How Many Hours Should We Really Be Working Each Week? Seeking Your Thoughts!

Dear All, Please tell me what should be the total working hours in a week for an organization.

Thanks & Regards,
Smita

Dear Smita,

The total working hours in a week for a factory will be 48 hours per week. However, the total working hours per day can be 9 hours per day with a half-hour rest after 5 continuous working hours, but the total working hours per week cannot exceed 48 hours. Trust matter is clarified.

M.V. Kannan

Hi,

First of all, this question shouldn't arise in any organization if the employees have enough project work and tasks to do. It's the responsibility of the management to ensure optimal utilization of the employees. Additionally, management must encourage employees to input the actual working hours in their timesheets. This is the key metric for managers to balance workloads and forecast staffing for future projects.

Exceptionally, if an employee is on the bench (internally within an organization), they must be allowed to mark their timesheet as 'Available for assignment' with 40 hours (5*8).

To my knowledge, there are some outsourcing companies that force employees to report more than 40 hours a week (for billing the client) regardless of whether they have worked or not. This is another exception to the concept mentioned above. Hope this helps.

Is this question related to the manufacturing sector or another industry? I answered from an IT industry perspective.

Is the break period of half an hour inclusive of 9 hours or excluding 9 hours of work?

Regards,
Saswat Kumar

The 9 hours of work can exclude the lunch interval. The total spread over a day should not exceed 10.5 hours, including the lunch interval, and the total working hours per week must not exceed 48 hours.

Regards,
M.V. KANNAN