A burnout management coach has explained why the eight-hour work day is completely outdated.
Emily Ballesteros helps people get more balance so they are able to find time to enjoy both their careers and lives outside of the office.
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And she has now come out and said that how the majority of us work needs to change in order to achieve higher levels of productivity.
Speaking to her followers on TikTok, Emily explained where the idea for the eight-hour day came from in the first place.
She said: "Ford established the eight-hour workday in the early 1900s. He established eight hours work, eight hours rest, eight hours sleep, and then start that over again. We went wrong in two places.
"The first is that Ford worked in manufacturing, which means someone standing somewhere for eight hours doing approximately the same task does yield a certain amount of productivity.
"We have rolled over this eight-hour framework into industries where it just does not make sense.
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"There are so many industries that are project-based where you don't need eight hours, and by just having someone keep themselves busy for eight hours, you're losing so much productivity."
Emily then went on: "The second reason this framework is tragically outdated is that this was created at a time when wives stayed home to keep a lot of the household together.
"Where there were no super commuters, commuting hours each day to get to work. There was no technology of bringing work home with us.
"This was created by one man, in one industry, 100 years ago and we have not improved it. Every industry needs to do some critical thinking and figure out what framework works best."
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Speaking to Buzzfeed about her views on current working trends, Emily said more attention needs to be paid to the types of industries people work in these days.
And she said that working hours should, therefore, be tailored to different professions.
She told the publication: "In most modern, project-based industries, productivity cannot be measured by hours spent working as they could be in industrial and manufacturing work.
"We have to get away from believing that 'work ethic' and 'having hustle' means you need to push yourself to exhaustion and be willing to compromise your quality of life for work.
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"Some people live to achieve, they love the hustle, their top values are power, status, respect, money, etc.
"But many people just work to work. They aren't at work to prove they have work ethic, they're at work because they've got 2.5 kids and a Trader Joe's addiction to support."
And she even went on to propose some ideas for how we could be more economical with our time.
Explaining: "I do, however, believe there are two popular solutions: six-hour days and Result Only Work Environments (ROWE).
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"The six-hour workday is already being exercised in a variety of companies and countries. Where this has been done, many employees report greater focus and productivity throughout the workday due to condensed deadlines.
"ROWE pays employees for the completion of tasks rather than hours spent working."
Adding: "One of the most significant results of these models is the increase in employee satisfaction, which reduces turnover and, in turn, saves the organization time and money."
You can find out more about Emily's work as a burnout management coach on her website here.
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@emilybruthTopics: Instagram, Work, US News