Some people do work a solid 8 hours or whatever per day. Mostly those in more manual jobs as they basically sell their bodies. But in our line of work it's not quite like that. I both work less than 8 hours a day, or more, depending on how you define "work".
The thing is, I'm not paid for my body or my labour. I'm paid for my mind. My employer pays for me to engage myself with the business. My mind never fully disengages. When I start work on Monday I don't "start again" like a rebooted machine. In addition, the mind never fully switches off, even when sleeping. I'll often crack a problem in my sleep and realise it during my morning cleaning cycle.
So no, I might not "work" as much as you think I should, but if you find that surprising then I'm probably far more engaged than you would imagine too.
There are, of course, those who don't work much and aren't as fully engaged. That will always happen. It's important to measure the value people are delivering (and help them improve) but it can't be done using any single metric and certainly not "hours worked".
The thing is, I'm not paid for my body or my labour. I'm paid for my mind. My employer pays for me to engage myself with the business. My mind never fully disengages. When I start work on Monday I don't "start again" like a rebooted machine. In addition, the mind never fully switches off, even when sleeping. I'll often crack a problem in my sleep and realise it during my morning cleaning cycle.
So no, I might not "work" as much as you think I should, but if you find that surprising then I'm probably far more engaged than you would imagine too.
There are, of course, those who don't work much and aren't as fully engaged. That will always happen. It's important to measure the value people are delivering (and help them improve) but it can't be done using any single metric and certainly not "hours worked".