21 hours.

Researchers indicate the total hours worked for the average employee in developed countries, is around 2,000 hours per year, once you take away bits like lunch, holidays and mental health days. For many, that figure sounds conservative and a lot of time away from home and family. Companies looking to keep employees with reduced hours while looking for the ability to increase productivity, are wrestling with ways to appease their workers and stay profitable. Technology long alluded to be the saviour of time allocated to needless tasks, has in fact contributed to even more time spent connected to work, giving companies pause to think where else can they cut hours effectively.

One item on the time reduction agenda for many companies are meetings and the ancillary effects that come out those meetings. If meetings can be countered and their time sucking influence addressed, then Henry Ford as a proponent of shorter working hours can rest easier in his grave. Ford was the first of the production line magnates to figure out his workers were the biggest consumers of his product and if he didn't give them adequate leisure time there was no reason for the next model T to roll off the line.

In a year, it is not uncommon for meetings to take up to 10% of the yearly allocation of hours, think a two hour weekly meeting and a couple of random hourly meetings per week and you have 200 hours of coffee and stale pastries. Most companies agree meetings get in the way but struggle getting out of the routine. A better managed agenda and agreeing on outcomes, be that decisions, status reports, communicating or generating ideas, can cut meetings by 50% giving a company back 100 hours. Those 100 hours have not been allocated for any particular work, in fact they have been lost forever in the wilderness that is meeting overload, so why not consider giving that time back to employees?

This minor concession goes a long way to backing up studies supporting a four day work week to increase consumption, invigorate the economy, increase levels of employee health and education while aiding in the reduction of transport costs and the contributory effects on the environment. Concessions such as these has seen average worker hours decreasing in many developed countries with the Netherlands leading, working an average 27 hours per week. This strategy could see the Netherlands become the first country to reach an average work week of under 21 hours. This particular number is interesting and has been pushed by the New Economics Foundation citing 21 hours as the panacea for unemployment, pollution emissions, increased health benefits, reunification of the family unit and the general lack of leisure time disappearing with the aid of technology.

For many, 21 hours per week, equals a 50% cut in work time and would not see work production to any level of satisfaction for the company or the employee. Adding stress trying to achieve that number would also see many into an early grave. Having said that, other bench marks do exist, as long as we are willing to compromise the brick veneer triple front great Australian dream. With little care in the world, the Kapauku people of PNG think it bad luck to work two consecutive days while the Kung Bushmen have a two and half day work week organised, showing not everyone needs to attend a meeting.