The study published in PLOS ONE that I read in The Register from the team at Texas A&M School of Public Health has indeed provoked a bitter-sweet taste in the tech industry’s mouths. Backed with data from RSIGuard, the authors suggest a pattern of decreased productivity and increased mistakes on Friday afternoons. However, there are a few underlying issues that call for a closer look before we happily accept these findings.
One immediate point of contention lies in the measurement of productivity. The study heavily focuses on “computer output metrics,” such as typing speed, typing errors, and mouse activity. While these are straightforward to quantify, they provide a relatively narrow view of productivity, especially in the tech industry. We all know that some of our most productive moments come when we are not necessarily typing, coding, or clicking but while brainstorming, problem-solving, or even during breaks. Thus, this study’s scope may underestimate the multifaceted nature of productivity.
The data shows that people make more typos in the afternoon, a trend that persists across all weekdays. However, this piece of information seems to be used to reinforce a pre-existing notion of “Friday afternoon slump”, while it might, in fact, be suggesting something else entirely.
The commonality of errors in the afternoon could indicate a need for better energy management or structured break times during the working day, rather than simply a Friday-specific issue. Also, relying on well-structured fail-fast / recovery-faster automated deployments is key to avoiding mistakes any day. Deploying often and small also makes mistakes less expensive and easy to debug.
While the study’s data shows a decline in computer output metrics on Friday afternoons, the subsequent leap to advocating for a four-day workweek or flexible work arrangements seems somewhat premature, but I have no opinions whatsoever. The data indeed presents a pattern, but it might be hasty to immediately suggest a direct solution without a more comprehensive understanding of its causes or implications. Does the Friday afternoon slump occur because of a long work week, or is it because tasks allocated on Fridays are of a different nature, or Friday meetings, or manual deployments, or big deployments? See what I mean!?
Finally, it’s worth noting that the study hinges primarily on quantity-driven metrics. However, it’s well-known in the tech industry that the quality of work does not always correlate with the quantity of typing or mouse clicking. Perhaps the lower number of words typed on Fridays can be attributed to tasks that require more thought and less typing, like code reviews or brainstorming sessions.
In essence, while the study brings an interesting perspective to the table, it might risk oversimplifying the complex landscape of productivity. It would be interesting to see further research incorporating more qualitative aspects of work, such as employee satisfaction, creativity, infrastructure maturity, and the nature of tasks carried out on different days of the week. Only then can we make more definitive judgments about the ‘Friday afternoon phenomenon’ and its potential solutions.
(Midjourney prompt: Friday afternoon slump, cartoon)