A researcher from Oxford University, Paul Kelley, came to the conclusion that the most common form of torture in modern societies is jobs that start before 10 a.m. Focusing on biological processes, and specifically our biological timed cycle that organises our hormone production, energy and brain activity. With the obligation to wake up early in the morning as a 9 to 5 worker, we interfere with this cycle and submit our bodies to torture.
Dr. Kelley explained this process: “We cannot change our 24-hour rhythms. You cannot learn to get up at a certain time…your liver and your heart have different patterns and you’re asking them to shift two or three hours.”
The usual operative time of most businesses, from 9-5, developped due to maximum productivity goals set by factories. However, our bodies naturally evolved following the sun cycle and not the business model: therefore, all workplaces that force their employees to start working before 10 a.m. actually influence negatively the productivity of their workers, creating also massive addiction tendencies to caffeine. By testing the idea of a latter start of the day in a British school, Dr. Kelley realized, unsurprisingly, that children reacted extremely well to the experiment. When starting school at 10 a.m., children’s focus, productivity and willingness to learn increased greatly.
Based on these findings, he advises that this strategy is applied also by companies, in order to achieve a happy, focused workforce. That doesn’t need 5 cups of coffee in order to make it through the day!
h/t: davidwolfe
