Why working late is not the answer
Digital agencies thrive on the image of the work hard, play hard culture. Directors, execs and many others marvel at shows such as the AMC’s hit “Mad Men” — as a work culture to strive for. Working late, working hard, to try and be that little edgier, or just.. as directors claim “to push it”. What are they pushing exactly? If we breed a work culture where leaving on time is seen as slacking, what does that mean for our work, and our industry? More importantly, what problems does it solve? Let’s look at why working late is not the answer.
Problems solved
For professionals in lead roles, leaving work left uncompleted is often seen as letting down the client, or the team. Quite often, people work late merely out of the fear of the consequence of not delivering exactly on time, and delivering exactly what the client asked for. Fundamentally we are all susceptible to social and peer pressure. Other times, project managers will proclaim that its just this once. Many professionals will stay late, alongside team members and get some work out the door. Whilst it is true — the work will get out the door, is it worth it? Or to pose a slightly different question; are you just getting somethingout of the door, or are you getting the right thing out of the door? There is often a disconnect between those two. Interestingly, the culture of saving face is generally associated to the orient — but one could argue it holds true in the west as well to some degree, certainly when it comes to client facing work. To some degree it could be argued that the only problem solved by working late, is that of attempting to save face. Face for the team, company and client. More often than not, we are not building rockets to fly out to mars — but we are helping clients with digital product strategies. Delivering work a day later, will not be the end of the world. Trust me. And if you are thereby delivering a better product or service, is that not what it is all about?
Problems not solved
Inevitably when working late — we’ve all seen it: the work won’t be up to the right standard — which most clients will see in the end result. In terms of UX this means ideas are not always thought through well enough, in terms of design this often reflects in inconsistencies, or lack of polish. We are not being transparent to clients either, CS and PM need to manage expectations and push back where appropriate. People should not be pressured into, or afraid to say no. Decades of research have proven time and time again that human concentration and mental limits are reached quickly — much quicker than most of us would think. There is also a common problem in taking a factory production model and trying to apply it to human labour, particularly that of knowledge workers. More hours simply does not equate higher productivity. We all obey the natural cycle of our bodies and our context; we should not fight against our nature, instead let’s use our nature to make the best of the work we do and turn it into a strength.
Longer term consequences
Not only does the work drop in quality when working late, but one tends to loose the ability to look ahead and plan for upcoming challenges: both management, as well as design or technical challenges. Beyond that, we lose the vision. The vision to truly deliver something great — which ultimately means we are delivering less value to clients. Furthermore, working late and poor client management is a slippery slope that affects not just the immediate, but the long term. It impedes companies from establishing a relationship of trust with a client. This can jeopardize potential for repeat work and happier customers. Even worse, even the most enduring and patient employees will become disgruntled after some time, mistakes will creep into the work, they will leave the project or even the company — but not before dragging the overall morale down..which further impacts productivity and the quality of work. This is a slippery slope, and time and time again one can see that when the life side of the work/life balance gets distraught, it impacts the work quality, and vice versa.
What this means
One could argue that there appears to be too much focus on the deliverables, and not enough focus on the process and the people. In an industry where deliverables are what we get paid to supply, this might sound counter intuitive. But fundamentally, working with clients should be exactly that — working with them, not against them. If there is no appropriate feedback loop to a client to balance their requests, with our suggestions, how can we educate them? We have a responsibility to train our clients to understand our constraints, in order to deliver the most value to them. Only then do you become a true partner with a true relationship. After all, one isn’t hired to just deliver something — one is hired to deliver quality, and value. In cultures where keeping up appearances are important, this is a difficult problem to tackle. But a problem worth tackling for businesses with a clear transparent and human ethos.
