Frequently I hear startup CEOs & managers boast (and even front-line employees complainbrag) about how they or their staff work endless hours. I’ve done it myself in the past. But building a culture of burning the midnight oil is bad for your company, for two major reasons.

#1: Burnout & Replacement Cost.

If your employee burns out and has to be replaced, it costs money (some say 20% of that person’s annual salary)…not to mention it makes them unlikely to recommend your place of employment to others.

#2: False Positives.

The more hidden and insidious cost is false positives.

You have X amount of work each day and your Y employees are able to complete it within 24 hours. Success, a sustainable business! If it turns out, however, that in order to accomplish this baseline work people are consistently working very late hours, you have a false positive.

If your staff were really only using ~9 hours a day to complete this task, it would mean they have flexibility in case of a increase in workload. Because they are actually working their maximum number of hours, it means that any increase will be disastrous. Your employees wouldn’t be able to accommodate this new work, even temporarily, because they’re already past capacity (and there would likely be lots of burnout).

An increase in workload could come from any direction…something bad like a major bug or an issue with one of your partners, something good like the New York Times covering your company and creating a rush of customers, or something random & unexpected like an employee pregnancy or a hurricane knocking out your servers. One change and boom – you’re unable to meet demand.

If you create a culture of overworking you’ll only succeed until you are blindsided by something…at which point you will suffer. Promoting a culture of hard work balanced with realistic hours may cost you more up front because you’ll have to hire more, but it’ll save you a lot of employee turnover, bad reputation, and disastrous situations.

(Obviously – if you’re an early-age startup, this is probably not applicable. If you are a founder or CEO, sadly, this may not be applicable. Insert other necessary caveats here.)

Sleeping photo courtesy of Svein Halvor Halvorsen.
Amp photo courtesy of This is Spinal Tap. If you haven’t seen this, then we can’t be friends. Go watch it now.