“If you go out at seven thirty you’ve been at work all day.” the specialists put the cap on six
It is about eight o’clock in the afternoon, and there is still light in the office. It should have been off for three hours. “We continue to measure the productivity of a worker by the hours spent sitting. And if I go to work at eight and my daughter starts school at nine, I adapt the schedule to her and take her earlier. It is time for society to realize that the family exists. Ismael Sánchez-Herrera, president of the Association of Occupational Health and Prevention Specialists (AEPSAL), lashes out against draconian hours for the sake of it. “There are assembly lines where it is impossible to make flexible or surgeons who have to operate at eleven o’clock yes or yes, but, in an office, is it so serious to enter at 8.25 instead of at 8.00 if with that we manage to reconcile? .. ». Or avoid a traffic jam, for example …
Time for entrance
«I remember a neighbor whom I always met at six thirty in the morning in the elevator. She took the girl to the nursery at seven o’clock because she started work at eight and she always got traffic jams. But why do we all have to meet the same schedule and lose an hour in a traffic jam? Why do you have to get up two hours before to make sure you arrive on time, is that healthy for the body? Wouldn’t it be better to telecommute from eight to ten in the morning and hit the road when it’s clearer? Not as a general rule, of course, but in some cases it could be done “, proposes Elisa Sánchez, clinical psychologist and director of the Idein workplace wellness consultancy.
The six o’clock
The key, specialists insist, is to make it more flexible. As a general rule, and copying what they do in the rest of Europe, “from eight to five is the ‘ideal’ time”. Ibon Olazabal, an expert in personnel selection and CEO of the Evolus Group, puts the “cap” on at six in the afternoon. «If you leave later than that time, it becomes very difficult to have a life outside. Anyone who leaves at seven thirty or more, the day goes to work. ”
How many hours?
It seems obvious, but it depends on the type of job. “A telemarketer who has a stressful task should not work more than six hours a day,” Ibon Olazabal points out as an example. “Another thing is a job like construction or a slaughterhouse, for example. Jobs that require a break every two hours for ergonomic reasons, to avoid joint exhaustion. With those stops, you will probably have to add an hour more to the daily schedule.
How long to eat?
The three specialists consulted propose a range of between twenty minutes and one hour. And the rest after eating? It would not be necessary in case of a light lunch. In offices that allow more time to eat and, therefore, eat more copious menus, says Ismael Sánchez-Herrera, “it would be ideal if there were a dark place, with a comfortable chair, to be able to close your eyes for a while. Although that is something very, very exceptional.
Intensive schedule on Fridays
It is already a reality in many offices and Elisa Sánchez believes that it could become almost the norm. “There are places where Monday through Thursday leaves at seven in the afternoon and that is the way that on Fridays it ends at three. And the same in summer. The intensive schedule is a very interesting option ».
The meetings
They are the lengtheners of the working day par excellence. There is a lot of theory around its efficiency and the basic keys to be productive go through the brevity, (with an end time established in advance), by not using mobile phones and by not addressing issues that are not on the agenda. They must be done in the morning and planned. It is not cool to end up talking about football », reproaches Ibon Olazabal.
The customer, the customer
“There are companies, especially consultancies, in which the customer comes first. So does the worker’s life take a backseat? Well, that’s the way it is, and consequently things are done that, even if they are irrational or not very logical, are justified because ‘you have to leave everything for the client’. We are losing focus », censors Elisa Sánchez. And he warns that “for the worker to get involved with the company, he must feel taken care of.” How? «There is a concept called
emotional salary which refers to the fact that the employee not only earns money, he can be compensated in another way that is not only economic, for example with flexible schedules. Because we make daycare hours, doctor’s appointments … and it must be the other way around ”. In this sense, the psychologist disapproves of that “leadership of control that still prevails in many organizations, instead of a leadership of trust.”
The dynamics of the three stones to identify what is important
Elisa Sánchez, an expert psychologist in labor issues, refers to the metaphor of the three stones. Let’s imagine a boat in which we put three huge stones. It seems crowded, but we could still get sand in and it would even fit water. That boat represents life and what it tries to convey is that, even if we removed the water and sand, the boat would still be full because the large stones occupy it almost completely. Well, those big stones cannot be work and clients, but family, health. Work should not be the priority, it cannot be ahead of well-being, and we are giving it all the importance.
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