productivity

Productivity had become an obsession. Until leisure has started to give better results at work

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The constant pressure to perform to the maximum has marked work life for a long time, leaving rest almost forgotten. A recent study shows how reserving well-planned leisure time changes the perception of daily routines and contributes to improved performance at work. Experts have verified that organize free time actively through crafts or other forms of abstraction brings improvements to creativity and motivation in your work tasks. This finding questions the belief that only by working non-stop can we achieve good work results. Let the brain create things. A group of researchers from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom and Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands investigated on the effects of creative craft-based entertainment during employees’ leisure time. The result of the experiment was not an improvement in the morale and motivation of the employees who participated in the study, but rather it contributed to these employees offering a more creative response in solving the problems that arose at work. Improvements in daily work life. The workers who participated in the study felt that, by exercising new manual skills, they better appreciated the processes of their crafts, making them gain value. The curious thing is that the change was bigger in the workplace than in his personal life, even though it was his leisure time. “We were surprised to see that crafts had a greater impact at work than in personal life. We expected similar benefits in both areas,” explains Professor George Michaelides, from UEA Norwich Business School. Curiously, the group that noticed this improvement the most was the one formed by the most senior employeesthose over 61 years of age. The explanation for this phenomenon is found in cognitive aptitude, a brain condition that is activated during learning processes. Gymnastics for the brain. Just as they collect the studies of Professors Gilkey and Kilts, of the schools of medicine and business at Emory University, carry out various creative activities that require a motor and cognitive combinationlike playing the guitar, juggling or learning a new language, helps expand the neural system and makes it more communicative. That is, the development of new skills through crafts was improving the “physical fitness” of the employees’ cognitive system, and the results were more visible in those more prone to cognitive decline and memory deterioration due to age. Keep “fit“Cognitive aptitude improves performance in decision making and problem solving, as well as in the generation of new ideas. The capacity for abstraction. One of the keys to the use of crafts or pleasurable leisure activities is that they act as a natural stress reducer and depressive symptoms. “Hobbies are already known to be good for well-being. But our study shows that hobbies not only make you happier, they can also help you feel more fulfilled and creative at work. This goes beyond simply relaxing or having fun (like watching Netflix non-stop) and turns hobbies into something that helps people grow,” says Dr. Paraskevas Petrou, the lead author of the study. Beyond the cognitive improvement derived from the development of the neural system, a study from Cardiff University found that the use of crafts or repetitive activities, how to knitinduces the brain into a state of full attention that increases abstract thinking activity by up to 25%, which contributes to the generation of new ideas and improves problem solving. In Xataka | Feeling overwhelmed at work is normal, but it is not ideal: six techniques to avoid it and be much more productive Image | Unsplash (Elena Mozhvilo)

“Cozy games” were going to save us from stress and productivity. They have ended up being true slaves of leisure

