• Anecdotally everybody knows people work less on Friday, but now we have data to back it up.
• Research reveals that folks become less productive as the week wears on until Friday where they are the least productive.
• This suggests that businesses and employees could benefit for a four-day work week or a hybrid solution.

We have a bit of a joke here in the Hypertext office that after 14:00 on Friday, you’d sooner find the lost Kruger millions than get a response from a communications department.

The end of the week for many signals the time to start unwinding and while anecdotally we know folks work less at the end of the week, we now have evidence of exactly that.

This week researchers published the study, Examining workweek variations in computer usage patterns: An application of ergonomic monitoring software. In this research, data from 789 office workers was collected over a two-year period. The data was collected using software called RSIGuard and it allowed the researchers to track a range of metrics including:

• Active hours – Total time spent actively using the keyboard, mouse or both;
• Mouse hours – Total time spent using a mouse;
• Keyboard hours – Total time spent using the keyboard;
• Words typed – Total number of words typed (and series of letters followed by a space was considered a new word). Morning and afternoon measurements were taken;
• Typos – The number of errors made. Data was collected for morning and afternoons;
• Mouse clicks – Total number of mouse clicks;
• Mouse distance – Number of pixels covered by the mouse cursor;
• Mouse scrolls – Number of scrolls.

As you can see in the image below, the data reveals that on Fridays, folks aren’t nearly as productive as they are at the beginning of the week. Interestingly, employees did make fewer types but considering they are typing far fewer words, mistakes would be lower as well.

The researchers also noted that there was a notable decrease in the number of words typed on a Friday afternoon.

“Notably, there was no difference in the means of numbers of words typed between Tuesday and Friday in the mornings, but in the afternoons, the number of typos showed gradual reductions through Thursday, followed by leveling off on Fridays. This contrasts with the significant drop in the number of words typed on Friday afternoons,” the researchers wrote.

What this research highlights, rather importantly, is that by Friday folks are just tired. The stress of work and life in general can eat away at a person and come Friday, fatigue – both mental and physical – has set in.

To combat this, the researchers recommend employers consider giving employees a break of sorts.

“These measures may include flexible work arrangements, such as telecommuting on Fridays or shortened workweeks, which can promote employee health, work-life balance, and productivity. The adoption of alternative work arrangements can offer significant long-term benefits to businesses, including increased employee satisfaction, reduced absenteeism, and increased productivity. Furthermore, these arrangements can contribute to environmental sustainability by reducing transportation fuel consumption, CO2 emissions, and other pollutants,” reads the paper.

While the scope of this research is limited, the data is clear, people are just exhausted by the time the end of the week rolls around. There are moves by some businesses to implement a four-day work week and while it has been shown to work in some businesses, just like remote and hybrid work, it may not work for everybody.

[Image –Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay]