I think it is safe to guess that the average office worker would say that they are pretty busy at work, and they stay busy all day long. Now, if you ask them to be honest, or took the time to actually track their days, you might find that the truth is shockingly different.

A Microsoft Survey from March 15, 2005 found that "Most people actually use 60% or less of available work time. When more than 38,000 people in 200 countries were queried about individual productivity, it showed that even though they were physically at work five days a week, they were only productively using three days.”

Another source (Steve Pavlina, of stevepavlina.com, who describes himself as a “personal development expert”) states that we actually work only about 1.5 hours a day. “The average full-time worker doesn’t even start doing real work until 11:00 a.m.,” he writes, “and begins to wind down around 3:30 p.m.”  Steve keeps incremental logs of how he spends each working day, and strongly urges others to do the same

So why is ‘working’ time is so low when we are at the office for 8 full hours? Some might say it is because of slacking off, surfing the internet or other daily distractions. Others point to the change in the needs of the workforce. “A continuous 8 hour work day is a relic of the past. It makes sense for physical labor and manufacturing work, but with information workers it doesn’t account for the mental energy cycle. The ability of a factory worker to think analytically is irrelevant, he’s either cranking widgets or he isn’t.

In the case of the modern information worker, nearly all tasks involve creative or strategic thinking. The way someone answers an email or interprets a piece of information can differ drastically depending on his or her energy level. Nobody does their best work 5:30 in the afternoon after they’ve been sucking down coffee all day to stay awake.” (from - http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/why-the-9-to-5-office-worker-will-become-a-thing-of-the-past/)

The Article continues “You can’t force an information worker to be highly productive when the energy isn’t there. Workers can try their hardest, but the work just won’t have that creative edge. The low ratio of highly productive hours to total hours worked is the result of the continuous 8 hour work day.

When workers reach the low energy part of the cycle, they can’t recharge with a non-work activity. The only option is office purgatory. You can’t be highly productive because you’re mentally fatigued, but you can’t recharge because the 8 hour work day requires the appearance of constant productivity. The result is millions of unproductive workers trapped at their desks when they’d rather be doing something else.”

With a strong focus on working with leaner teams, the work environment may become more of a stressor and that will only lead to frustration and reduced productivity.  Fun in the workplace, such as team building activities and allowing people to be ‘a little weird’ and express their own personalities are just a few ways that we work to fight against that frustration at the Zappos Family.

So how should a leader make sure his or her team is working harder and getting things done? Alexander Kjerulf (Chief Happiness Officer at Positivesharing.com) believes that ‘working harder’ means getting less done. “In an industrial environment, you can most often work harder and get more done. An increase in effort means an increase in productivity.

For knowledge workers, the opposite is true. You can’t force creativity, eloquence, good writing, clear thinking or fast learning – in fact, working harder tends to create the opposite effect and you achieve much less.

Three things you can do about this:

1. Take the pressure off yourself and your team. Even if you make a mistake or don’t make a deadline the world probably isn’t going to end. Less pressure means higher productivity.
2. Schedule a work load equivalent to only 80% of your work week. Trust me, you won’t be wasting your remaining 20% – but you will be more relaxed and more creative.
3. In the words of Fred Gratzon: “If it feels like work, you’re doing it wrong”. If you find that most of what you do is a struggle, this is a sure sign that you are not at your most creative and productive.”

As for the pressures of performing in today’s work environment, another study (Society for Human Resource Management, Spring 2009) shows that we are harder on ourselves about getting our work done after the business day has ended. Their study concluded that "70% of employees work beyond scheduled time and on weekends; more than half cited "self-imposed pressure" as the reason.

This information is very interesting to me, especially since the design of the new Zappos Family office/campus is taking a very ‘open work-space’ style.  Zach Ware of the Zappos Downtown Team says “The City Hall workspace will be designed to inspire and accelerate collaboration and serendipitous interactions between employees. As a design challenge we consider the workspace to include primary workspaces, collaboration areas, the outdoors and the larger community. If we're successful we'll create an adaptable and collaborative workspace that allows employees to be mobile.” In my opinion the new space will allow us to adapt our use of the environment to match and/or enhance our creativity and productivity!

Unless you are a task-master who has mastered the art of time management, there seems to be a need to change how and when we work.  Perhaps by finding our rhythm of productivity we can change our own lives for the better, and get more done while we’re at it!