"Nobody has that objective except the very passionate."
This is very cynical and pretty much wrong.
I would put that attitude probably in the bottom 20%. I think most people want to do a good job.
It's also kind of toxic because unfortunately it spreads.
'Doing a good job' frankly, often does not even mean working harder, from a lower-performing perspective it usually just means actually paying more attention and being more conscientious.
And yes - in a large corporate situation, it's very often sometimes to feel the impact, be recognized etc. etc. - but that shouldn't dissuade from basic professionalism.
If you're truly only 1/3 as productive, your manager surely notices, but there's probably little they can do about it. It may not be to their benefit to even try to fix it.
This is what I mean by systematic decline - this is how bridges never get built, and they go 10x over budget.
This is why NASA spends $200 Billion on only a few launches.
It's why Ford/GM can't innovate.
What Space X and Tesla are doing is in some ways spectacular, but in other ways, they are just doing what they are supposed to, and they can, because people are just doing their jobs.
Life is a giant Prisoner's Dilemma. We can all spend our time trying to do the minimum, or even taking the cream off the top while nobody is looking, in which case, when everyone starts doing that it all comes down - or - we can try to be consistently conscientious.
> I would put that attitude probably in the bottom 20%. I think most people want to do a good job.
I'd buy that most people want to do a good job. I doubt very much that many care much about doing so, beyond what's necessary or what they expect to gain them greater compensation, at the job they do to earn money to pay the bills. Everyone I know with even a little of that "spark" has had it extinguished by experience. Usually before they're 30. Most reserve their good work for things that pay little or nothing. They care a lot more about that.
The big problems you raise are not because employees are not working 100% they are complex and have various causes. Employee productivity isn't in the top 10.
Won't somebody think about the poor bridges that never got built!?
For real, If there is any single problem with the world its people doing too much. The oceans didn't fill with plastic from people sleeping in. The air didn't fill with CO2 because people clocked out early on Fridays.
Take a step back and look at life. Why should it even be work? Do birds sow seeds? Are monkeys bad programmers? Or, are they just monkeys?
Oceans are filled with plastic because politicians, regulators and company leaders are 'not doing a good job'.
So many, especially systematic problems would be much better resolved when people did their jobs a little better.
Montreal just built a rail line for $500M that may likely become redundant. That's bad, it matters. It's mostly a leadership / management problem of course.
This is very cynical and pretty much wrong.
I would put that attitude probably in the bottom 20%. I think most people want to do a good job.
It's also kind of toxic because unfortunately it spreads.
'Doing a good job' frankly, often does not even mean working harder, from a lower-performing perspective it usually just means actually paying more attention and being more conscientious.
And yes - in a large corporate situation, it's very often sometimes to feel the impact, be recognized etc. etc. - but that shouldn't dissuade from basic professionalism.
If you're truly only 1/3 as productive, your manager surely notices, but there's probably little they can do about it. It may not be to their benefit to even try to fix it.
This is what I mean by systematic decline - this is how bridges never get built, and they go 10x over budget.
This is why NASA spends $200 Billion on only a few launches.
It's why Ford/GM can't innovate.
What Space X and Tesla are doing is in some ways spectacular, but in other ways, they are just doing what they are supposed to, and they can, because people are just doing their jobs.
Life is a giant Prisoner's Dilemma. We can all spend our time trying to do the minimum, or even taking the cream off the top while nobody is looking, in which case, when everyone starts doing that it all comes down - or - we can try to be consistently conscientious.