Why is Colombia the Country that Gets Up the Earliest and is One of the Least Productive?

A few days ago, World Statics published a ranking of the countries that get up the earliest in the world, with Colombia being where its inhabitants get up the earliest on the planet.

According to the information (published on Twitter), the Andean country, on average, sees its people get up at 6:31 a.m. The second place is occupied by Indonesia, where people get up early at 6:55 a.m., and the third place is shared by Japan and Mexico, with its inhabitants getting up at 7:09 in the morning.

For their part, Greece and Saudi Arabia occupy the last two positions, with an average of around 8:25 am and 8:27 am, respectively.

And the Productivity?

However, the fact that Colombians get up early more than other citizens does not mean that they are also the most productive. They are data that have no relationship, as revealed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), of which Colombia is a part.

As reported by this international entity in its most recent Compendium of Productivity Indicators, Colombia shares with Mexico the not-good news of being the least productive country in the OECD.

Thus, while in Colombia, the working day is a maximum of 48 hours (not counting overtime), earnings per hour are no more than 19.5 dollars. It should be remembered that this is the same working day as Ireland (including overtime), with the difference that the Irish produce $119 for every hour worked.

This, of course, means that the majority of the citizens of Ireland need to meet the maximum of 48 hours per week in the working day established by the European Union. According to the Statistical Office of the European Union, Eurostat, the Irish work an average of 35.8 hours per week.

So why is Colombia, by getting up early and working more, a less productive country than Ireland or Luxembourg, for example?

To talk about this issue, at LatinAmerican Post, we decided to focus precisely on a study born at the University of Cartagena (Colombia), which indirectly exposes what those practices that Colombians (as well as citizens of other countries of the region such as Mexico, Costa Rica or Chile that are also considered unproductive by the OECD) are not practicing are.

The research, which was led by professors Tomás Fontalvo Herrera, Efraín De La Hoz Granadillo, and José Morelos Gómez, details that although all companies need factors such as capital, technology, and raw materials to be much more productive in their respective markets, it is the human resource that leads this process.

"Among the factors that determine the level of productivity achieved by the company, the human resource stands out since it is the people who ultimately develop the processes and play a living role in all the operations and activities that the company executes in favor of the scope of the proposed objectives," explains the document.

The article also ensures that others regulate the productivity a single person can offer a company's processes within the human factor. Getting up early is not one of them, or not at least when it has no relationship with the common objectives of an organization.

In this sense, "motivation, job satisfaction, participation, learning, training, decision-making, conflict management, organizational culture, and the reward system" become relevant.

Thus, for the experts, getting up earlier to go to work (as is the case in Colombia) could be an item that would contribute to the productivity of a person or company, as long as it was motivated by compelling reasons such as obtaining a greater reward, professional fulfillment or even learning.

The same thinking is explained by Hubspot, one of the world's most effective marketing, sales, and customer service software companies. According to an article published on its official blog, motivation, and training are essential for a company's productivity.

Suppose employees feel they have a more fabulous option to grow in said company, and it trains them to produce more excellent results in less time without sacrificing their physical or mental health. In that case, people will be more motivated to do better work for their benefit. their interests, and those of the collective.

Also read:The best companies to work for in Latin America

Why do Colombians Get Up so Early?

For most people who observed the news of Colombia as the "earliest riser in the world" on social networks, it is clear that business motivation and professional and salary growth are not factors that drive them to leave bed earlier, Or not at least for the majority.

Among the reasons given by the country's citizens for getting up so early, two stand out: personal obligations and city traffic. For many people, the motivation lies in "selfish reasons" presided over by daily events such as debts and family commitments to get up early and go to work. In short: they work because they need the money.

This is supported by the Ibero-American Organizational Happiness Index, which in 2022 showed that only 4 out of 10 Colombians say they are happy with their work. In this sense, it is possible to affirm that 60% of Colombian collaborators are dissatisfied with their respective jobs.

Finally, there is the issue of traffic, Bogotá being an example of vehicular chaos in Colombia. According to the Global Traffic Scorecard, an Inrix ranking that measures the cities with the most chaotic traffic globally, the Colombian capital ranked sixth in 2022 (the first in Latin America), with more than 120 hours lost in traffic per year. In other words, on average, Colombians lasted five days inside a vehicle (public or private) last year, with many trying to get to work early.