Breaks, Lunch, and laziness - Jack Smith

Ever since I can remember I have been on the typical American “9-5, 5 days a week” work schedule. Elementary school consisted of school form 8 am until 2:15, then afterschool where I completed my homework and played outside until 5. Middle and high school started at 8am and finished up around 3:15. From there, I would practice and compete until at least 5pm. My schedule in college has been all over the place for the past 3 years but last semester was different. I was able to take Fridays off to travel and experience Europe on a more personal level. Whether my schedule consisted of many breaks or little, 4 or 5 workdays, I find that it is not how long I work, but how hard and efficiently I work that leads to the most productivity. However, what leads to working hard and efficiently?

Two aspects of a working environment have sparked a fire underneath me. The first is enjoying what you do. When I was working through my general education requirements (GER), I found myself performing better in my difficult, for major courses than I did in the easy GER courses. The workload was easier and less frequent in GER courses, I just did not enjoy the courses nearly as much. One who toils is less efficient than one who enjoys their work. Thus, to fix apathy in the office, bosses need to find ways to make the office an enjoyable environment, as this is the first step in enjoying one’s work. They may not be able to make busy work exciting, but they do have the ability to ease the toil in many ways including verbal encouragement, nice coffee and lunch breaks, and showing a general interest in the employee’s well-being.

The other aspect of a working environment that caused me to work incredibly efficiently is working for the job and not by the hour. In the summer of 2019, I started a pressure washing company with my friends. We went house to house and got paid by the job. The more houses that we washed in a day, the more we would make. In order to incorporate this into an office environment where many employees are salary or hourly, bosses need to be creative. One idea is offering time off for completing tasks early. The employee will finish 5 day’s worth of work in 4 and take the 5thday off. Thus, there is no loss for the company and the employee received a great reward for their hard work. It’s a win win!

In conclusion, working a set amount of days or another does not lead to more or less productivity. Productivity relies on the efficiency and work ethics of those within the company. In order to in

crease productivity, one must increase the efficiency and work ethics of those employed.