Monday, April 16, 2018

16 Apr 2018 How Do You Define Hard Work?

How Do You Define Hard Work?

I hear people at work say they work hard.  It makes me laugh due to how easy the hours are there.  We have what is called a “compressed work schedule.”  That is during a two week pay period you work 9 hours a day on 8 days, 8 hours on one of the Fridays and then get the other Friday off.  Every Friday is very quiet even half the people are suppose to be there.  The productivity is just not there. 

The people who think they work hard need to go somewhere where the grind is endless.  For me that would be the Pentagon.  Ten hour days were the minimum.  I never understood why the Pentagon operated that way. A lot of people there lived for work.  They almost took it as a badge of honor for working long hours.  Plus, the work there was like ground hog day.  It was a constant cycle.  At times, you would be given a tasker that had to be done by tomorrow.  You would crush it to get it done, turn it in and then find out that it was OBE and new tasker would be coming.  It all revolved around the budget cycle.    

So, in my current workplace if people worked a lot smarter we could get by with less people.  But that would heresy to say.  I am a proponent of “Deep Work” by Cal Newport.  He says if you do intense periods (2-3 hours) of really concentrated work, you would be amazed at the productivity you can have.  However, he stresses that it needs to be a quiet uninterrupted time.  Open cubicle office spaces are the opposite of that, and we have that. 

I would be hard pressed to think of a work environment that is less productive due to the office layout. 

In order to appreciate your work place if it is as easy as the one I currently work in, you need something to compare it with.  I think everyone should experience a fast-paced job so that they can see just how good a deal they have here.


I have been in both and I am very grateful.             

No comments: