Is the future of work a case of more or less of it?
Some would have you believe that work is getting scarcer while others are demanding that we do more of it. Which is it?
I (Marius) am not on any social media, except LinkedIn. (And on WhatsApp, if that counts). I therefore rarely comment, unless I can write a long-form formally published article, such as this one (with concomitant references, research, and/or evidence where it makes sense).
But, absolute rubbish, masquerading as good advice, popped into my LinkedIn feed again this week. And, I'm commenting on that now.
The LinkedIn post, which reached large numbers of people, showed the video that you can find in this link.
This is the link again, so have a look if you have time.
If not, here are some 'highlights':
It's an interview with Eric Schmidt (ex Google CEO) where he comments on 'work-ethic'.
Strategy & Innovation
Contact us“Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning. And the reason startups work is because the people work like hell.”
Uhm, "like hell", yes. There is a clue there for you dude! Hell is apparently not a good place to be, so they say.
Furthermore, Schmidt gave the example of him having had dinner with Elon Musk. Musk had to fly, at 10pm that night, after the dinner, to a midnight meeting with X.ai. And Schmidt positions examples such as this nocturnal meeting as aspirational behaviour.
Okay, stop this bus. This type of work-ethic hogwash has to cease. Although, I guess, it will never stop and I'm fighting windmills here.
The work-ethic that Schmidt refers to here is not an 'ethic'. It is a personal perversion which he, unfortunately, shares with millions of others, such as Musk. He shapes "work like hell" as an aspirational philosophy. It is apparently aspirational to sacrifice time, for the things that are beautiful in this life, at the altar of a backasswards attempt to score brownie points.
Backasswards attempt? Brownie points? Yes, it is - if this type of behaviour does not necessarily lead to what it purports to lead to. And, Schmidt's conflation of personal anecdotes with success-reasons do not convince without evidence. (See some research below).
What are my credentials? Some, I would hope, such as heading up the IT for the first big retailer e-commerce (for Wooltru/Woolworths) in the late 1900s to early 2000s, through to doing the same for Checkers' multi-billion-dollar Sixty60 during 2020 to 2023. And some other stuff in between too. And, yes, I do understand that these minor achievements pale into utter insignificance when compared with Elon Musk's curriculum vitae, but for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with a misconstruction of what 'work-ethic' means.
One can achieve success without this type of perverse approach to life. This post is on the interweb now, so if any of the hundreds of people who have reported to me over the decades can say that they have ever been asked to bow to this type of 'work-ethic', for even just one hour or one day, please state so in the comment section below and thus negate everything I fight for here.
Yes, there are times when one works long hours.
Yes, this may even happen often.
Yes, I have worked very long hours very often too.
But if this is ever demanded of you - as opposed to being requested of you - where a 'no'-answer is not acceptable and/or where a 'no'-answer has negative consequences, then you are in the wrong place. And, if you are a manager demanding this, then you are creating that wrongness.
If you have ever been forced to work in a manner (whether time of day, place of work, duration of work, or whatever) which you know had a negative effect on your productivity, then you will know what hogwash Schmidt's utterances are. If you are a manager doing this, then you have a defective approach.
Why do people work hard when they choose to do so? Well, they choose to do so because, uhm, they choose to do so. The right approach is therefore simple: Give people a reason to choose to do so. And, do this only when it is really necessary.
Anyway, here is some formal research on this matter.
"The assumption here, as well as with the work ethic is that people who demonstrate high values on these characteristics are somehow more effective or productive and consequently more valuable as employees and managers. Such a causal relationship is more often assumed than tested. Causality, as we shall see, is more likely to run in the other direction."
There really are much better routes to outperformance than perverted work-ethic notions.
Lastly
If one really is 'into' Pop Psychology of the type that Eric Schmidt espouses, then at least read some other opinions too, such as Tim Ferriss' "The 4-Hour Workweek".