Over the years, I have been involved in myriads of firms. Some of which are those which I started. Others, where I have served as CEO, CFO, CTO, and CRO, as well as board member.
And, like most executive officers, I found (and still do) myself putting in an average work week of nearly 48 hours. Since I don’t work a whole day Friday, nor do I generally work on Sundays, this makes for some very long days.
But, I am not atypical. A new study published by Oriana Bandiera, Andrea Prat, Rafaella Sadun, and Julie Wulf of Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics found that to be true of many other executives (about 350 in this study). It seems that those that did not have CFO or COO as direct reports spent 18 of their 55 hour work week in meetings. (Note: I have always demanded the employment of COO’s in the organizations where I was the CEO). If they had these individuals, there were 5 fewer hours spent in meetings a week.
The CEO’s themselves did not track their time for ‘this Executive Use Time Project’, but their personal assistants did (tracking 15 minute or longer activities for the researchers), which reduced the bias to a large degree. These weekly activities included business meals (5 h) and phone calls (3 h), plus traveling- with only 6 hours of solo activities a week. (I should state that I do not count travel time as part of my work week, which is a good thing since I used to travel 250K+ miles a year.)
Most CEOs were not surprised at the time they spent in meetings. It was the other activities that they did not recognize as being huge components of their work week.
Before you jump to the conclusions that these meeting were time wasters, we should consider this fact. A prior study (done by these LSE researchers) of Italian executives found that the time allocation of an executive clearly affected the profitability and productivity of their firms, as reflected in revenue/employee. In particular, meeting with internal stakeholders was more useful (by this measure) than meeting with external stakeholders. However, neither productivity nor profitability was included as parameters in this newer study.
To me, the point is that solo CEO’s are not sufficient to provide the best services for an organization (to balance life/work and to achieve top performance). And, the activities we choose should be directed to internal stakeholders (key lieutenants, shareholders, vendors, etc.) for the best organizational returns.
As someone who works for themselves, I am torn about the philosophy I once held (when I worked for someone else) that if I work 50 hours a week regularly, I am training myself to do 40 hours of work in 50 hours. It’s a personal productivity thing, for me. Now that I work for myself, I wonder if that holds true. Because I rarely take a whole day off, and most def put in more than an 8 hour day. Being widowed/single and not having to answer to or care for someone else, I am more apt to work longer and odder hours than ever. Now, that said, I’m not sure that I added to your post with my comment other than to let you know it made me think….thank you!
So, let me get this straight in my head, Lisa. You want to do 40 hours worth of work in 50 hours… So, you can be paid for 50? Or, because you think your pace is too fast? Or, because you just relish what you do so much, you MUST stretch it out to receive the enjoyment longer?????
I am laughing my bum off over here Roy! It is a debate my late husband and I had, because he worked no less than 10 hours a day. I told him that he was training himself to do 8 hours of work in a 10 hour day, and not making himself more productive, rather less. LOL
My turn to laugh, now, Lisa!
Thanks for that addition.
Roy
As entrepreneurs, we want to and tend to do everything ourselves. This study, while directed at corporations with various levels, still applies to those of us who work for ourselves. We shouldn’t expect to be able to do everything ourselves and when we outsource and delegate tasks to others, we can be more effective. It takes time (and long hours) to figure that out, but it’s true.
Lisa Kanarek recently posted..What to Consider Before You Upgrade
Great advice, Lisa!
We all need to insure that our actions- during the work period- are aimed at improving our bottom lines….
Interesting post. I have to say, I’m not surprised about the time in meetings and other activities as I was sometimes amazed at my time in meeting when I was in the corporate world. At times I felt the majority of my day (and I say felt meaning…it was true) going to a meeting, in a meeting, preparing for the next meeting, doing a followup from a meeting and going through my email. Ok…day done. Then, phone calls about meetings. Amazing. Thanks for the post.
Tawnee recently posted..St. Patrick’s Day – What’s On Your Home School Agenda?
Amazing how there was any time in your day to make decisions and act on them, Tawnee!
Hmm was always interesting to look at just what a working week involves. Sometimes a good way to find out if time is being wasted. Many years ago I was getting, okay let’s be honest I was getting my knickers in a knot over how much time the smokers that I was working with were wasting on their many various smoke breaks during the day and were still getting paid the same as I was. They got everyone to clock in and out during the day when they stepped into the tea room to have a smoke and found that the average time was 10 minutes away from the desk for a single smoke and that the average number of smoke breaks was 6 for the day which made it a whole hour less work done in a day (which of course makes for a whole lot of days they were being paid for during the year that they weren’t actually working) That brought in some interesting changes I can tell you.
I would look at how many hours my husband works in a week, and the way those hours are divided up, but that might just make me cry (though it is a whole lot less now that we no longer milk cows) over the wasted time and the lack of time that is available for family.
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Those are all valid considerations, Katrina.
I think many non-smokers have had the same considerations, as they sit (typically) at their desks and watch certain compatriots disappear frequently during the day. Of course, think about how your work conditions would be so much worse, if these same folks polluted your air with their smoke (if they didn’t leave the area….).
Roy
As we all know, we can’t do everything no matter how much we want to. Even our body recognizes when it needs a break, so we must follow that. Dealing with less things means we have more time to focus on the things that needed our attention.
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Ava:
It’s a great idea ALWAYS to focus on those things that need attention. Even better if we can focus on those things we do best and leave the other things to those that do them best. Now, for that magic wand…
Thanks for visiting AND your great comment.
Roy