Kerre Woodham: We work hard, but we don't work smart - how do we change that?

Best of Business · Jul 19, 2023 · 5m

There’s no doubt about it; New Zealanders are hard workers.

But according to the productivity stats, we work hard and we worked dumb - like good, solid oxen.

We put our necks under the yolks and we trudge up and down our respective paddocks, but our output simply doesn't match our input.

The Productivity Commission released a report earlier this month and it shows that we work more hours per week than any other country in the OECD, but we are only 68 percent as productive.

So we work way more and can barely make it to a B- in terms of productivity - this wasn't always the case. New Zealand's…