Working 125 Hours a Week? The Reality Behind Long Working Hours

I recently heard someone claim to have worked 125 hours in a single week.

Immediately, my finger was on the calculator: 125 divided by seven days — roughly 18 hours a day for an entire week. Include getting to and from work, washing, dressing, and other daily activities, and he probably slept no more than four hours a night.

Working extremely long hours has somewhat become a badge of honour among certain groups of professionals. Bankers are probably among the most prominent examples. For some, putting in impossibly long hours is seen as a sign of commitment.

But is all this chest-thumping really backed by reality? How many people claiming to work 80 hours a week include an eight-hour business-class flight, during which they may work for an hour, nap for four hours and watch movies for three?

Quite a lot, it turns out. American researchers have found that the more hours people claim to work, the greater the gap can be between their reported working hours and the time they actually spend working.

According to a recent study, those who said they worked 40 to 44 hours per week actually worked an average of 36.2 hours. Those claiming to work 60 to 64 hours per week actually worked around 44.2 hours. Those reporting 65 to 74 hours per week worked about 52.8 hours, while those claiming to work 75 hours or more worked an average of 54.9 hours.

Despite what people often say — including Infosys co-founder N. R. Narayana Murthy, who has argued that India's workforce should put in 70 hours of work every week — it appears to be extremely rare for anyone to put in more than 55 to 60 hours of actual work per week.

There are several possible explanations for this discrepancy. In some cases, people may simply inflate their reported working hours to project an image of greater commitment, causing the numbers to become disconnected from the actual time spent working.

So, the next time you hear someone bragging about exceptionally long working hours, it may be worth remembering that the number they quote may not always reflect the amount of time they actually spend working.

— Alaham Anil Kumar