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The promise of relaxing and clearing your mind for a few hours is what attracts us of the cozy games: those games that surround us with cute little animals, calm us with a comforting visual palette and give us repetitive and friendly tasks that make us escape from stress. It all seems very bucolic; You inherit a farm, plant flowers, decorate rooms or make dream furniture, with the promise of escaping for a few hours from the daily routine. However, that kind of digital refuge has become the materialization of what you wanted to escape from; in a second Google Calendar full of meetings, in a clone of your 9 to 5 job. And ‘Tiny Bookshop’ reaffirms it to us. Released this summer,’Tiny Bookshop‘ quickly became a hit within the crowded category cozy. The premise is clear: you arrive in a small, charming town with your new traveling bookstore project, which you can decorate with hundreds of possibilities. Through your relationship with the neighbors you manage to sell and recommend a large number of books and, in turn, discover all the secrets of the town. This entire initial point is more than striking for fans of the genre (like yours truly). After more hours than I would like to admit, I realized that I had fallen into the gaming trap again. cozy: dedicate hours and hours at a job. Underneath the adorableness of being able to paint everything in pastel tones or recommend ‘Jane Eyre’ to your clients, in the end you find that you have been searching for objects for a while to increase your sales, check the opening hours for the next day and be on the lookout to replenish the shelves with the right genre. You can call this cozybut I call it emulating another workday; and what’s worse, enjoying it. Recommend all kinds of books at ‘Tiny Bookshop’ At the beginning of the 2010s it became quite fashionable, sponsored by the gurus of Silicon Valleya trend called “gamification of work“Through video game or board game mechanics, missions, points or rewards were added within the daily routine of monotonous work tasks. It is worth asking if the cozy games They have done the opposite path, “trafficking” video games. It is true that, as is often the case with these cozy gamesit’s easy to have fun with them and immerse yourself fully in the story. The interactions are adorable, the characters are cute and they have that air of “afternoon movie” that makes them irresistible; but in the end we cannot ignore the fact that we are replicating tasks that we are supposed to escape from, such as spending hours and hours working. And yes, it all depends on the type of player you are and how you manage the objectives of the game, but the cozy games They rarely have to do with something comfortable or warm. We’ve romanticized even paying a mortgage We are not talking about a specific thing that happens with this new release, completing or performing the daily tasks of this style of games can be the least relaxing thing there is. With the pinnacle of the cozy‘stardew valley‘, the day doesn’t last long between milking the cows, collecting the eggs, making jam and going to the mine to get objects. Furthermore, as if it were real life itself, after all these tasks, you have to put on a good face and interact with your neighbors. Something similar happens with another of the big names in the category such as ‘Animal Crossing‘: you have to give objects to your island companions, cut down trees, plant flowers, fish and be attentive to the day the character who is in charge of buying your collection arrives, in order to get money and pay the mortgage. Yes, a mortgage on a beautiful house, but Tom Nook does not forgive the deadlines. After all this, it would be interesting to check the players’ heart rate when their character goes to sleep after completing all those tasks. Spend the day cutting down trees in ‘Animal Crossing’ By becoming something more mainstream and produce some sales more than substantial Since its rise in the pandemic, there are countless games that adopt the “cozy” to capture the public, even when its dynamics move away from what characterizes the genre. It is worth asking if within this label, the greatest exponents should not be games like ‘Abzu‘ either ‘Unpacking‘, where the “you don’t have to do anything” is strictly followed and the objectives do not have a timer. The contemplative and the mechanical is what is essential in these examples, honoring that part “cozy” of mental refuge with peace, serenity and tasks that are repeated over and over again. In fact, there is even metacriticism within this world. ‘Wanderstop‘, a tea shop simulator created by the visionary mind behind ‘The Stanley Parable‘, Davey Wreden. The game ironizes this fact with a character who invites you to attend to customer requests when it seems right to you, without rushing, because the last thing the protagonist needs is it’s more pressure. It is curious that most games cozy They deal with mental health or anxiety, but some have mechanics in line with this and others offer ones that are radically opposite to the feelings they seek to create in the player. The perversion of language, or the excessive use of a label such as “cozy” to sell more copies ends up producing a very specific reality: something is broken when the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about these comforting games is taking care of a farm or a supermarket, watering parsnips or paying for an extension to your house. Productivity as leisure Beyond the mechanics and quality of each of them, the addiction and fanaticism that they generate for us does nothing more than put ourselves in front of the mirror and expose the reality of our daily life: even with our leisure we want to be productive, … Read more

Being a perfectionist at work was a virtue. The obsession with perfection has transformed into toxic productivity

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Imagine feeling that you never do enoughthat every free minute should be used to advance something productive, even if your body and mind ask for rest. This obsession for staying productive every minute of the day, increasingly normalized in contemporary culture, is what Harvard Business Review and other experts they call “toxic productivity“. Avoid her at all costs, it’s everything less productive. Far from being a direct route to success, psychology specialists agree that this approach can have negative consequences for both physical and mental health, and even sabotage the achievements you achieve every day because, as they have revealed different psychological studies it is never enough. Productivity is just an excuse The toxic productivity is also defined as action bias or the tendency to prioritize action over inaction, even when this inaction does not produce any benefit or there is no justification that supports it. In short, it is the constant drive to “do”, often sacrificing physical and mental well-being and personal relationships. Toxic productivity doesn’t just manifest itself in working overtime. beyond the working daybut they also appear feelings of guilt for spending time resting, doing pleasant or social activities. That imbalance in working time limits and the staff makes something that used to be enjoyable now a focus of unnecessary, self-imposed anxiety. According to a study from the University of Michigan’s psychology department links this bias as a form of coping for anxiety or low self-esteem, where “being busy” serves as a distraction from negative thoughts and feelings. According to what was published by Psychology Todaythis type of toxic productivity bias is more common among people with high levels of perfectionism and self-esteem focused on performance. Misunderstood perfectionism This type of constant pressure not only causes exhaustion, but also deteriorates physical and mental health. He meta-analysis by Andrew Hill and Thomas Curran, from the Universities of York and Bath, delve into the effects of this toxic productivity. For example, in their study, they define two dimensions of perfectionism: Perfectionistic aspirations (perfectionistic strivings): having very high goals, wanting to perform to the maximum, seeking excellence, etc. Perfectionistic concerns: fear of making mistakes, obsession with the expectations of others, constant self-criticism, etc. The key is that these two dimensions usually go together in the same person. Someone who demands a lot of themselves (high aspirations) may also be afraid of failing (worries), the result is how to combine fire with gasolineand the result leads to states of anxiety. The worst part is that this dynamic feeds on itself in a continuous cycle of fatigue and more and more work in which you are never productive enough. One of the warning signs that indicates that toxic productivity is deeply established in your life is a progressive time poverty. That is, the feeling that you don’t have enough hours in the day. Different economic studies, such as the elaborate by the La Caixa Foundation have revealed that women (especially those who are mothers) endure a second shift at work, and are more likely to show symptoms of toxic productivity and time poverty. According to the investigations of Slack, there is a direct relationship between establish adequate rest times and increased productivity. Their records revealed that employees who log off at the end of the workday report 20% higher productivity than those who feel obligated to work outside of work hours. Breaking this cycle of toxic productivity involves recognizing and redefining what, on a personal level, is considered success and prioritize breaksself-care and healthy boundaries both at work and in personal time. The magnitude of the problem: exhaustion in numbers In work environments it is usually celebrated when someone seems to never slow down or always have a project in hand, but this rhythm can end up being destructive. In fact, in many contexts, rest is still associated wrongly lazilyand exhaustion is taken as a sign of commitment, a perception that Harvard Business Review consider profoundly wrong. The data is compelling. According to data from the report Global Talent Trends prepared by the consulting firm Mercer in 2024, around 82% of the world’s workforce is susceptible to suffer job burnout or “burnout” due to excessive workloads. This figure demonstrates to what extent the pressure to always be active It affects the majority of working people. He job burnout It goes far beyond occasional tiredness; It is a direct consequence of a culture that values ​​busyness over well-being. In many countriesthis translates into extended hours, workers who They sacrifice weekends and holidays for not knowing set limits between work time and personal time, letting work tasks invade the space intended for developing social, family or personal life. In Xataka | Productivity is not linear: learning to manage its ups and downs makes a difference and these questions will be your lifesaver Image | Unsplash (Paola Chaaya, Vasilis Caravitis)

