7 Perils of Busyness — and Better Ways Your Team Can Do Real Business

Why do you have to be so busy? You know there isn’t a trophy for busyness, right?

In fact, the best business isn’t about busyness.

Yet, many managers create a “culture of busyness” — where employees feel like they need to look or act busy to keep the boss happy.

Many people actually thrive on busyness, considering it a status symbol.

My favorite piece of research behind the theory that being busy means you’re important: A researcher at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University did an analysis of Christmas letters from 1960 to the present day. In that time references to “crazy schedules” have risen dramatically. 

Does Busyness Work?

Are we actually getting more done? Probably not. Are we actually getting more of what matters done? Probably not.

Therein lies the problem. Busy people do busy work — the kind with visible movement and minimal results. But deeper work — that’s not so visibly aggressive — moves people toward achieving maximum results and smashing goals.

“Evaluating employees on how busy they are is a terrible way to identify the most creative and productive talent,” says the researcher Adam Waytz, a psychologist and the Chair in Ethics and Decision Management at the Kellogg School.

But his research says more: Building a culture of busyness — whether it’s in a team, a department or the whole organization — undermines productivity and efficiency.

Talk about irony: We’re busy, but we aren’t getting jack done!

The Problems with Busyness

More specifically, here are seven issues with busyness at work.

1. Overload. When employers base incentives on the amount of time worked, employees will put in the time — often filling it with busy tasks (or just scrolling Facebook when you aren’t looking) that mentally exhausts them.
2. Over-monitoring. When the boss or organization creates a culture of busyness, they usually micromanage the work. Employees whose activities are over-monitored grow tired and resentful.
3. Exhaustion. Both overload and micromanagement tax employees’ minds and bodies.
4. Disengagement. Frustrated employees will start to become disengaged. They’ll also do a lot of complaining to their co-workers, who will likely join the complaint bandwagon.
5. Reduced productivity. This is where busyness starts hitting the bottom line. Employees who love their busyness until it leads to burnout will become less productive.
6. Absenteeism. Overwork, exhaustion and burnout lead to an increased risk of several chronic ailments.
7. Turnover. All of this combined will likely lead to increased turnover — and greater strain on organizational resources.

5 Ways to Curb Busyness

So let’s cut the busyness. Sure, it’s OK to be busy from time to time, but not all the time. Here’s what the researchers suggest:

• Reward output, not just activity. This brings to mind an 84-year-old CPA I know (and love! Full disclosure — it’s my Dad.) He’s always believed in hours, hours, hours. But today’s technology lets accountants get a lot more tax returns done than accountants could do with a calculator, paper forms and pencils in the 60s. Same goes for many industries. Technology and the ability to work from almost anywhere make some work easier. Reward people for what you expect them to accomplish, not the time you think it should take them to do it.
• Audit the work. Ask your employees to audit their time for a few weeks to determine how much time they spend on shallow tasks compared to the time they spend on focused, high-value work.
• Get rid of low-value work. If the audit shows employees are spending a lot more time on low-value work (and it’ll be up to you and employees to differentiate it from high-value work), it’s time to set new priorities. You might help them delegate, eliminate or re-evaluate how work gets done.
• Get people off the clock. Leaders really need to give employees time off of working and thinking about work. If they’re overdoing it, get them to sign off earlier, work less on weekends, and use their allotted vacation time.
• Set the bar. Be a leader who does everything we just mentioned in the last bullet point. Don’t burn the midnight oil. Set the norm by taking breaks and stopping when the day is done. When you show busyness isn’t a prerequisite for success, employees will likely follow suit.