembourg, with
a leisurely working week of just 29
hours. Something isn’t adding up.
Perhaps the correlation isn’t
really that surprising. As Nic Marks,
CEO of Friday, a business focusing
on measuring and improving
employee happiness, explains,
“miserable people do miserable
work. And long-hours cultures
breed misery”. This, in turn,
harms productivity.
Research has demonstrated
the link between longer hours and
March – May 2019
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