have been the productivity apps that promised to help you

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There is a tendency to think that the main reason for loss of productivity at work is due to poor time organization or for procrastinating tasks. That is, by leaving pending tasks for later. However, a study carried out by the project management platform Lokalise, has revealed a surprising reason why working hours they don’t give as much of themselves as you would like: too many applications and digital tools are used in daily work. This phenomenon has been called “online tool fatigue” or fatigue due to excess of digital tools. According to the results revealed by the Lokalise survey, when too many messaging, email, data management or project management applications are used, instead of help you be more productivejust the opposite happens and productivity plummets. Impossible to concentrate. According to data from the Lokalise study, based on the opinions of more than 1,000 office workers in the US from different professional sectors, these employees experience constant daily interruptions in your concentration when they receive a message through the work messaging app, they must respond to an email, etc. The data indicates that 17% of respondents switch between tabs, applications or platforms more than 100 times in a single workday. 56% of the workers interviewed assured the platform that tool fatiguesuch as switching between them and notifications, negatively affects your concentration and productivity. Two weeks jumping between applications. On average, this constant switching between applications and attention to notifications causes employees to lose an average of 51 minutes, although 22% claim that the time lost amounts to more than two hours per week. This figure may seem like a small thing, but if this time is added up by all the employees of a company and computed over a full working year, it implies an annual loss of between one week and two and a half weeks of work. non-productive time. All this for something as trivial as clicking on a window to change apps. Too many apps. 55% of participants say they use between three and five computer applications in their daily work, while 31% of employees say they use between six and ten applications to do their work. The usage data collected suggests that productivity tools that consume the most time are the email with 47%, followed by professional messaging apps such as Slack, Teams or Discord with 35%. Surprisingly, video calling tools, on which most meetings are supported, are in third place in terms of time consumed, with 22%. Below 17% there are other more specific applications like the calendarcloud storage systems (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.) or support and assistance systems such as Asana, Jira, Zendesk or Salesforce. Changing apps is like changing tasks. Although it is part of the resolution of a single task, the constant alternation between applications produces a cognitive effect similar to that occurs with multitasking. By changing the graphical environment, functions and operation of each platform, the brain it takes a certain time to process the change, breaking the inertia of concentration that reaches when performing a certain task in one of the tools. This effect of constant change generates mental fatigue and causes the brain to need several minutes to refocus on the main task after each interruption. In Xataka | Psychology has explained why it is so difficult for you to leave a job even if it is toxic: the sunk cost fallacy Image | Unsplash (Swello)

Netflix has 15,000 titles but we end up seeing ‘The Office’ by Quinvez. Productivity apps make us the same

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We have 15,000 titles in Netflix and we end up seeing ‘The Office‘For the fifth time. We have a complete suite of productivity apps on the mobile and we end up writing the tasks in A whatsapp with ourselves. It is the same psychological mechanism working in two different contexts: when you have too many options, your brain is blocked and returns to the known. The world of productivity has fallen into the same trap as the platforms of streaming. They sell us infinite customization as an advantage when it is actually a ballast: Notion It allows you to create any imaginable system. Obsidian has more than 800 pLugins Todoist It has configurations for each micronecessity of your workflow. It sounds great until you realize that you have been configuring the perfect system and you have not completed a task. There is fascinating investigation into this. Barry Schwartz showed That more options not only make us happier, but they paralyze us. Each configuration decision consumes mental energy that you could be using to do real work. And here comes the paradox: We value less systems that come preconfiguredalthough they work better than those we have customized until death. The solution is contraintuitive: The most restrictive systems are usually more productive. Apple, for example, understood it a long time. It doesn’t let you change almost anything from the iPhone, but that’s why it works. Limitation is not a bugIt is one feature. You strength to act instead of optimizing forever. The secret is to choose intelligent restrictions. Instead of looking for the tool that can do everything, Look for what does the three things you really need well. Let’s look at a specific example: task management. Notion allows you to create relational databases with personalized properties, dynamic filters, multiple views and automation. You can categorize by project, priority, context, required energy, responsible person. You can create control panels that show productivity metrics and progress graphics. It is the dream of any obsessive control. But While you build that perfect system, your real tasks accumulate. You spend more time thinking about how to organize the work than working. And when you finally have your masterpiece configured, it turns out that it is so complex that using it requires more mental effort than doing the tasks by hand. Contrasts this with Things 3. You have three drawers: Inbox, today, and someday. Spot. You can’t create custom fields, you can’t do Dashboards Made, you cannot automate anything complex. It seems limited compared to Notion. But precisely because of that it works: you open the app, you see what to do today, you do it, you call it. Zero cognitive friction. The usual lesson: Productivity is not about having more options, but about eliminating irrelevant decisions. Your mental energy is finite. Every minute you spend configuring is a minute you don’t spend creating. The most elegant systems are not the ones that can do everything, but those that make obvious what to do next. In Xataka | In 2001 a productivity method was born that was going to survive everyone else: 24 years later, it is still immortal Outstanding image | Sanjeev Mohindra

