

All Work and No Pay: The Great Speedup - achompas
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speed-up-american-workers-long-hours

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ap22213
The (anecdotal) issue seems to be lots of Americans not working intelligently.
There's a lot of proverbial paper-pushing going on, and I have seen quite a
lot of it. But, proportionally there's not equal value being created.

Provocatively, I think it has to do with the culture of cheaters that we've
created. I noticed it back in the early 90s, in college. There were many more
people trying to game the system than taking an intellectually honest approach
to curiosity and learning. And, it feels like it's spilled over into the
corporate world. There seems to be a surplus of people trying to act like
they're working or creating extra work for others - it's an image culture. I
truly believe the managers who are always looking for fires to put out mean
well. But, the rush that they feel from hammering away at the all-night
proposal and the following 70-hour workweek is just that, a rush. But, it's
one of those memes that catches, because the image of the 'hard-worker'
generally gets one raise. And, the boss tends to hire like themselves. But, I
don't see real data correlation.

I piss off a lot of people with my lackadaisical attitude at work, yes. But,
I'm of the mind of focusing on the small little bits that provide the largest
gains. I could care less about 80% of the other work, and I usually let it
slide, because, in my mind it's better to go for the paradigm shifts, not
worry about Bob's 1 PM status meeting.

~~~
jarrett
This comment seems to disregard the ample quantitative evidence presented in
the article.

Marshaling substantial citations, the article argues that three things have
happened simultaneously:

\- The productivity of US workers has gone up. \- Corporate profits and upper-
tier incomes have gone up. \- Middle- and lower-tier incomes have stagnated or
dropped.

The above comment is suggesting that the problem is a _lack_ of productivity
in the US workforce ("lots of Americans not working intelligently.") But the
data in the article suggests that the problem is systemic--specifically, that
gains from higher productivity accrue only at the top, and that there's little
disincentive for employers to do a speed-up.

~~~
ap22213
I agree with you, and I can't argue with the numbers and data. But, still I
wonder what is classified as 'productive' work and 'productivity', because I
(and many others I talk to) don't see it. My thoughts are indeed anecdotes,
and being a data person, I won't tell someone to take it as it is.

However, I need to better understand what this data means. I know how to
aggregate data points in ways to create the results that I want to create.
What else is hidden in that data?

