According to PORDATA, using Eurostat data, in 2025 Portugal worked an average of 39.7 hours a week, the 5th highest figure in the European Union. The EU average was 37 hours. In the Netherlands people work 31.5 hours, in Denmark 33.6 and in Germany 34.8. Yet labour productivity in Portugal in 2024 was 47.7 thousand euros per worker, the 19th lowest in the EU.
We work more and produce less. In my years of coaching I have seen this pattern repeat inside companies, not just in the statistics: the owner who arrives first and leaves last, a team that is always busy, and at the end of the month the margin simply is not there. The conclusion is uncomfortable but useful: the problem is rarely the hours. The problem is what is done with them.
What the numbers actually say
Three PORDATA figures are worth reading together:
- Hours: 39.7 hours a week in 2025, against an EU average of 37.
- Productivity per worker: 47.7 thousand euros in 2024. Ireland reaches 194.4 thousand euros; Bulgaria sits at 26 thousand.
- Productivity per hour worked: 66.9 in 2025, with the EU27 set at 100.
The third figure is the most telling. Once output is divided by hours, Portugal sits at roughly two thirds of the European average. If working longer were the answer, we would already be ahead. We are not, because every extra hour in a business without clear processes yields less and less.
As an engineer, I like to look at this as a system. A machine that runs longer with high losses does not become more efficient by running extra shifts. It simply wears out faster. Businesses behave in exactly the same way.
Where the hours go in an SME
When I analyse a typical week in a small business, the losses almost always show up in the same places:
- Rework: tasks done twice because nobody defined how they should be done the first time.
- Centralised decisions: everything goes through the owner, who becomes the bottleneck.
- Meetings without a purpose: long sessions that end with no owner and no deadline.
- Constant interruptions: calls, messages and urgent requests that break the day into ten minute fragments.
- Unmeasured work: nobody knows whether the week was good or bad, because there are no indicators.
None of these losses is fixed by working longer. On the contrary, overtime hides them. As long as the team compensates with effort, the system never gets corrected.
Productivity is an output of systems
In the ActionCOACH methodology we talk about the 6 steps to business success: Mastery, Niche, Leverage, Team, Synergy and Results. Productivity lives mainly in the third, Leverage. Leverage means getting more result from the same effort, through documented processes, the right tools and clear responsibilities.
Picture a hypothetical business of 12 people turning over 1.2 million euros a year. That is 100 thousand euros per person. If that business cuts rework and interruptions enough to free up two hours per person per week, it does not need to hire anyone to grow. It gains capacity equivalent to more than half a full time employee, with no additional payroll cost. In a year when the minimum wage rose to 920 euros, according to PORDATA, that difference matters.
The end goal is what we call a commercial, profitable enterprise that works without you. A business like that does not depend on the owner being there 60 hours a week. It depends on systems that work every day, whether the owner is present or not.
How to measure productivity in your business
You cannot improve what you do not measure. Before changing anything, I suggest three simple indicators:
- Revenue per person: annual turnover divided by the number of full time equivalents. It is the internal version of the PORDATA figure.
- Gross margin per hour: monthly gross margin divided by total hours worked. It shows whether each hour creates value.
- Rework rate: the percentage of tasks, orders or projects that had to be corrected.
Record these figures every month in a simple spreadsheet. After three months you will have a baseline and will know whether your changes are working. Numbers take the discussion out of the realm of opinion.
Five steps to work fewer hours with better results
- 1. Log one real week. Ask each person, yourself included, to note what they did in 30 minute blocks. No judgement, just data.
- 2. Identify the three biggest losses. Rework, waiting, interruptions. Choose the ones that consume the most hours.
- 3. Document the critical process. Pick the process that generates the most rework and write down, on a single page, how it should be done. Step by step, with an owner.
- 4. Delegate one decision a week. Set clear criteria and hand that decision to whoever is closest to the problem.
- 5. Review the indicators with the team. A short weekly meeting with the numbers on display. This is where accountability comes in: everyone knows what they committed to and reports back on it.
These steps look simple, and they are. The difficulty is not understanding them; it is sticking with them week after week, when daily pressure pushes everything back to old habits. That is why outside support makes a difference.
What to do this week
Pick one day this week and log what you do every half hour. At the end of the day, mark each block with one of three letters: V if it created value for the customer, S if it was necessary support, W if it was waste. Add up the W blocks. That number is your starting point, and it is almost always higher than you expected.
If you would like to look at your business's numbers from a fresh angle, the ActionCOACH Porto team is happy to have a conversation. In 1:1 Coaching or the 90 Day Planning Workshop we work on exactly this: turning hours into predictable results.