In the race to be more efficient, workers are discovering that productivity isn’t always their friend. What was once about working smarter has become a never-ending treadmill of optimization that serves the interests of tech companies far more than their employees.
The tools designed to streamline work (e.g. project management software, AI-driven task automation, and real-time messaging platforms) seem like miracles. Their promise is to make us all more productive. In reality, they create new and unnecessary pressures. The expectation isn’t just to get more done in less time; it’s to be constantly available, responding to messages in minutes, optimizing every workflow, and squeezing more output from every hour.
The announcement from Salesforce that they wouldn’t be hiring new developers this year because of AIs impact on productivity is an alarming symptom of tech leaders being out of touch with the needs of real people.
Productivity as a Business Model
This relentless drive is no accident. The tech industry has commodified (is that a word?) productivity, packaging it into sleek apps and subscription models that turn efficiency into a never-ending pursuit. Features like automated performance tracking and engagement analytics promise to help companies “maximize potential” — but they also fuel an unhealthy cycle of surveillance and self-optimization. The result? Employees who are always being watched, measured, and pushed to do more.
Many of the most popular workplace tools — Trello, Asana, Notion, and Microsoft Teams — are built on the premise that more structure equals more efficiency. Yet these very tools often contribute to a paradoxical form of inefficiency: endless status updates, performance dashboards, and notifications that fragment attention rather than enhance focus. Employees often spend as much time documenting their work as they do actually doing it.
The Tech Industry’s Stake in Burnout
Big Tech benefits from this culture in several ways. The more companies rely on digital tools to manage work, the more data tech firms collect. That data fuels algorithms, refines AI models, and feeds into broader business strategies. Meanwhile, the narrative of “productivity = success” encourages workers to accept longer hours and blurred boundaries between work and personal life — all under the guise of self-improvement.
The monetization of productivity is also evident in the explosion of “hustle culture” content, much of which is platform-driven. From LinkedIn thought leaders preaching the gospel of 5 a.m. routines to TikTok influencers promoting the latest life-hacking app, social media algorithms reward content that pushes the idea that success is simply a matter of working harder (and using the right tools at a “low” monthly fee, of course).
The Real Cost of Over-Optimization
It’s ironic that research shows excessive productivity demands actually reduce efficiency. Burnout leads to lower engagement, creativity suffers, and turnover rates climb. A 2021 study from Microsoft found that back-to-back virtual meetings lead to higher stress levels and lower focus, while a Gallup report found that burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take sick days. And since the Microsoft study, the situation certainly hasn’t improved.
Some companies are beginning to acknowledge this. There are experiments going on like four-day workweeks, “right to disconnect” policies (another irony that we have to be granted the right to disconnect), and rethinking performance metrics. But the broader culture isn’t changing. In some cases, it’s getting worse. In tech’s version of productivity, there’s always another level to reach, another tool to adopt, another metric to improve.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to be more efficient. However, when it’s wielded to control people rather than empower them, it stops serving workers and starts exploiting them. Until that changes, the productivity trap will keep running, whether we like it or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment