Business
How companies could save money by sending employees home on time
Many employers are demanding more from workers these days, pushing them to log as many hours as possible.
Google, for example, told all its employees that they should expect to spend 60 or more hours in the office every week. Some tech companies are demanding 12-hour days, six days a week, from their new hires.
More job applicants in health care, engineering and consulting have been told to expect longer hours than previously demanded due to a weak job market.
On the other hand, companies such as Cisco, Booz Allen Hamilton and Intuit have earned a reputation for supporting a strong work-life balance, according to Glassdoor employee ratings.
To promote work-life balance, they offer flexible work options, give workers tips on setting boundaries and provide benefits to promote mental and physical well-being, including mindfulness and meditation training and personal coaching outside of work.
As a psychologist who studies workplace performance and well-being, I’ve seen abundant evidence that overworking employees can actually make them less productive. Instead, research shows that when employees have the time and space to lead a fulfilling life outside work, such as being free to spend time with their families or pursue creative hobbies, it improves their performance on the job.
Falling prey to the ‘focusing illusion’
For example, a team of researchers reviewed 70 studies looking at how managers support workers’ family lives.
They found that when supervisors show consideration for workers’ personal roles as a family member, including providing help to workers and modeling work-family balance, those employees are more loyal and helpful on the job and are also less likely to think about quitting.
Another study found that workers who could take on creative projects outside of work became more creative at work, regardless of their own personalities. This was true even for workers who didn’t consider themselves to be very creative to start with, which suggests it was the workplace culture that really made a difference.
When employers become obsessed with their workers’ productivity, they can get hung up on tracking immediate goals such as the number of emails sent or sales calls made. But they tend to neglect other vital aspects of employees’ lives that, perhaps somewhat ironically, sustain long-term productivity.
Daniel Kahneman, the late psychologist whose research team won a Nobel Prize in economics, called this common misconception the “focusing illusion.”
In this case, many employers underestimate the hidden costs of making people work more hours than they can muster while maintaining some semblance of work-life balance.
Among them are mental health problems, burnout and high turnover rates. In other words, overly demanding policies can ultimately hinder the performance employers want to see.
Taking it from Simone Biles
Many top performers recognize the value of work while also valuing the time spent away from it.
“At the end of the day, we’re human too,” said Simone Biles, who is widely considered the best gymnast on record.
“We have to protect our mind and body, rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do.”
Elite athletes like Biles require time away from the spotlight to recuperate and hone their skills.
Others who are at the top of their professions turn to hobbies to recharge their batteries. Albert Einstein’s passion for playing the violin and piano was not merely a diversion from physics – it was instrumental to the famous and widely beloved scientist’s groundbreaking scientific insights.
Einstein’s second wife, Elsa Einstein, observed that he took short breaks to play music when he was thinking about his scientific theories.
Taking a break
I’ve reviewed hundreds of studies that show leisure time isn’t a luxury − it fulfills key psychological needs.
Taking longer and more frequent breaks from your job than your workaholic boss might like can help you get more rest, recover from work-related stress and increase your sense of mastery and autonomy.
That’s because when employees find fulfillment outside of work they tend to become better at their jobs, making their employers more likely to thrive.
That’s what a team of researchers found when they studied the workforce at a large city hospital in the U.S. Employees who thought their bosses supported their family life were happier with their jobs, more loyal and less likely to quit.
Unsurprisingly, the happier, more supported workers also gave their supervisors higher ratings.
Researchers who studied the daily leisure activities of 100 Dutch teachers found that when the educators could take some of their time off to relax and engage in hobbies outside work, they felt better and had an easier time coping with the demands of their job the next day.
Another study of German emergency service workers found that not having enough fun over the weekend, such as socializing with friends and relatives, can undermine job performance the following week.
Finding the hidden costs of overwork
The mental health consequences of overwork, spending too many hours on the job or getting mentally or physically exhausted by your work are significant and measurable.
According to the World Health Organization, working more than 55 hours per week is associated with a 35% higher risk of having a stroke and a 17% higher risk of developing heart disease.
Working too many hours can also contribute to burnout, a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by long-term work stress. The World Health Organization officially recognizes burnout as a work-related health hazard.
