Elon Musk ordered Twitter employees to “work long hours at high intensity.” Is it productive?

Key points
  • Elon Musk reportedly sent a message to Twitter employees in which he expects them to work long hours at a high intensity.
  • Those who fail to sign the pledge will reportedly be given a severance pay equal to three months’ wages.
  • Dr. Christy Goodwin says that people are “physiologically incapable” of doing intellectual work for long periods of time.
twitter owner He reportedly told employees to work longer hours or leave, according to a post outlining his expectations for the “new Twitter.”
Employees were given the opportunity to make a commitment or Mr Musk said the company needs to be “extremely hardcore” in building “Twitter 2.0”.

But does a longer working day lead to increased productivity, and is it really possible?

What did Elon Musk say to Twitter employees?

Musk reportedly gave employees a promise to work “long hours at high intensity” through Thursday, according to a post seen by the Washington Post.
Those who do not confirm their commitment will receive three months’ severance pay.

“In the future, to create disruptive Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we need to be extremely tough,” Musk said in a post.

“That would mean long hours of high intensity. Only exceptional performance will be considered a passing score.”
It comes after nearly half of the social media giant’s employees were laid off as part of a major overhaul after the company was taken over by a billionaire.

Last week, he reportedly informed employees via email that remote work would no longer be allowed, and he expects employees to be in the office “at least” 40 hours a week.

Are his expectations realistic?

Digital wellbeing and peak performance researcher Christy Goodwin said humans are not biologically designed to work long hours at high intensity.
Dr. Goodwin told SBS News that Musk’s expectations would not be met for most employees.
“From a neurobiological standpoint, the prefrontal cortex—the part of our brain that does the hard work—actually has a maximum of four to six hours of battery life per day,” she said.

“Biologically, we are simply not prepared to do hours of cognitively taxing work, so from a biological point of view, this does not work within our neurobiological limitations; it’s a physiological disability.”

Dr. Goodwin said that for the average person, working longer hours is unlikely to lead to increased productivity.
“Some of the preliminary research shows that if we work on shorter timescales, our productivity often doesn’t decrease because we’re focused and productive,” she said.

“The law of diminishing returns is the idea that after 5:00 pm, even if we sit and do work, productivity is much lower because we are either physiologically exhausted or psychologically exhausted.”

What are the laws regarding long working hours?

According to the IRS, a full-time employee in a calendar month is an employee who works an average of at least 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not limit the number of hours employees over the age of 16 may work, but non-exempt employees must receive overtime pay for any additional hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a single work week.

In Australia, awards and other agreements set our maximum normal hours. According to Fair Work Australia, full-time employees may work a maximum of 38 hours per week, unless the employer asks them to work reasonable additional hours.

When work is performed beyond the normal hours specified in the award or agreement, overtime pay or leave will apply instead.

Could Twitter have a new leader soon?

On Wednesday, Musk said he expects to cut back on his time on Twitter and eventually find a new leader to run the social network, adding that he hopes to complete an organizational restructuring this week.
He made the statement during his Delaware court testimony to defend against claims that his $56 billion ($83.1 billion) pay package at Tesla was based on easily achievable performance goals and was approved by the relevant board of directors.
Tesla investors are increasingly worried about the time Musk is taking to change Twitter.
“After the acquisition, an initial surge of activity is needed to reorganize the company,” he said in his testimony. “But then I’m looking forward to cutting back on my time on Twitter.”

With Reuters