Watch: Five-hour workday should be enough, employer insists

A five-hour workday is sufficient for most employees to produce high-quality work in today’s technology-driven economy, according to former Chamber of Commerce president Marisa Xuereb.

Speaking on Times Talk, the long-time entrepreneur and employer said most people, including herself, can only produce top quality work for five hours a day, and if they worked for 25 hours a week (five hours a day for five days) they would likely produce around the same amount of work they do when they work eight hours daily.

But, for this to work, employees must be more efficient with their time and employers must use technology to streamline their processes far more effectively than they do now.

“That’s what I do and that’s how I found my work-life balance,” Xuereb said.

“Most people take too long to complete tasks that can be done in much less time and there are still many inefficiencies in the workplace.”

Xuereb was speaking during a podcast that discussed whether Generation Z employees in today’s workplace are subpar to older generations in the quality of work they produce and their attitudes at work. 

Gen Zs refer to those born between 1997 and 2012, meaning they are young employees, some fresh out of university or MCAST and into their first jobs.

Xuereb was discussing the subject alongside psychologist Patrick Psaila and FreeHour’s head of creative, Naomi Scicluna, who is a Gen Z employee herself.

Xuereb said it was becoming increasingly difficult to justify long working hours at a time when artificial intelligence, automation and digital tools have transformed productivity.

“I would be the first to say that a 25-hour work week is enough,” she said. 

“I cannot understand how, in a world where AI is more capable than us, where so many transactions happen automatically and where work gets done at the press of a button, we still expect people to work long hours.”

As an employer, she said she would rather see employees work fewer hours during which they produce high-quality work and then leave the office to enjoy their personal lives.

She conceded that not all professions can make this possible but insisted that the human brain can only focus for so long before productivity starts to dip.

Pressure

Xuereb linked long hours and rigid work expectations to rising burnout among younger workers, particularly those under financial pressure. 

She said many young people feel forced to stretch themselves beyond their experience levels to secure higher salaries, especially as property ownership feels increasingly out of reach.

“They stretch themselves to the limit. Then, when they realise they weren’t ready for it and burn out, we say they’re snowflakes. The truth is, it’s a combination of many things.”

Scicluna echoed the point, saying Gen Z workers prioritise work-life balance and flexibility nowadays.

Citing a FreeHour survey, she noted that 20 per cent of Gen Z respondents said they wanted to build their own company, challenging the stereotype that younger workers lack ambition.

“They want flexibility and balance. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to work.”

Psaila said workplace leadership also needs to evolve alongside changing expectations. He argued that younger generations are less willing to accept authority without explanation and are more likely to question decisions they see as illogical.

“In the past, authority was respected automatically,” he said. “Today, people ask ‘Why?’ and I think that makes sense.”

He added that modern leaders should act more as coaches than traditional managers, guiding employees rather than controlling them.

Xuereb also pointed to changes in how younger people learn, noting that remote work and online resources have reduced opportunities for “learning by watching” more experienced colleagues in the workplace. 

This, she said, makes it even more important for employers to rethink how they structure work, training and expectations.