Always working late? It could be making you less productive

woman working late in the evening in the office

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Always working late? It could be making you less productive

By Ellen Scott

2 years ago

5 min read

People who regularly work late are less productive than those who leave the office the moment their day is done, according to new research from Slack. 


It’s a trap so many of us have fallen into. Gosh, I’m a bit behind on work, we think to ourselves. You know what I’ll do? Work a little later, just an hour or so, to catch up. I can even get ahead, so tomorrow will be less stressful. 

We call it a trap because, well, it is one. All too often, you work late to ‘catch up’, then find that yet more tasks pile in the next day. So you stay late again. And again. And the to-do pile never seems to get any smaller. 

All the while, your colleague who makes a point of always leaving at 5pm on the dot appears to be getting just as much done as you… if not more. Plus they’re less stressed out. What gives?

Downtime is a productivity multiplier

You’re not imagining things and you’re not a failure of epic proportions. Working late isn’t the magic productivity hack it’s so often sold as. In fact, putting in the extra hours could be making you less productive, according to new research from Slack. 

In the latest Workforce Index from Slack, surveys of more than 10,000 desk workers found that working late is a common phenomenon, with two in five of those quizzed saying they regularly work after hours. More than 50% of those people said this wasn’t by choice, but because they feel pressured to do so. 

And here’s the big finding: employees who feel pressured to work late reported 20% lower levels of productivity throughout the day. They also experienced more intense work-related stress, lower levels of job satisfaction and a higher risk of burnout. 

woman working on laptop with cat next to her

Credit: Getty

When you think about it, these findings make sense. If you feel you don’t have enough time in your workday to get everything done, there’s clearly something going wrong with how you’re working within your standard hours – and that translates to lower productivity. “Not having enough time in the day” was the number one reason people gave for working late, and 50% of those who work late reported having competing priorities. 

Some major issues contributing to working late include having too many meetings (one in four workers said they spend too much time in meetings) and email overwhelm, both of which will wreck your productivity by preventing you from getting periods of deep work. The research found that more than two hours a day in meetings is the tipping point; if you’re regularly racking up more meeting time than that, it’s no wonder you struggle to get anything done. 

So, we know from this research that too many of us feel like we don’t have enough time in the work day, and too many of us are working late to try to counteract that… which isn’t doing our wellbeing or our productivity any good. What can we do about it?

Woman at work

Credit: Getty

While a lot of change needs to come from above – bosses, for example, need to lead the charge in reducing unnecessary meetings and shaping the culture of the workplace – there is one key step you can take to work a little better: that’s recognising that the answer to being more productive is not just working longer hours. It’s essential to give yourself permission to take breaks and to leave on time, and to understand that doing these things will genuinely make your work better. The Slack research found that making time for breaks throughout the workday improves employee productivity by 13%, alongside boosting work-life balance, stress management and overall satisfaction. 

As Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global, says: “Why did we all come to believe that we are more productive if we are always on and that we need to burn out in order to succeed? It goes back to the first Industrial Revolution, when we started revering machines. The goal of machines is to minimise downtime. But for the human operating system, downtime is not a bug, it’s a feature. Elite athletes know that recovery is part of peak performance. Downtime is a productivity multiplier.”

It’s also vital to understand that when it comes to time spent working, it’s about quality, not quantity. You can get the same amount of work done in one hour as you can in four hours… if you use that hour wisely. ‘Wisely’ could mean scheduling work for times when your energy is highest (the research found that the majority of workers struggle to get much done between 3pm and 6pm), blocking out distractions such as emails and notifications, and using time management techniques (the research found that the most productive people are 1.6 times more likely to block time to complete specific tasks, 1.7 times more likely to only check email at specific times and 2.2 times more likely to set focus timers). 

They key is recognising that the answer to getting good work done isn’t to work longer and later. The research found that there’s a ‘Goldilocks zone’ for the ideal amount of focus time: just four hours a day.

“We’ve long seen a focus on quantity over quality across many aspects of work, from how we spend our time to how we define productivity,” said Christina Janzer, the head of Workforce Lab at Slack. “Constantly feeling like you need to catch up is hurting employees and businesses. This underscores the importance of building a culture of trust where employees feel safe enough to speak up when they need help prioritising and have the right balance of time in the work day to get work done.”

“Focus time, collaboration time, connection and rest are like the macronutrients of a workday,” added David Air, senior vice president of employee success at Slack and Salesforce. “The right balance gives you the energy you need to work your best.”

Want more advice on how to work better? Sign up to the How To Work email below.


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