Employees who spend six hours with their boss each week are more inspired, engaged and innovative, a new study has found.
The study, by a leadership training and research company headquartered in Atlanta, found that spending more time with their direct supervisor each week could benefit employees.
The research was based on surveys of 32,410 US and Canadian executives, managers and employees.
Researchers found that the optimal amount of time to spend with a manager is six hours a week.
However, fewer than 30 per cent of workers spend that much time with their boss, and fewer than 50 per cent of workers interact with their supervisor for even three hours each week.
The research discovered that workers who do spend six hours each week interacting with their direct leader are 29 per cent more inspired, 30 per cent more engaged, 16 per cent more innovative and 15 per cent more intrinsically motivated than those who spend only one hour per week with their boss.
Inspiration was measured by the number of employees who said working for their company inspires them to give their best effort, while engagement was determined by the number of workers who would recommend their employer as a great company to work for.
In addition, innovation was measured by the number of workers who said they keep generating new ideas each week that help the organisation improve, 'BusinessNewsDaily' reported.
The study by the company Leadership IQ also found that too much time spent with the boss can have a negative effect.
When employees spend more than six hours per week interacting with their leader, it reduces inspiration, engagement and motivation.
The only exception to this finding was in innovation, which spiked between 11 and 15 hours, and again at more than 20 hours.