A Gallup analysis conducted in March 2025 found that even employees who are engaged at work, meaning that they are highly committed, connected and enthusiastic about what they do for a living, are twice as likely to burn out if they log more than 45 hours a week on the job.
Burnout can be very costly for employers, ranging anywhere from US$4,000 to $20,000 per employee each year. These numbers are calculated from the average hourly salaries of employees and based on the impact of burnout on aspects such as missed workdays and reduced productivity at work. That means a company with 1,000 workers could lose around $4 million every year due to burnout.
Ultimately, employers that overwork their workers have high turnover rates.
One study found that the onset of mandatory overtime for South Korean nurses made more of them decide to quit their jobs.
Similarly, a national study of over 17,000 U.S.-based nurses found that when they worked longer hours, turnover increased. This pattern is evident in many other professions besides health care, such as finance and transportation.
Seeing turnover increase
Conservative estimates of the cost of turnover for employers ranges from 1.5 to two times an employee’s annual salary. This includes the costs of hiring, onboarding and training new employees. Critically, there are also hidden costs that are harder to estimate, such as losing the departed employee’s institutional knowledge and unique connections.
Over time, making workers work extra hours can undercut an employer’s performance and threaten its viability.
Abundant evidence indicates that supporting employees’ aspirations for happier and more meaningful lives within the workplace and beyond leaves workers and their employers alike better off.
Louis Tay is a Professor of Industrial Organizational Psychology at Purdue University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Jane ChambersBusiness reporter, Asunción, Paraguay
Gabriela CibilsGabriela Cibils is on a mission – to help turn Paraguay into the Silicon Valley of South America.
When she was growing up in the landlocked country, nestled between Brazil and Argentina, she says the nation “wasn’t super tech focused”.
But it was different for Ms Cibils, as her parents worked in the technology sector. And she was inspired to study in the US, where she got a degree in computing and neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley.
After graduating she spent eight years working in Silicon Valley, near San Francisco, with roles at various American start-ups.
But rather than staying permanently in the US, a few years ago she decided to return home to Paraguay. She’s now helping to lead efforts to build a large and successful tech sector that puts the country of seven million people on the world map – and attract some of the globe’s tech giants.
AFP via Getty Images“I saw first hand the impact that technology can have on your life,” says Ms Cibils. “After being exposed to such a different world [in Silicon Valley], it’s my responsibility to bring that mindset back and combine it with the talent I see in Paraguay.”
She is now a partner at global technology and investment firm Cibersons, whose headquarters is in Paraguay’s capital Asunción.
While most countries would love to build a world-class tech sector, Paraguay has a distinct advantage in one regard – an abundance of cheap, green electricity.
This is thanks to 100% of its generation now coming from hydroelectric power.
This is centred on the giant Itaipu Dam on the Paraná River, which forms part of the border between Paraguay and Brazil. This huge hydroelectric power station, the largest in the world outside of China, supplies 90% of Paraguay’s electricity needs, and 10% of Brazil’s.
In fact, such is Paraguay’s surplus of electricity that its electricity prices are the lowest in South America.
And it is the world’s largest exporter of clean energy.
The Paraguayan government hopes that the country’s abundance of cheap, green electricity will attract global tech firms increasingly focused on the massive energy demands of AI computing.
“If you want to install any technology investment like AI data centres, keep in mind hydroelectric power is both renewable and steady,” says Paraguayan software development entrepreneur Sebastian Ortiz-Chamorro.
“Compared to other renewable energy sources like wind or solar, that have their ups and downs, it’s much more attractive for creating data centres or any other electro intensive activity that requires a steady electricity source.”
He adds that in addition to Itaipu, and Paraguay’s other large state-owned hydroelectric plant, the Yacyretá Dam, private companies can easily build their own smaller facilities.
On a visit to California last year Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña spoke with companies like Google and OpenAI to encourage them to invest in Paraguay. It remains to be seen if such industry giants open large operations in the country.
Minister of Technology and Communication Gustavo Villate is working closely with the president on the continuing efforts.
“We have the youngest population. We have a lot of renewable green energy. We have low taxes and economic stability,” he says proudly.
I’m taken on a tour with the minister of a planned new digital park near Asunción’s main airport. It’s currently green fields and some army barracks.
Mr Villate unfurls plans to show off the lakes, a childcare centre and other buildings which he says should be ready in under two years.
