Despite much debate about the productivity effects of flexible working and the regulation of working hours little attention is paid to temporal variance in productivity. This paper explains why one might expect to see productivity differences across days of the week. Although there is scant direct evidence on day-of-week productivity effects, studies suggest that the timing of labour inputs across and within days, such as the sequencing of work and rest periods, affect productivity-related outcomes such as illness, injury, sickness absence and error rates. The implications of these studies for government policy and managerial practice are discussed together with suggestions for future research.

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July 2007     Paper Number MHRLDP0004

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This Manpower Human Resource Lab paper is published under the centre's programme.