In times of cost cuts, improvements in productivity are critically important for sustainable public spending. However, in labor-intensive organizations such as law enforcement, persistent attempts at productivity improvements tend to put pressure on the human resource base of the organization. This study tracks two changes using data from 2000–2012. What has happened to labor productivity in the Finnish police force? What has happened to productivity pressure as experienced by the personnel of the police force?
We find that, in recent years, labor productivity has been increasing in the Finnish police force. We also find that perceived time pressure has been on the rise and that there is a rather close connection between objectively measured labor productivity and subjective time-pressure experience. The paper further demonstrates that increasing perceived time pressure is associated with a growth in the rates of self-reported sick leave and burnout scores. We conclude that it is important to be able to determine the hazard level of time-pressure experience and to use this information in everyday human resource management practices.