Is The 40-Hour Work Week Really Productive?

Americans say a work day lasting 7 hours or less is most productive, according to a recent poll from YouGov. In total, 52 percent of those polled felt the most productive length of a day in the office was under seven hours. Broken further, 15 percent felt they were most productive when putting in a daily grind of six hours while 5 percent said 5 hours.

Americans work an average of 8.7 hours every day, putting in a 1,788 hour shift each year. Even though this may seem extremely long, Americans actually trail other developed countries in annual average working hours. Mexicans and South Koreans work 2,237 and 2,163 hours every year respectively.