Re: How not to attract staff

Subject: Re: How not to attract staff
From: John Bell <johnbell -at- EROLS -dot- COM>
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1997 15:06:30 -0500

In several management classs I attended I heard of a study
that tracked productivity over time. I wish I new where to find
this study, but here's what they had to say.

Most people are used to working 40-50 hours a week. If you increase
them to 60+ hours a week, you will see a corresponding increase in
productivity for 2-3 weeks. After that, productivity starts slipping
and within 8 weeks from the start you're getting 8 hours of
productivity regardless of how many hours a day (10, 12, 14) the
employee puts in. They start taking longer breaks, take longer to
do typical tasks, and so on.

By the end of 8 weeks, you've lost any advantage in going over
40 hours a week. The employees put in more hours, lose more of
their lives, but you don't get any more work accomplished. Put them
back on 40-hour weeks and within a month they will be back doing
40-hours of work in a 40-hour week.

Prolonged overtime does not equate to more productive output. Short
bursts (crunch time) will produce extra output as intended.

--- John Bell
johnbell -at- erols -dot- com

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