Hours Drive Output — Why the Punch Clock Still Runs Your Workplace | Lies of HR #8

Productivity is a function of time — measure the hours and you've measured the output." The punch clock outlived the factory by a century, and nobody's quite sure why.

In Lie No. 8 of Lies of HR, we take it apart: why hours are a factory measure that collapses on knowledge work, why the fashionable "results-only" alternative is also a trap, and how the deeper lie is single-number thinking. Then the AI twist — why a third of employees who use AI now hide it from their managers (efficiency gets punished, not rewarded), and how AI-driven "speed-up" cranks the treadmill instead of freeing people. Then the reframe: reward efficiency with trust, set humane expectations, and support people instead of surveilling them.

The voices are AI; the arguments come from Martin Spiteri Schillig's sixteen years in HR.

Full written breakdown, sources, and the mailing list: https://liesofhr.com/lies/hours-drive-output

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This is the eighth lie in the series. New episodes regularly. Also on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music.