Employees lag in productivity during the afternoons and especially on Fridays, a new study from the Texas A&M School of Public Health reveals.

By examining computer usage, a team of researchers at the Texas university has found objective evidence that employees tend to be less productive toward the end of the day and the end of each work week.

The study, published in a recent issue of PLOS ONE, was authored by Drs. Taehyun Roh and Nishat Tasnim Hasan from the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, along with Drs. Chukwuemeka Esomonu, Joseph Hendricks and Mark Benden from the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, and graduate student Anisha Aggarwal from the Department of Health Behavior.

Researchers examined computer usage metrics of 789 in-office employees at a large energy company in Texas over a two-year period between Jan. 1, 2017, and Dec. 31, 2018.

“Most studies of worker productivity use employee self-reports, supervisory evaluations or wearable technology, but these can be subjective and invasive,” said Benden, professor and head of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. “Instead, we used computer usage metrics — things like typing speed, typing errors and mouse activity — to get objective, non-invasive data on computer work patterns.”

The team compared computer usage patterns across different days of the week and times of the day to see what kinds of patterns emerged.

“We found that computer use increased during the week, then dropped significantly on Fridays,” said Roh, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. “People typed more words and had more mouse movement, mouse clicks and scrolls every day from Monday through Thursday, then less of this activity on Friday.”

Computer use decreased every afternoon, especially on Fridays.

“Employees were less active in the afternoons and made more typos in the afternoons — especially on Fridays,” he said. “This aligns with similar findings that the number of tasks workers complete increases steadily from Monday through Wednesday, then decreases on Thursday and Friday.”

Researchers say the study lends credibility to the theory that flexible work arrangements, such as hybrid work or a four-day work week, may lead to happier and more productive employees.

As of May 2023, about 60 percent of full-time, paid workers in the United States work entirely on-site. The remainder either work remotely or have a hybrid arrangement that involved a combination of remote and on-site work.

Many employees have a compressed work week in which they work longer hours, but on fewer days, researchers said.

“Other studies have found that those who work from home or work fewer days have less stress from commuting, workplace politics and other factors, and thus have more job satisfaction,” Benden said. “These arrangements give workers more time with their families and thus reduce work-family conflicts, and also give them more time for exercise and leisure activities, which have been shown to improve both physical and mental health.”

Not only that, but flexible work arrangements could boost the bottom line in other ways, such as reductions in electricity use, carbon footprint and carbon dioxide emissions.

“And now,” Benden said, “the findings from our study can further help business leaders as they identify strategies to optimize work performance and workplace sustainability.”