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Hello, Enthusiast!
Here is your monthly dose of evidence-based insight and timely ideas to help you take your practice to the next level.
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Evidence-Based Insight
Topic: Do You Work Too Much?
Work is an important part of our lives. But how much is enough? Why do people work long hours? Is it worth it?
Over the last few years, our work environments have drastically changed, and many are having a hard time adjusting.
Along those lines, I’ve compiled, in question-and-answer format, a list of some of the most common topics being discussed. I hope this helps you add some context to your decisions—for yourself as well as for those that you lead and manage.
What causes people to regularly work long hours?
Several individual characteristics are associated with working longer hours. Some of the strongest drivers come from our innate psychological needs, including a need for achievement, a need for security, and a need for control.
Need for achievement entails the desire for significant accomplishment, meeting high standards, and mastering of skills. This is perhaps the most obvious driver of long work hours. Those higher in need for achievement will do whatever it takes to succeed, including putting in lot of time to achieve their goals.
Individuals working excessive hours because of a need for achievement are typically encouraged to consider all the areas of life in which they could potentially achieve. Is one really achieving in life if they are neglecting to achieve in areas outside of work?
Need for security entails the desire to be free from circumstances that threaten our ability to survive and thrive. Individuals higher in need for security work hard because they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent financial, physical, or psychological trauma. Indeed, one way to decrease the likelihood or impact of such traumas is to be gainfully employed.
Individuals working excessive hours because of a need for security should focus on living within their means. Creating a safety net can go a long way in ensuring that one’s need for security doesn’t lead to herculean work efforts to prove oneself as a top performer. Such individuals should keep in mind that sometimes our employment isn’t simply based on our performance, but societal-, industry-, and organizational-level factors that we can’t directly influence.
Need for control entails the desire to create order and structure to the world in ways that prevent surprises and/or stressors. Individuals higher in need for control feel compelled to do everything in their power to never fall behind. Their work hours aren’t dictated by their own schedule, but by the random influx of requests on their time from colleagues and customers.
Individuals working excessive hours because of a need for control will need to focus on two actions. First, have proactive conversations with colleagues (especially their managers) about one’s capacity. Documentation and communication are key. Second, seek out a coach or licensed professional that can help cultivate a set of interventions (e.g., reflections, exercises, etc.) that help uncover and manage the triggers that instigate control-based stress and anxiety.
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Am I a Workaholic if I work Long Hours?
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Not necessarily. Being a workaholic entails not only working excessively long hours but also an uncontrollable obsession with work at the cost of one’s physiological health (e.g., sleep) or socio-relational obligations (e.g., family, friends). Those that enjoy their work and work long hours but are able to maintain a healthy lifestyle and healthy relationships are not workaholics.
The challenge, however, is that working long hours can accidentally creep into unhealthy behaviors. The key is being aware of the overall impact of work hours on self and others.
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Do people who work long hours think it's worth it?
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That’s a hard question to answer because each individual is different. Everyone shows up to the game of life with different values, and those values have been shaped by (and are embedded within) their socio-cultural environment. As an example, comparatively speaking, the U.S. is relatively high on “self-enhancement” values such as achievement and growth. These socio-cultural norms both shape our perspectives on work hours as well as create a point of social comparison.
I’d argue, then, that you can’t answer that question at scale. Instead, you’d have to ask each individual person. However, I would say that there appears to be a trend as of late where more workers are pushing the pause button and beginning to reevaluate whether it’s worth it.
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Research points to an increase in the average workday length since 2021. What factors do you think prompted this change?
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For one, workers have a much harder time “segmenting” work and non-work. The commute made it much easier to set boundaries. Second, many that work from home are jumping back and forth from work to non-work tasks throughout the day.
This causes employees to be working later into the evening to make up for the non-work tasks taking place during the traditional workday hours. In turn, you have entire organizations that are communicating through asynchronous means (i.e., direct message, email, etc.) throughout all of their waking hours.
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Does working more hours always translate into higher productivity?
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This is a tricky question. The correlation between work hours and productivity depends on how you define productivity.
If it’s simply about quantity of output, then yes, more hours will likely increase productivity. If it’s about quantity and quality, then productivity depends upon that individual’s ability to produce high-quality work given the limitations of the mind and body.
This brings me to my second point. Research clearly illustrates that performance improves when we are physically and psychologically recovered. Those that try to push through instead of power down on a daily basis will eventually burn out and experience productivity derailment. Said differently, it might be in one’s long-term productivity interest to engage in some self-care if they want to optimize productivity over the long run.
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In what ways have employees changed their outlook on work over the past few years?
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I did a study recently where I asked hundreds of full-time employees about their work needs and priorities. I used a qualitative approach to create themes on why people stay or leave their organizations.
The categories included things like compensation, autonomy, opportunities for growth, supportive supervisor, etc. I then conducted a survey where I asked employees to rate the extent to which they would begin searching for another job if each of those categories was not meeting their needs. The results were fascinating.
The number one reason people would turnover was sub-par compensation. That wasn’t all that surprising, as fair pay has always been a staple of turnover intentions. The second and third were flexibility and work-home balance, respectively. These two have always been important, but never have they been at the top (barely below compensation) as more important than all the others.
To me, this signals what I would call The Great Reprioritization. It’s not that we’ve completely abandoned our previous goals—those are still there. We’ve simply reprioritized. I think this new prioritization scheme is the biggest change over the last two years.
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What can organizations and/or government do to help employees as it relates to excessive work hours?
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I think all organizations should reevaluate their paid time off policies. Not only does this help in terms of balance, but it’s also the right thing to do in terms of fairness, especially as it relates to parental leave.
Organizations should also strongly consider creating more flexible work options. This flexibility could be in the form of working wherever, working whenever, seasonal work hour fluctuations, and the like.
The year-round, 9-to-5, in the office mentality, is a relic of the past. Organizations that want to go back to this state of work will slowly lose the “war for talent.” To be a successful employer, you need to be in tune with the needs and priorities of your most important asset—your people.
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The Self-Leadership Experiment:
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Next Steps
Good luck out there!
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Scott Dust, Ph.D. is the Raymond E. Glos Associate Professor of Management at the Farmer School of Business, Miami University. He is also the Chief Research Officer at Cloverleaf, a technology platform that facilitates coaching insights for everyone.
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