Friday least productive work day in UK, Nissan research shows

(June 19, 2015) LONDON — The UK’s workforce has disclosed its workplace habits admitting that Friday is the least productive day of the week, according to research by leading auto-manufacturer Nissan. What’s more, 50% of workers confessed to feeling stressed on a regular basis which could be having an impact on their productivity.

Nissan conducted the study following the recent unveil of an innovative office workstation — inspired by the technologies in the Nissan Qashqai and a novel approach by Nissan engineers.

The study, which was carried out by YouGov and surveyed 2,155 of UK adults, found that 21% of workers were at their least productive on a Friday, compared to 18% who struggled on a Monday.

Nearly a quarter (23%) of all UK workers who experience a dip in productivity did so between 1:30 p.m. and 3p.m. and almost another quarter (23%) of all workers admitted to experiencing a dip between 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Activities that workers confessed to doing while they should be working include looking at news and entertainment websites (64%) and browsing social media (41%).

However, employees will be pleased to learn that companies seem to be more relaxed in their approach to web browsing, with 88% of workers saying that they have never been reprimanded for using any type of website for non-work purposes whilst at work. 

The prototype workstation was created following an observation by an engineer at Nissan’s European Technical Centre, that the vehicle’s crossover technology could boost productivity in the workplace.

The principles of Nissan’s Around View Monitor (AVM) and Moving Object Detection (MOD) were installed to help workers stay one step ahead of their colleagues, while the addition of the vehicle’s Driver Attention Alert (DAA) helps prevent any loss of concentration and the occasional mid-afternoon lull in productivity.

The workstation also comes complete with the Qashqai’s NASA-inspired spinal seat and provides continuous support of the pelvis, lumbar, vertebrae and chest.

David Moss, Vice President at Nissan’s European Technical Centre, said: “Having unveiled the ‘crossover’ workstation we were interested to find out more about working habits across Europe.

“Our crossover technology could clearly help to make people’s lives easier and also boost productivity during the mid-afternoon lull that research supports the existence of in the workplace. While there are no plans to put the workstation into production it certainly seems like there could be a place for it in an office environment one day.”