Let's talk about productivity.
What does productivity mean to you?
Does it mean you try to get stuff done quickly so that you can get more stuff done? Or so that you can have more time not doing that stuff?
Hopefully it’s the latter. But capitalism, society, hustle culture, whatever, tends to have you believe it’s the former.
Companies want you to be more productive so you can squeeze in more tasks. There’s nothing wrong with that, but they should pay you more, and usually that doesn’t happen. As a result, people don’t feel incentivized to be more productive at work. Efficiency is only an incentive when you can work less (or get paid more) instead of just getting more work.
This discussion is especially relevant if you’re salaried. Salaried employees are paid the same no matter how many hours they work or number of projects they complete. In other words, you’re paid for your skills, talent, and knowledge, rather than how many hours you spend at your desk.
When I was a manager, I didn’t care how you spent your time, as long as you got your projects done by their deadlines and they met the quality standards. If I gave you a week to complete a project and you got it done in four days, then congratulations, you can take it easy on the fifth day and work on something fun. If I wanted you to take on more projects because you were extra productive, I’d make sure to pay you more.
This is far from the norm, unfortunately.
You can enjoy accomplishing things. You can enjoy blasting deadlines out of the water. Hell, I love being efficient and finding ways to complete a one-week project in three days.
But the reason you should enjoy it is because you have other shit you want to do—you want to hop off the hamster wheel and take care of yourself for a bit. It’s nonsensical to be more productive just so you can squeeze in more tasks to make your boss happy. You should want to be more productive for you, not for your employer.
But also, if you continually produce 150% of your coworkers' output, it makes zero sense if your only “reward” is having your expected output adjusted upward. If that's your only reward, you're not being productive. You're being ripped off.
If you feel like your output has been adjusted upward lately, but you haven’t been rewarded for your extra productivity, it might be time to talk with your manager and discuss your workload and/or pay. (I’m working on a separate Work Stuff project that goes into detail about this—stay tuned!)
Hopefully your manager hears you, but if you can’t get anywhere with them, it might be time to explore your options and find a workplace with a salary (or work-life balance) that’s more commiserate of your work output.
Overtime
Other work-related stuff I want to talk about without dedicating an entire newsletter to it.
I've been making an effort to write more of my notes with pen and paper instead of on the computer. I think it's a lost art form, and there's something about writing things down that makes you retain the information better than typing away on a keyboard.
I still type out a lot of notes, especially if I'm outlining something, but pen and paper is really nice during meetings where I just need to jot something down that someone said, or add an action item. I also feel like I pay attention more during meetings when I just have a pen and notebook, and everything else is minimized.
But more importantly, writing in a notebook is just classy as shit.
Happy Hour
Fun things I’m doing, TV shows and movies I’m watching, games I’m playing, music I’m listening to, and other neat stuff I want to share.
We've been making our way through Impractical Jokers, which is an improv game show of sorts where the hosts dare each other to say and do embarrassing things in public. It airs on TruTV, but you can stream it on HBO Max. I highly recommend it if you're looking for something fun to watch.
I don't have anything else to add here, so I'll just post a pic of our cats looking out the front window:
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you in two weeks. In the meantime, catch up on some older newsletter issues if you’re a new subscriber, and feel free to follow me on Twitter or Instagram for my off-hours shenanigans.
Also, let me know if there are topics you want to read about—I'm all ears! And if you think a friend or family member would enjoy this newsletter, feel free to forward this email and tell them to subscribe!