Why 5 Days a Week is Enough

Why five days in the office is too many  

( Economic times )

For most of my professional life, I have worked from home. The freedom to work outside a traditional office was one of the main reasons I left the corporate world eight years ago, at age 23, to start a software company.

The idea that all employees should sit in the same place for eight hours a day, five days a week, seemed maddeningly inefficient to me. I knew that I was at peak productivity at certain times throughout the day, with regular lulls in between. The flexibility to determine when and where I worked made me a better worker.

But as my company grew, something surprising happened: I started to feel the pull of the office. As an employee, I still had little desire to spend all of my day there. As an employer, however, I wanted to ensure that my employees were working efficiently. Requiring everyone to be in the office for at least part of the week seemed the easiest way to do that. I also saw the value of the conversations that arose when people were physically together in a room.

When I heard last week that Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's chief executive, was banning its employees from working at home, my first thought was, "I'm glad I don't work at Yahoo." But I also understood why she felt compelled to enact the policy, at least for now. She is in charge of a huge company that is known for its bloat. This may be exactly what Yahoo needs to get back on track. The question is whether the policy will improve productivity in the long run.

The idea that everyone must be in the office five days a week harks back to a time when workers didn't have the proper tools to work from home, but we live in a very different world today. Given that technology has made employees accessible around the clock, and that they are often expected to work after hours, the traditional 40-hour schedule is in many ways an anachronism.

Yahoo argued in a memo announcing its new policy that "some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people and impromptu team meetings." That is certainly true.

But it is also the case that some of the most creative insights come only when you give the human brain unstructured time to think. Opportunities for such freewheeling thought rarely present themselves amid the hustle and bustle of daily office life.

In today's world, where we are constantly connected and almost constantly working, the office should be reconceived as a gathering place to communicate ideas and to reinforce personal bonds. Beyond that, employees should be given the respect, and the responsibility, to manage their own schedules and complete their work on their own time, from wherever they choose. This is the principle we followed in my business, called Khush. We came to the office three days a week for five hours a day, starting around noon.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/why-five-days-in-the-office-is-too-many/articleshow/18775307.cms

Working time is the period of time that an individual spends at paid occupational labor. Unpaid labors such as personal housework or caring for children/pets are not considered part of the working week. Many countries regulate the work week by law, such as stipulating minimum daily rest periods, annual holidays and a maximum number of working hours per week. Working time may vary from person to person often depending on location, culture, lifestyle choice, and the profitability of the individuals livelihood. For example someone who is supporting children and paying a large mortgage will need to work more hours to meet a basic cost of living than someone without children of the same earning power. As fewer people than ever are having children choosing part time is becoming more popular.

Standard working hours (or normal working hours) refers to the legislation to limit the working hours per day, per week, per month or per year. If an employee needs to work overtime, the employer will need to pay overtime payments to employees as required in the law. Generally speaking, standard working hours of countries worldwide are around 40 to 44 hours per week, and the additional overtime payments are around 25% to 50% to the normal hourly payments. Maximum working hours refers to the maximum working hours of an employee. The employee cannot work more than the level specified in the maximum working hours law.

Some economists have recommended moving to a 21 hour standard work week to address problems with unemployment, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, overworking, family care, and the general lack of free time Actual work week lengths have been falling in the developed world.