Jobs and the Future of Work

Are you an early riser or a night owl?

A person working at their desk in the evening.

Your generation could be a great indicator of when you are most productive. Image: Unsplash/C D-X

Anna Fleck
Data Journalist, Statista
  • Are you more productive in the morning or the evening?
  • Your answer could reveal which generation you're from, according to a new report.
  • 63% of Millennials and 62% of Gen Z say they feel pressure to be working during office hours, even if it's not when they feel the most productive.

Are you most productive first thing in the morning, coffee in hand, or late in the evening with the quiet of night? According to a report by Adobe, your answer may depend on which generation you come from. As our chart shows, while the ‘norm’ for all age groups resides in the traditional 9-6 office working hours, it’s not the case for everyone, and Gen Z in particular is made up of employees that don’t match the status quo.

Discover

What is the Forum doing about keeping workers well?

According to The Future of Time report, 63 percent of Millennials, and 62 percent of Gen Z, agree with the statement, “I feel pressure to be working during office hours, even when I know I won’t be productive”. What’s more, people in younger generations appear to be more likely to say they feel the pressure to be available online, with 57 percent of Gen Z respondents saying they had to be contactable at all times of the day, even early morning or evening, in contrast to just 39 percent of Boomers and 47 percent of Gen X.

This is important because 56 percent of Gen Z workers, and 49 percent of Millennials planned to switch jobs in the past year, partly fuelling the Great Resignation. Reasons cited for the decision included the desire for a greater work-life balance, to be more in control of their schedules, and to be able to work remotely.

Have you read?

The 9-5 average workweek has now moved up to 45 hours on average, according to the report, with more people working longer hours than they did before the pandemic. This may partly be attributed to toxic productivity, as the HuffPost writes. However, there are also upsides to the new ways of working, such as flexiwork, which Fortune reports has been shown to “increase productivity, as well as job satisfaction.”

An infographic showing the share of enterprise workers that find the following working hours most productive, by generation
Gen Z respondents found late hours more productive than the Boomer generation. Image: Statista
Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Society & Future of Work

Related topics:
Jobs and the Future of WorkHealth and Healthcare Systems
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Future of Work is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

What is the gig economy and what's the deal for gig workers?

Emma Charlton

November 22, 2024

3 lessons from the Middle East’s reskilling revolution

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum