#127: Work less to produce more
Here’s a topic for Labor Day. People often ask me why I stress effectiveness over efficiency. Am I playing with words? No, because one is about working smart, the other is about working hard.
It now appears that although Americans are very hard workers, they don’t deliver as much as they could if they mellowed a little. And by mellowing I mean taking more time off, as the Europeans do.
Let me explain. According to the figures of the Bureau of Labour Statistics, the average American worker produced $90,000 of output in 2006. Only Norwegians did better, boosted by their oil-rig workers.
But what if we look at output per hour? Americans produced at the rate of $50 per hour. Not bad, except that employees in Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and France all produced more per hour.
There you have it - shorter hours and more holidays can boost your output per hour.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com
Copyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh
James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am
It now appears that although Americans are very hard workers, they don’t deliver as much as they could if they mellowed a little. And by mellowing I mean taking more time off, as the Europeans do.
Let me explain. According to the figures of the Bureau of Labour Statistics, the average American worker produced $90,000 of output in 2006. Only Norwegians did better, boosted by their oil-rig workers.
But what if we look at output per hour? Americans produced at the rate of $50 per hour. Not bad, except that employees in Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and France all produced more per hour.
There you have it - shorter hours and more holidays can boost your output per hour.
I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com
Copyright: 2007 James Henry McIntosh
James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
Monday - 7:19am and Saturday - 8:19am
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