Workplace Apathy

A really great article on CNN. A subject that I understand well, having left the "Land of the Living Dead" (link to original at the bottom):

LONDON (England) CNN -- When French president Nicolas Sarkozy said this week that France's social system "discourages work" and flagged some far reaching labor reforms, the cries of "Mon dieu" could be heard far and wide. Could this be the end of pretending to work?

According to an international Gallup poll, only one in five of us are actually engaged and productive in our jobs.

If you are a lazy worker who spends more of the day discouraging and being discouraged by work then you are not alone. A new book on management called "Diagnosis Boreout" by Phillipe Rothlin and Peter Werder has uncovered an "underwork epidemic."

The lack of stimulating jobs or people not properly matching their interests to their employment contributes to the epidemic. According to an international Gallup poll, only a minority of us (one in five) are actually engaged and productive in our jobs. Three out of five are "not engaged" while one in five are lazy slackers who are "actively disengaged."

Visiting social networking sites, surfing on the Internet and personal phone calls all get workers through the tedium of another day at the office, while apathetic managers only concerned with advancing their own career means workers are not being adequately challenged or given tasks that suit their interests.

CNN spoke to David Bolchover, author of "The Living Dead: Switched off, Zoned out: The Shocking Truth about Office Life" about the underwork epidemic.

He says that it's possible to "hide in a company for years" without suspicion or detection that you are slacking off.

"If you are lazy and play the game you can become extra well-paid for not doing much. As long you make contacts or patrons you can get to the top."

According to French writer Corinne Maier, author of "Bonjour Laziness," you can get away with "active disengagement" by mastering your company's jargon, shuffling papers and cultivating a personal network among your colleagues.

Among her tips for avoiding work: "Seek out the most useless positions. The more useless, the more difficult it is to assess your contribution to the firm's assets. You will not be judged on the way you do your work, but on your ability to conform."

Bolchover says the most engaged workers tend to be self-employed such as shopkeepers, plumbers, electricians. "The reason they enjoy work is because they feel a close relationship with the product they are producing. In large organizations you don't have that connection."

Instead, Bolchover believes only "the minority of people love what they do -- the majority of people need a good manager who uses the motivating strategy of praising people and rewarding them rather than ignoring people."

The problem, according to Bolchover is that companies tend to operate in a "factory mentality" where productivity is measure by hours spent at work rather than the tasks completed.

Until this mentality changes he believes we will be stuck in a culture of "presenteeism" where we will be rewarding for being seen at work rather than the finished product.

So next time you hear someone moan about being stressed and overworked, be a bit skeptical -- they are more likely to be toiling away doing as little as possible.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/09/20/ww.trends.lazy/index.html