I'm reading a book about how we're all working harder and longer than ever before, even tho technology should have reduced us to one day weeks, being waited on by our robot butlers by now.
I can only agree with most of it, in that the major problem is that we're working harder, not smarter, and people are terrified of taking a risk.
Can anyone in a regular job tell me they're not doing seemingly pointless busy work for at least part of each working week? (Or at least just finding ways to fill the hours without working.)
Scott Adams wrote a chapter in one of his Dilbert books about how he'd run a company, and one of the biggest things was, unless there's a genuine emergency, no early starts and no staying late, because for the mental health of your staff, they need to be able to see 5pm coming around and just be able to know they can let go, forget about work and go home.
Also, he's anti meetings (surprise to anyone who's read his cartoons), because an hour meeting with 12 attendees is a minimum of 12 hours lost, not one, added to the organisation time, the follow ups etc, and so, so often, a group email could have covered it, often meetings being brought into place by management needing to feel relevant.
I've had many managers in my time, and by far the best were a couple at MVC, as they both understood that all the staff had enthusiasm for the job, wanted to work, and knew what we were doing. So they could effectively do the admin and the money, and then get on with just making the place better, and easier to run.
Never did we feel we were being watched, and if we did stop for a few minutes, we weren't harrassed, because there's an understanding that we're good 99% of the time. Cut your good guys a break and it pays.
I just wonder who, in terms of those in power, and want to succeed, are actually looking at Valve, Google, etc. Wondering if perhaps there's some merit in treating your staff like actual human beings. Considering that maybe demanding 20 hours a week of unpaid overtime doing stupid shit no-one needs might actually be detrimental to staff morale. Then there's a glimmer of hope that, maybe, someone else might consider some change.
I do get the feeling that Valve's making money without really trying, but maybe that's the secret, instead of chasing the almighty dollar and letting stuff like working conditions, pay, staff morale, etc fall by the wayside to boost share prices another quarter of a cent, maybe having productive, content staff, and letting them actually be creative instead of walling them into a specific role that they can't dare step out of, may actually work.
I just feel that there's an idea that anyone enjoying their job isn't working hard enough, and that's bs. Not everyone can love their job, but if they actively hate showing up each day, some of the blame has to be with the company.
