Why Working More Hours Doesn't Help Anyone

by Daniel Penney

In the Western world most people are unfortunately defined by their productivity. And working 70 hour work weeks is perpetuated by many CEOs out there.

Elon Musk encourages you to "work every waking hour".

We should of course be skeptical of the ultra rich and their thoughts on how many hours they would like their employees to work for the same pay. So, is there any merit to the idea that working more is better?

Au contraire, there are plenty of studies that have been done recently that have found the opposite. Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Boston college have published reports from a study on a 4 day work week finding...

  • Employees took 65 percent fewer sick and personal days during the period.
  • The number of resignations dropped by more than half, compared with an earlier six-month period.
  • On top of that profits went up 1.4% during the testing period.

So, where have we gone wrong? Why do we value unhealthy, unattainable levels of work ethic that do not even seem to contribute significantly to profit margins?

It might come from the flawed logic that if you work hard early, it frees up more time down the line. Without considering the cost of personal time now, sipping a mojito on the beach retired at the age of 40 sounds pretty good.

But here's the thing: Very few people can afford to ignore their basic needs like sun, sleep and a balanced diet and absorb the dip in daily performance and attentiveness that comes along with that.

For people with ADHD, meeting these basic needs is even more important - and challenging. Without a daily focus on providing yourself with a base level of support, burnout and fatigue become more and more likely. Stretch that over several years of self-neglect for the sake of a career and we have dug ourselves into a hole that might take another few more to get out of... if we have the time.

A study done by the National Library of Medicine found that almost 38% of employees in the U.S. regularly experience fatigue from lack of sleep.

That fatigue comes with high costs for everyone, in motivation, productivity and health care, it adds up to about $1,967 per employee per year. This costs US companies a whopping yearly amount of $136.4 billion dollars.

The effects on daily life and even productivity are not worth the astonishment on your bosses faces when they see you worked 70 hours this week. If you don't absolutely need to you should not, for everyone's sake, work more than you are required.

Therefore, we encourage you not to use the Brili app as a tool to push yourself to the limit, but rather as a way of regulating and finding your most healthy pace. Make sure your basic needs are met and build from there to find your balance. Next time someone tells you that you don't work enough, consider asking them how effective they think that 80th hour they put in last week was.