Let’s put this on the table. If you’ve got 38 hours in one column and an employee’s outcomes in another—what is their wage actually paying for? To clock in and sit at a desk for 38 hours a week, or to deliver the outcomes tied to their role?
If you just said both, let me push back: what’s more important to your business—bums on seats or work being done?
Challenging the 40-hour week
The 40-hour week is a relic. It was designed for a very different era of work. Today, knowledge work, technology, and the way we collaborate make hours worked a pretty clumsy measure of contribution.
What if someone could produce the same outcomes in less time? Would you penalise them for not stretching it out over a neat 38 hours? Or could you create an environment that rewards efficiency, quality, and creativity—rather than time served?
Trust as the foundation
Shifting the focus from hours to outcomes only works in a culture built on trust. Leaders have to trust employees to manage their time, and employees have to trust that they won’t be micromanaged or punished for working differently. That means:
- Clear expectations of what success looks like
- Transparency around deliverables and priorities
- A shift from monitoring presence to measuring impact
The bigger picture: wellbeing, family, community
When employees aren’t chained to the idea of 9–5 presenteeism, the benefits ripple outward. They gain time for rest, for family, for community. Businesses benefit too—less burnout, higher engagement, and more loyal teams.
And let’s not overlook productivity. People who feel trusted to work in ways that suit them often deliver more, not less. They don’t waste energy proving they’re “busy.” They channel it into getting the job done.
Paying for the job, not the hours
At the end of the day, you pay for a position to be fulfilled, not for hours on a timesheet. So it’s worth asking yourself: are you rewarding hours, or are you rewarding outcomes?
The answer to that question says a lot about your culture.