We are trained to work for 8 hours and eat the time for getting ready for work, sitting in traffic, getting lunch, and eventually driving home. But the 8 hour day is mostly illusion and an old format that doesn’t make sense when considering what actually gets done.
Research suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes.
Mostly people waste time at the office, socializing and consuming media entertainment. We act like prisoners condemned to an 8 hour sentence, voluntarily transporting ourselves to prisons at our own cost with the goal of just getting through our obligated time.
Since it is seen as time possessed by the job, as otherwise we would not be there or doing such absurd pointless activities, we do not treat it as our time. We can waste it talking to dummies about dumb things, reading low quality websites, and eating things we probably shouldn’t eat. It would be better if we were at home doing something interesting.
The most popular unproductive activities listed were:
- Reading news websites–1 hour, 5 minutes
- Checking social media–44 minutes
- Discussing non-work-related things with co-workers–40 minutes
- Searching for new jobs–26 minutes
- Taking smoke breaks–23 minutes
- Making calls to partners or friends–18 minutes
- Making hot drinks–17 minutes
- Texting or instant messaging–14 minutes
- Eating snacks–8 minutes
- Making food in office–7 minutes
It would make more sense to plan a three or four hour workday during which work would actually happen, and then be done. Jobs could be for mature adults instead of baby sitting. No chatting, no faking, no need for food breaks. Get the tasks done and go home instead of wasting the day being present doing nothing.
Putting adults in a cube and having them accumulate eights hours of time served is absurd when they could do everything needed in three hours and then have the rest of the day for themselves.