People can stretch to meet a deadline, or avert a crisis—but they need time to recover afterwards. The extra effort and productivity comes at a cost that needs to be repaid for their health and wellbeing.
The purpose of the 4 day week trials around the world has been to evaluate if there’s a measurable drop in productivity, and it seems overwhelmingly there hasn’t been.
I mean, if those scientists are successful they'll be getting a congressional medal of honor, millions of dollars in speaking fees, and probably given their choice of job in space science afterwards. Am I getting those things for pushing some HTML?
Some of the greatest ideas are conceived when away from work with just time to think on your own. We always need breaks and rest.
However, if you have a well-rested, happy and productive team that has adequate time for leisure and recreation, you can turn up the pace for those exceptional months that are really make or break.
But if you try to get people to run at that pace continuously, you'll get a lot of resignations and a few heart attacks at 50.