We are champions in productivity with medium and large companies. The problem is that with SMEs we lose by win

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The OECD data has been putting the red lantern to Spanish productivity decades. However, that perception does not Low productivity in Spain It does not fully adjust to the reality that reflect the Recent OECD reports. Such and as they highlight in The confidentialalthough the global data show a very discreet increase, companies of between 10 and 250 workers exceed productivity to the average of their peers in the OECD. However, the big problem is that 95.1% of Spanish business fabric is made up of SMEs with between 0 and 10 employees. What the OECD says about Spain. The OECD, in Your productivity report Of 2024, it evidences that the average annual growth of the hour per hour worked in Spain has been 0.5% per year, while the OECD as a whole has registered an average of 1.2%. That places the country clearly below the average of the Club of developed economies. Despite this scenario, a BBVA Foundation Analysis On the evolution of the total productivity of the factors (PTF), which combines the productivity of labor and capital to leave a photo closer to the reality of companies, says a growth of 0.9% interannual of this parameter. Which reinforces the conclusions of the OECD on the growth of productivity in Spain, which is like the Second country with greater growth of productivity in the last two decades. However, beyond the global data of Spain, the graphics of the OECD productivity study value the largest companies already medium -sized as a productivity engine in Spain. Thus, the OECD evidence that the mismatch in productivity is not so much between Spain and Europe as a whole, but among the different company sizes within the country itself. Total productivity of the factors (PTF) by country. Source: Productivity Council of Spain Microenterprises: many and unproductive. As recognized From the report From the Productivity Council in Spain, the most relevant feature of the Spanish productive fabric is that 95.1% of Spanish companies have less than ten employees, confirming that microenterprise is the standard in Spain, not the exception. According to the OECD dataSpanish microenterprises generated in 2023 an added value of $ 56,990 per worker, compared to $ 108,356 per employee generated by large companies. That means that large companies are 90% more productive than SMEs. The productivity of microenterprises is 15.3% below the OECD average and represents one of the main ballasts for the national average. He OECD diagnosis On microenterprises it is clear: having many very small companies limits the Productivity improvements and investment capacity. Medium companies approve with note. The highlight of the international comparative analysis is that, according to the OECD, “Spanish medium -sized companies have a productivity higher than the EU average, standing above the other advanced countries in their category.” In percentage terms, Spanish companies of 10 to 49 employees are 8.7% more productive than the OECD average; those of 50 to 250 employees 9.1% and those of more than 250 employees 5.2%. In other words, only 4.9% of companies in Spain would be above the OECD average, occupying avant -garde positions in terms of competitiveness in markets International The challenge: increase size and investment. The recipe that the OECD gives to Improve productivity Of these microenterprises it is clear, but it is not simple to apply: it is necessary to seek improvements in productivity through Investment and innovationimproving the value added by employee so that the business fabric gains size. According to 2023 dataSpain is at the tail in investment in machinery, ICT assets and i+d. Precisely, a Report of the Bank of Spain He pointed to productive investment as the key to business growth. The report emphasizes that private business investment had not managed to recover prepondondemic levels, while public investment in this area had recovered and grew at a good pace. In Xataka | Some researchers have analyzed the working day in Spain: the same thing that 40 years ago is worked, but in worse jobs Image | Unspash (Sherman Yang) We believed that in Spain we were not productive, but medium and large companies exceed the OECD average. That is the problem

The most experienced developers hoped to improve their productivity with AI. A study showed just the opposite

