>If someone's job is in customer service and the key part of their role is to answer the phone when it rings/respond to the email when it arrives ... you don't

>If someone's job is in customer service and the key part of their role is to answer the phone when it rings/respond to the email when it arrives ... you don't need research to determine that if they are not there, the phone/email doesn't get answered. You're correct that the phone doesn't get answered. But that's not "productivity". Productivity is the function of the hours worked and the results gained. Their job isn't just to answer the phone, it's to resolve problems and leave a customer satisfied. Too little sleep and a foggy brain? Might take them more time to resolve an issue. Might leave them unhappy and the customer can detect that. The results might surprise you, they could be more productive and more phone calls are answered in less time because issues are resolved quickly. To get around the problem of no phones being answered on a Friday you could propose a rota so staff is properly covering every day of the week. If everyone is 20% more productive, then every day can afford to have 20% less staff. Problem solved. 24/7 businesses already rota customer service staff. Maybe the rest of the staff are more productive and there's less problems. The knock on effect being that there's 20% less phone calls. The problem sorts itself there, they don't even need to be more productive. Lets say that there is no productivity increase at all. Well, hire 20% more staff then. Large companies can afford it. The wealth gap is widening, capitalists with hundreds of millions or billions of pounds have convinced workers there's not enough money to go around, but we know that's bullshit.