FTE Utilization vs Hours Logged: One Metric Lies
· 9 min read
A team of 8 engineers logged 1,280 hours in March 2026. That is exactly what a 160-hour-per-FTE month should produce. The spreadsheet looked clean. Two engineers were three weeks from quitting. The hours number hid that completely; FTE utilization showed it on day five.
This is the gap between an attendance metric and an engagement-against-baseline metric. Microsoft Research's 2022 WorkLab study on the "triple peak workday" documented a third evening productivity spike pushing knowledge workers past sustainable hours, and that signal stays invisible if you only count totals. Hours don't tell you who is sprinting and who is coasting. FTE utilization does.