Quality over quantity- why we should question Musk’s claim to work a 120-hour week
With Elon Musk recently claiming to work up to 120 hours a week and expecting the same devotion from his staff too. This article looks at breaking down what is counted as ‘working hours’ and how does this impact on our wellbeing and ‘right to disconnect’.
It is helpful to look at what makes up these working hours. Do you count scrolling through your emails whilst waiting for the kettle to boil at home or cooking dinner as working hours. The phone calls you make/take in the car. The invigorating shower where your creative thoughts are flowing on product development, or new ways of working? Whilst all of these things can be considered working, there is a fine balance between working productively and having downtime.
However, how much of these tasks which we may include in our working week actually lead to quality outputs which directly feed into our strategic goals or improve profitability. It might be we are sitting in front of our screens for a long period of time each week but are we actually being productive for the same amount of time? What is the impact on our health and wellbeing and relationships outside of work?
If we are managing people, we should be mindful of the impact of “leading by example” and the unconscious pressure this may put on our employees to follow suit. The government have previously considered adapting employment law to reflect a legal “right to disconnect” whilst this legislation is not yet passed, it is certainly in the pipeline and is something that other countries have successfully adopted.
Working a large number of hours is not sustainable on a long-term basis and if you do now allow yourselves to rest and recoup then your body may have force this on you and this can result in burnout. This can also have a severe impact on your health and a decline in your energy levels will result in a drop in productivity. Your immune system will also be affected and this in turn could lead to your employees struggling to fight off illnesses and subsequently and increase in sickness absence or the issue of presenteeism if they do not feel able to take the time to recover.
(Financial Times, 2024)
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