A Response to Matt D’Avella’s “The 40 hr workweek is killing your productivity.”
Recently, Matt D’Avella published a journalistic video called The 40 hr workweek is killing your productivity. The video breaks down the history of the 40-hour work week, the drawbacks of that strategy, and examples of businesses that are doing it differently. Take a look at it here.
I want to respond to this video by adding a few points.
First, there is a strong distinction between physical work and digital work. Hospitals must be staffed by human beings at all times. While robots might be able to deliver goods and take care of people sometime in the future, right now we need people to do it. So while the industrial revolution era work practices don’t really make sense for digital work, they still make sense, at least to some degree, in physical work. So as far as Matt’s video goes, I think recognizing that these practices may still have a place in specific circumstances would bring more nuance and relatability to the conversation.
Second, research has shown that productivity is inversely affected by increased work hours. John Nevison published a widely cited study called The Rule Of 50. He compiled data from a number of other studies and found that there’s a productivity threshold when people work over 50 hours in a week. He even found that more hours worked has a negative effect on total productive hours. For every 50 hours worked, Nevison found an average of 37 highly productive hours. When that number rises to 55 hours per week, he found a negative correlation with truly productive hours. Those dropped to nearly 30.
The last point I would add is that true linchpins are able to leverage their productivity for increased flexibility. Seth Godin’s seminal book Linchpin was written after the recession, and inspired people to become irreplaceable team members through increased productivity and strategic work. I’ve seen high leverage individuals gain privileges within rigid organizations by becoming irreplaceable. While I do think the general population should be afforded more flexibility, there is still opportunity gain more freedom now.
All in all, I think this is a great video from Matt. He’s been positively impacting the self-development community for years now, and I’m grateful for him. I just wanted to add a few more points to the conversation.
Thanks for reading!
Here’s another response to a Matt D’Avella video.
