Knowledge management: Are you too busy to think?: September 27, 2004: New Thinking by Gerry McGovern

I always wondered why people put in so many hours sitting behind a desk. You would hear some people say "well you have to work 60 hours a week to show your dedication."

Bullshit.

I could get a monkey to wear a nice tie and work 70 hours a week and still have nothing to show for it. Its the quality of work not the quantity of hours that matters. Show me someone who can produce results and I will go with that person over the guy who is staring at his laptop at 8pm wondering how to complete his projections.

Quality over quantity.

If it took someone all weekend to finish something the first thing I ask is "why?" If there was a tight deadline then would't it have been more efficient to work smarter before that deadline so it wasn't so tight in the first place? Did that person or team stay all weekend to complete work they could have done in the 40 hour work week but didn't? Why did that not happen? Get to the root of the problem, and work more efficiently to solve it.

There are always going to be exceptions to this rule but it doesn't have to happen as often as it does. Work smarter in the time you are supposed to and then you will see better results.