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What happens when you give an advanced artificial intelligence platform to a group of expert developers and ask them to work on tasks that they know in detail? The logical thing would be to wait a productivity jump, a great combination between experience human and technological assistance. The tools are there, the flows are learned, the learning curve is not an obstacle. But it was not so. What happened even surprised the authors of the study, according to Reuters: AI did not improve the results. He got them worse. And he did it in such a subtle way that not even the developers themselves realized. The report does not talk about critical failures or serious mistakes, but the effect was clear: the work became slower. Slower than it would have been without artificial intelligence in between. More does not always mean more productivity Before starting, everyone agreed on something: using artificial intelligence was going to save them time. In fact, they estimated that their tasks would finish 24 % faster. It was a reasonable expectation, based on their experience and how these tools were presented. And when they ended, they were still convinced of having achieved it: their estimate was that They had been 20 % faster. In his own words, AI had allowed them to advance without blockages, without interruptions, with a more agile workflow. But not. Actually, they had taken longer. A lot more. The general average of the group was a 19 % increase in total time during the test carried out by Metr. It is not a minor difference. And it is even more striking if one takes into account that we talk about tasks that they themselves had defined as relevant, useful and realistic: bugs correction, new functionalities, refactors. They were not exercises designed to test the AI, but real work, of the one that is done every day in any mature project. The difference was so great that he left even words even to those responsible for the study. The developers were not novice or learning on the fly. They had been working on those same projects for years, They knew the repositories in detailThey knew what was behind each file and each function. They were in their field. And, yet, the tools of AI did not facilitate work. They complicated it. Part of the explanation is how these platforms work. The suggestions they offered were not entirely incorrect, but imprecise. They were often well aimed, but required adjustments. And those adjustments, instead of saving time, elongated it. Check, correct, check. Start over. What promised to be an aid became a more intermediate process: an additional layer between thought and the solution. The feeling of fluidity was misleading. They started with a base, yes, but that base rarely served as is. You had to crumble itunderstand what the model had wanted to say, compare with what already existed and rebuild what is necessary. As if each suggestion came with an invisible asterisk. A non -valid line of default code. The illusion of progress faster was held until the time came to compile, try or make a serious review of the code generated. And yet, many of the participants continue to use those same tools in their day to day. Not because they save them time, but because they do the most bearable job. In the study they mainly used cursor, a platform that integrates advanced language models such as Claude 3.5 and 3.7 Sonnetand that allows writing, completing and reviewing code directly from the development environment. Cursor does not do everything for you, but he accompanies you. That company, even when it is not entirely efficient, can make programming less exhausting. The AI ​​converts the effort to program in something more similar to being an orchestra director that to build everything from scratch with a solid knowledge base. We are already seeing it with the phenomenon Vibe Coding. In the midst of this scenario we have seen companies They cut development equipment for the possibilities offered by AI, although Some have had returned on their steps. AI is a valuable tool, but it doesn’t help everyone equally. Images | Global UI UX Design Agency procreator | Nubelson Fernandes | Cursor In Xataka | Nvidia reached 4 billion dollars of capitalization for one reason: its privileged position in the AI ​​boom

A productivity guru went to visit Disneyland. And there he found the secrets of silent productivity

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Recently, Cal Newport was in Disneyland. Newport is one of the great productivity gurus, and its most widespread thesis is that of Power of the concentration of the deep. His analytical eye allowed him, tail comes, get some interesting lessons about productivity even in the middle of a theme park. First, it describes the experience of attractions as “hyperreality”: worlds that are impressive and artificial at the same time, designed to offer a purified and safe version of the real adventure. Disney has perfected that creation of artificial experiences, and also productivity through the design of systems that eliminate cognitive friction. Something of what We already talked in the past. Every detail of the park is designed so that the visitor does not have to make too many decisions and can concentrate their mental energy on enjoying. Some examples: The posters are placed just where they are needed. The queues serpente so that it is more difficult to estimate their real length. Employees anticipate the questions that visitors usually ask. The show schedules are designed to distribute crowds without noticing manipulation. Even garbage containers are strategically located so you never have to load with remains. It is a great accumulated example of the philosophy of Do not understand productivity how to do more thingsbut to eliminate everything that does not matter to do well what does matter. And something deeper: Newport connects this experience comparing it to what happens when we use our mobile. Instagram, X or Tiktok offer us diluted versions of real experiences: The morbidity of traveling without traveling. Outrage without consequences. Entertainment effortlessly. Pirates of the Caribbean in 6 inches. The difference is that Disney designs for our well -being as a visitor (and potentially so that we want to return or so that we have easier to spend there). Social networks design for our addiction as a product. Disney wants you to go happy after a couple of days, social networks want you to never leave. And that is the lesson that we can apply: in the same way that Disney designs experiences that minimize the cognitive burden of its visitor, We can design our days to minimize trivial decisions. Automate the routine, systematize the repetitive, eliminate what it distracts. The mantra of creating an environment where we can concentrate on what generates value, and not simply work more hours. In Xataka | 99 Undecuted Tips on Productivity Outstanding image | Xiaozhen bread in Unspash

