4 reasons employees shouldn’t have set hours

The traditional 9 to 5, 40-hour work week is just that: traditional.

It’s a fossil from an era when the number of hours an employee clocked on a production line was a simplified measurement of productivity. Although the nature of work has clearly changed, businesses still automatically adopt this rigid schedule without considering its effects on both employees and happiness—two things that should fall together seamlessly.

Employers ensure an erosion of employee trust by strictly enforcing when their employees must complete their work. This puts employees on a fast-track to feeling less autonomous. And nothing kills productivity like an environment where employees feel forced to work.

Your employees should want to complete their work—for the greater good of the company and simply because they enjoy what they do.

Learn from my experiences. Giving employees the freedom to come and leave has the potential to increase their productivity and output. It’s a win-win.

Here are four reasons why you need to end set working hours:

1. It’s a productivity killer.