“The government are going to invest around $20m (£15m) for the first stage, but the idea is for private companies to invest the rest,” he says.
Even though the park isn’t ready yet, Mr Villate says the collaboration already happening between the public, private and university sectors is key to building an ecosystem to attract foreign investors.
The government thinks the country’s young population will be a key attraction, and able to provide a large tech workforce. The average age in Paraguay is 27.
Vanessa CañeteBut more young people will need to be trained. The technology minister says the new digital park will also be home to The University of Technology, which is a joint venture between Taiwan and Paraguay.
Meanwhile, there are other initiatives to train young people in the country. “We are working really hard to create a mass of software engineers, programmers and everything you need to provide software services,” says Vanessa Cañete, president of trade group Paraguayan Chamber of the Software Industry.
Ms Cañete says she is also passionate about encouraging more women to study computer engineering. In 2017 she set up Girls Code, a non-profit association which aims to close the tech gender gap.
It organises programming and robotics workshops for teenagers and young women, with more than 1,000 receiving some sort of training to date.
Ms Cañete adds that software developers are also given English lessons for up to four years to improve their communication with overseas firms.
The people I met are brimming with positivity about what Paraguay has to offer the tech world, but they are also pragmatic.
Ms Cibils says there are still “growing pains” for foreign investors, with issues like bureaucracy, which can hold things up adapting local contracts to standardised international ones.
But she is adamant that “if you put innovation at its core and leverage all the benefits that the country has I think Paraguay can be a superpower”.
Emer MoreauBusiness reporter
Getty ImagesA major lawsuit against five leading carmakers accused of cheating on emissions tests is set to begin at the High Court on Monday.
The trial is the latest chapter of what has become known as the “dieselgate” scandal, with the companies facing allegations they used software to allow their cars to reduce emissions of harmful gases under test conditions.
Lawyers say the case is the largest class action in English and Welsh legal history, and could eventually involve 1.6 million car owners.
The five carmakers – Mercedes, Ford, Peugeot/Citroën, Renault and Nissan – all deny the accusations.
The five have been chosen by the court as lead defendants to be tried first as the case is so big.
Mercedes, Ford, Peugeot/Citroën, Renault and Nissan have been accused by 220,000 car owners of misleading them over emissions tests.
But depending on the outcome of this case, nine other carmakers are facing similar claims.
The dieselgate scandal first emerged in September 2015, when the US Environmental Protection Agency accused Volkswagen of installing software – known as “defeat devices” – on diesel cars to lower readings of the cars’ nitrogen oxide emissions.
In 2020, the High Court ruled that Volkswagen had used defeat devices in breach of European Union rules to pass emissions tests.
Volkswagen settled a class action out of court, paying £193m to 91,000 British motorists.
The company has so far paid out more than €32bn (£27.8bn) over the scandal, mostly in the US.
The High Court will decide whether systems installed in diesel cars by the five carmakers were designed to cheat clean air laws.
It is alleged the “defeat devices” allowed a car to identify when it was in a test scenario. It would then run its engine at below normal power and performance levels in order to record lower readings of nitrogen oxides.
Lawyers for the motorists will claim they were deceived about how environmentally friendly the vehicles were, and that the cars still on the road are continuing to emit dangerous levels of pollution.
Although the trial begins on Monday, a judgement is not expected until summer 2026. If the court finds against the carmakers, a further trial to determine levels of compensation is expected to begin in autumn 2026.
Martin Deigh of Leigh Day, which is one of the 22 law firms representing drivers, said: “A decade after the Dieselgate scandal first came to light, 1.6 million UK motorists now get their chance to establish at trial whether their vehicles contained technology designed to cheat emissions tests.”
He said that if the allegations against the car firms are upheld in court it “would demonstrate one of the most egregious breaches of corporate trust in modern times”.
“It would also mean that people across the UK have been breathing in far more harmful emissions from these vehicles than they were told about, potentially putting the health of millions at risk.”
The companies involved have said the claims against them are without merit.
A spokesperson for Mercedes said the mechanisms used in tests were “justifiable from a technical and legal standpoint”.
Renault and Stellantis, which owns Peugeot and Citroen, said the vehicles it sold were compliant with regulations at the time.
Ford said the claims had “no merit” and Nissan said it was “committed to compliance in all markets in which we operate”.
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