Re: On Creating an Effective Work Environment

[cleverett]

Being productive is a choice a person makes on a daily, nay hourly, nay minute by minute basis. How else to explain the disconnect between raw talent and real productivity?

When I worked construction in college, I worked for this contractor who would always order his concrete dry (w/ less water) so that his employees had to work way harder. Of course he knew perfectly well that up to a certain point the wetter the concrete the higher quality result he would get. But he didn't care, he was out to make his employees as tired as he could. Needless to say, his turnover was pretty high, to the point where he had to pay higher wages to even get people to finish a job for him, which just pissed him off more.

IMO, a lot of people act as if the fun police were going to parachute onto their lawn and summarily execute them for having fun getting real work done. And because work is supposed to be "not fun" and "serious business", they make it harder on themselves and/or their employees.

I say do whatever makes productivity the _fun_ choice. To go one further, make sure that more productivity == more pleasure. Then you'll never be disappointed in your output. But you may have to put up with people wondering if they have a real job ...