In what way is productivity decreasing, and why can’t we restore it?

By Niamh Sweeney and Andrew Lazetskyi

In what way is productivity decreasing, and why can’t we restore it?

According to recent productivity statistics, the average British employee is only productive at an optimal level for 2 hours and 53 minutes per day . Considering the average British workday entails 8–9 hours including a lunch break, this dip is rather shocking. The onset of the pandemic in 2020 saw many people convert to home offices, including those who have never done so before — however, while working from home is a rather self-explanatory contributor to the decrease in productivity, as are other basic elements that we are either neglecting or misunderstanding. Today we plan to discuss five reasons as to why productivity is decreasing and how we may improve it, with regard to energy and interest, body comfort, body sensitivity, creativity and importance, and ideas — with input from our guest interviewee, Andrew Lazetskyi (Facebook, Workee), who is a psychotherapist and Psychosomatic Medicine Doctor, and running his practice with Workee.

Energy and interest

Generally, lack of productivity simply comes from depleted energy levels and not having adequate rest. The workforce and world of capitalism has adopted an approach whereby workers are viewed as robots rather than humans — whereby a person can simply be given an input (a task or demand) and produce an output (result or conclusion). This ideology doesn’t take energy levels, personal life, stress, or the effect of burnout into account — hence leading to less productivity. According to the OHS, 43% of Americans don’t get enough sleep to navigate work tasks, 81% are at risk of fatigue, and 76% of workers feel tired at work .

Within organizational psychology, it is theorised that employees can get adequate rest by engaging with nature on breaks, completing mastery or spiritual experiences, or taking part in positive work interventions. Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory strongly advocates for replenishment via spending time in nature, and there is much research that implies unanimity. Andrew made a good analogy regarding energy, that being “If we are tired, we are used to having a cup of coffee or an energy drink, but it does not restore energy, it only makes the nervous system even more tense and depleted in the long run. It’s like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube where there’s not enough. No matter how hard we press, we should still buy a new one.”

Check out more professional advices from Andrew in our full article https://workee.net/blog/in-what-way-is-productivity-decreasing