Shopify's president says 'some of the greatest performers ever' work 40 hours a week: They're 'incredibly efficient'

Being a star employee doesn't necessarily mean being the first one in the office and the last one out.

Some of the best performers Harley Finkelstein knows are strict about their working hours; they just use their time really well.

"You don't have to work 80 hours a week to perform well, to be a high performer," the Shopify president said on a recent episode of the "Aspire with Emma Grede" podcast. "I know people that work 40 hours a week that are some of the greatest performers ever. They're just incredibly efficient with their time."

Finkelstein talked about his own work schedule looking different at various points in his life, saying work-life balance is "very dependent on your particular circumstances."

"There's a period in [my] life before I was married, before I had kids where I was able to work 80 hours a week all the time, and when I had newborns, I wasn't able to work 80 hours," he said.

Technically, Finkelstein doesn't like using the term work-life balance.

"I think this idea of work-life balance is a little bit of a misnomer where I think actually what we're all searching for is some sort of harmony," he said. "I think everyone needs to kind of find their own version of it."

For Finkelstein, that means, "There are some Saturdays where I have to work and there are some Thursday afternoons that I go for a walk with my wife."

Other business executives have taken issue with the concept of work-life balance too.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also favors the idea of work-life harmony over work-life balance.

"I used to always think that you need to find that balance between what's considered relaxing versus what is working," he said in 2019. "What I'm trying to do is harmonize what I deeply care about, my deep interests, with my work."

Likewise, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has called work-life balance a "debilitating" phrase and said people should think of their work and personal lives as more of a "circle."

"I don't love the word 'balance' because it implies a tradeoff," Bezos said at Italian Tech Week in October. "I like work-life harmony because if you're happy at home, you'll be better at work. If you're better at work, you'll be better at home."

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