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.