How to fix a culture of busyness
In a culture of busyness, there is a constant state of urgency. The implicit assumption is that high levels of activity equate to high productivity.
Busyness itself becomes a status symbol – something to be admired – which leads to stress, burnout and high employee turnover.
For those who stay, the continuous pressure to appear busy and meet unrealistic expectations is likely to have a negative impact on their wellbeing, reducing individual and team performance.
Why do we admire busyness?
Cultures of busyness are easy to establish and tend to go largely unchallenged. Why? There are a couple of psychological effects at work.
- One is effort justification. Effort can bias our perceptions. When we invest significant effort to achieve something, we attach a higher value to it, in order to justify our efforts. So, if we’re pedalling hard to make it through our inbox and stay afloat, it must be worth it, right?
- Another is idleness aversion. Many people are afraid of being idle – or being seen to be idle.
Whilst managers feared that people might slack off when working from home in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, the opposite was true.
Our research demonstrated that productivity increased. However, engagement decreased.
Whatever came from ‘more doing’, it wasn’t necessarily achievements that brought positive outcomes or cemented the relationship between individuals and organisations.
Where’s the harm in busyness?
A culture of busyness presents a number of problems which can diminish individual and team effectiveness, leading to poor organisational culture, stress and burnout.
Over time, this spells problems for the company’s bottom line, as ineffective working practices, extended leaves of absence and high employee turnover take their toll.