Germany believes having found the most German solution to its productivity problems: work more

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Germany has been considered for decades as The economic locomotive from Europe. However, currently It crosses a crisis that has surprised analysts and experts. The model that allowed the country to prosper with reduced working hours and shoot its productivity, seems to have reached its limit. German leaders They look for new formulas To recover lost growth and have found a possible solution: work more. Germany works little. In recent months, the economic debate has intensified without the German responsible having found the key to getting out of the economic stagnation. However, from the business circles of Bavaria, southeast of Germany, they point out that it could be something as simple as increasing annual work hours. The formula: eliminating one of the religious holidays of the German calendar. According to published the newspaper Welt, Federal Foreign Minister Friedrich Merz would agree with this statement: “In this country we have to work more and, above all, more efficiently,” said the president in a few words that Later he clarified “But in Germany we have groups, especially among the youngest generation, which work a lot.” They have tried everything. The pilot tests of the four -day work week They have not achieved the Productivity impulse that the country needs. Foreign Minister Merz recently warned: “With the four -day week and the balance between professional and personal life we ​​will not be able to maintain the prosperity of this country,” declared The German Chancellor to I monde. This statement has generated discomfort in a society that has always been considered hardworking and disciplined. For decades, German workers have enjoyed shorter working hours compared to other European countries, especially those in the south. This situation was justified by high productivity and added value of German products and services, which allowed “doing a lot.” However, the economy fails to take off and the government now points to “lack of work” and “preference for leisure” as factors that are ballasting economic growth. Eliminate holidays. Before this panorama, some voices of the business have proposed concrete measures to increase the working time Without increasing working days daily, which in many cases are already more than 40 hours due to the enormous load of overtime. According to published BildBertram Brossardt, general director of the Bavarian Business Association, suggested to eliminate, at least one of the holidays that the Germans have. “Easter Monday, Monday of Pentecost and San Esteban. My colleagues in France and Italy are constantly surprised that we have those free days. Removing one of those free days would greatly benefit the German economy and would not mean a heavy burden for employees,” said Brossardt, adding that “religious festivities should not be taboo in the debate.” The data support it. The proposal is not just symbolic. Christoph Schröder Researcher at the German Economic Institute (IW) He maintains that Eliminating a holiday could increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Germany by up to 8,600 million euros. According to published The avant -gardeMichael Hüther, director of the IW, gave as an example the case of Denmark, which had recently eliminated a holiday “that was an additional income of 400 million to the state budget,” said the economist. The problem is that all federal states in the country, regardless of setting their own holidays, should agree to abolish it. Germany to the tail at hours worked. Brossardt’s arguments rely on blunt data. In 2023, a German employee worked an annual average of 1,343 hours, which is 92 hours less than in Austria, 186 hours less than in Switzerland and 391 hours less than in Italy, According to OECDE data. “We are not productive enough. If we want to be competitive, we have to return to work more!” said The businessman to the newspaper Bild. Despite these figures, Germany is not the country with more holidays. On average, the Germans enjoy 9 national holidays, although in some southern regions such as Bayern, Basen-Württemberg or Saarland can reach 12 holidays. In comparison, Austria and Malta enjoy thirteen holidays. In Spain, the usual are twelve, with some autonomous communities such as Catalonia, Community Valencian and Navarra add 13 holidays; Ceuta has 14 holidays a year, while the Canary Islands conform to 11 days. Average weekly hours worked in each country The problem is not the days. Such and as he published The confidentialsome experts do not believe that eliminating a holiday is the solution for the German economy, but that the country must face a change in its labor market to recover the productivity of yesteryear. Germany is the second European country where less hours work a week in full -time jobs, and the figure drops even more if the Part -time contracts. According to official dataone in two women works part -time in Germany. Therefore, some economists propose Encourage the incorporation of women to the full -time labor market and facilitate the arrival of more foreign workers to relieve the shortage of qualified labor. The key, according to these experts, is a deep review of the German labor market to adapt to the new challenges economic and demographic that supposes the Agence of the active population. In Xataka | Some researchers have analyzed the working day in Spain: the same thing that 40 years ago is worked, but in worse jobs Image | Unspash (Mashkumar Painam, Spencer Davis)

Its productivity shot 40%

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Japan is a country known for its demanding work culture and its endless working days. Loyalty to the company and the commitment to the results led employees to put at risk your life With extreme trends. However, the division of Microsoft in Japan decided to break those rigid schemes and Implement a summer With the work week four days for its entire template. The experiment exceeded all expectations on productivity and labor well -being. Microsoft challenges Japanese work culture Despite Japan’s reputation for his “culture of presentism” and the custom of working long hours, Microsoft dared to launch A pioneer initiative In 2019. In August of that year, the company gave its 2,300 employees five consecutive free Fridays, maintaining the full salary and without demanding time compensation. According to the companyThe objective was to “experiment how they can achieve the same results with 20% less work time,” said Takuya Hirano, then president and executive director of Microsoft Japan. The measure adopted by Microsoft was especially innovative because it advanced To the global trend to explore work models more flexiblelong before the pandemic accelerated the debate on the Working Day and Teleworking. The experimentknown as “Work-Life Choice Challenge 2019 Summer”, sought to improve productivity and creativity by changing the way time was used in the company. In other words, he sought to optimize his processes by eliminating those more unproductive tasks of the day. An unexpected leap in productivity and efficiency The big surprise came when reviewing the data collected during the test: productivity, measured in this case by sales per employee, increased by almost 40% with respect to the same period of the previous year. The key to this increase was in the OPTIMIZATION OF WORK TIMEespecially in which employees dedicated to meetings. During the experiment, a New standard for meetingssetting them by default in 30 minutes, instead of 60 minutes as usual. This cut was a 46% increase in short meetings. In addition, many of them were performed in remote format instead of face -to -face, which further expedited processes. The company itself acknowledged that “the time of its meetings and the number of participants in Japan were well above the global average”, so that cut was decisive for the success of the test. According to the 4 Day Work Week organization, which has supervised most pilot tests carried out in the world, including that of Valencia“The substantial increase in productivity observed in the study underlines the effectiveness of a condensed work schedule to optimize employee performance.” Cost reduction for the company The experiment not only Productivity improved of Microsoft, but also registered a savings in your operational costs of the company’s offices. During the trial period, paper printing was reduced by 58.7% and energy consumption fell 23.1% compared to the same month in three previous years. One of the keys to this success was the intensive use of digital platforms such as Microsoft Teamsthat the company had launched in 2017, and that allowed to centralize communication and meetings in a single virtual space. Microsoft took the opportunity to demonstrate to its corporate clients that efficiency goes through adopting alternative digital tools and models. “Microsoft has been a pioneer in Asia in its intention to offer alternative work models that attract talent to their ranks and also to retain it,” They stood out In its official statement. In Xataka | Three Spanish companies tell us how it has gone after implementing a job utopia: the four -day week In Xataka | The myth says that Germans work more than the Spaniards. The data tell a different thing Image | Flickr (Qso4you.com)

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