In August, an emotional Elon Musk described how he was working so hard to keep production of the Tesla Model 3 on track that he missed his own birthday. Musk had been working 120-hour weeks, often not leaving the factory for three or four days.
Musk has long been celebrated by the business press for his work ethic. His extraordinary schedule—a long working day broken into five-minute increments, so that every second is accounted for—has been reported, approvingly, for some years now.
Historically, the boss who dedicates his life—every second of it—to corporate success has been an icon of the U.S. boardroom. Could Musk’s tearful disclosure be the moment all that changes?
Research shows that greater work effort—measured in both time and intensity—not only leads to reduced wellbeing but also worse career outcomes. In fact, intensity, measured by whether people described their job as requiring working at “very high speed” or to “tight deadlines”, was an even stronger predictor of bad outcomes than whether or not employees had to work overtime.