Time Poverty and Results Economy
The Expedia 2013 Vacation Deprivation Study surveyed 8,535 people across 24 countries and five continents about their vacations and the results are really interesting.
French workers, for example, receive an average of 30 days holiday a year and are also likely to use their full entitlement. However, 90 percent of French respondents told that they didn’t feel it was enough.
But in contrast to French workers, only 59 percent of U.S. workers felt they did not have enough time for a healthy work-life balance.
Time poverty
Everyone gets 24 hours in a day, but being “busy” has become a common expression for most when they are asked how they are doing. Especially in the modern economy where time is money, aren’t we all broke?
As per a study, people are trading leisure for work because the gains of working, considering time is money. When people are paid more to work, they tend to work longer hours, because working becomes a more profitable use of time. So the rising value of work time puts pressure on all time.
Consistently putting in extra hours at work at the expense of family time, says something about our priorities. Leisure time starts to seem more stressful, as people feel compelled to use it wisely or not at all. As prevalent as it is, the idea that there’s not enough time to do all the work we need to do, seems to exclude some people.
Results Economy
Your boss is angry because you didn’t get results. But you worked late! worked weekends! but you didn’t get results, so your effort doesn’t mean anything to your boss. Therefore the actual outcome is, both parties being unsatisfied.
Let’s consider this for a moment:
People love chopping wood. In this activity, one immediately sees results
- Albert Einstein
In simple words, Albert Einstein has given us an idea of where the plan comes in picture. Of course, getting results without quality means nothing and quality means nothing either without results. This requires us not to be thoughtless rushers.
Manage the heat, let the meat cook and you will get fantastic results
- Guy Fieri
Entrepreneurs have crossed the risk line from the “Time-Effort Economy” to the “Results Economy”. There is no guaranteed income and they survive by creating opportunities and by creating value for their clients. This is true for employees too, even though it is not directly visible because of the illusion of fixed income and paychecks, but the business you work for is subjected to the risks of Results Economy.
It’s Different
According to Dan Sullivan, founder and president of The Strategic Coach Inc, if you’re in the “Time-Effort” economy, you are focused on being busy. And you actually believe the amount of time and effort you put into something deserves appreciation and you are protected in some way from the consequences of their actions.
On the contrary, when you are in the “Results economy”, you are focused on achieving a specific result. And you are focused on results because if you don’t get the result, there will be consequences for you, and others.
Welcoming consequences
So it is safe to say that consequences are needed. Everything you do should matter to the consequences, and results you get in life. Most people, however, are being shielded from the consequences of their behaviour which is a problem. Very often, these are the people who are part of bureaucracy in any organisation. You will hire them to clean up a mess, but they will rather let the mess be as it is and instead find the data and give you a report that is readable to you, creating an illusion of solving the problem.
This goes against the norms of the society, but one needs to learn to take risks. Only do that which you are rewarded and punished for, this is how you make success inevitable in your life. Else you are only keeping yourself busy without results, this is what makes a 9–5 job synonymous with monotony. But don’t get me wrong, you NEED “plan” before rushing into anything.
“We have become a nation of thoughtless rushers, intent on doing before thinking, and hoping what we do magically works out. If it doesn’t, we rush to do something else, something also not well thought-out, and then hope for more magic.” ― Len Holman
So how do you fight Time-Poverty with Results-Economy?
Let me remind you of the 9–5 monotony again. When your efforts are not result driven, you lose the ecstasy of accomplishment and compensate your leisure time with ecstasies of other kinds. Yes, it gives you a little let out moment, but it doesn’t really save you any time. In fact, you gave up on important leisure time for that one let out moment. This is why we have Monday blues, because going back to office doesn’t make you feel you are moving in life.
Joseph Jude, CTO Net Solutions, explains in his article, how he sees the future of jobs and relates it to the Hollywood model. No studio employs director or musician or editor on a long-term basis, instead, they work together for the duration of the project to create value for themselves and others. They need to ensure good value for their project to get another one in future because they realise that they don’t have a long-term employment. Although the article looks inclined towards freelancing, it actually is explaining a use-case of Results economy.
You don’t necessarily need to switch to a temporary employee-employer relationship to achieve better value out of your project, but you can definitely ensure that the people are exposed to the outcomes/consequences of their work.
A result oriented approach gives you a better time manager automatically and the time you save by delivering results instead of wasting it for accounted efforts results in lesser burnouts.
What it means for the organisations
We need to give back the time that our employees save us by delivering results. There are enough examples in the market, where companies are offering sponsored gym memberships, movie coupons etc. Even though these are encouraging activities, Expedia 2013 Vacation Deprivation Study does not give any encouraging results.
We need to understand that after burnouts, people can’t make a 25th hour in a day. Helping their leisure financially is fine, but we need to give something back that is invaluable, “Time”. That is the missing ingredient which brings more value out of the employee welfare budgets.
Getting more time doesn’t require quitting our jobs or endless procrastination. Beyond work and sleep, each of us has a narrow margin of time for leisure activity. How we spend it is up to us.
