Change Agent - Issue 47

Situation report: Profits are off. The Dow can't decide if it should have five digits or four. The best and the brightest -- as well as the slowest and the lamest -- are announcing layoffs more frequently than LaGuardia announces landings.

My recommendation: Relax. Don't work so hard. Take a little time off. Chill out!

To understand why this is the best advice for bosses and workers alike, you need to hear about the Kalihi-Palama Public Library in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The Kalihi-Palama Public Library is open until 5 PM most days. Years ago, when the only way to research stuff was by asking people (as opposed to using the Web), this was a vitally important fact to me and to many people on the East Coast. Why? Because in those days, if you happened to find yourself working away on a proposal at 10 PM New York time, the library in Hawaii was still open. You could give them a call, and a librarian would happily answer your question, regardless of how obscure it was.

One of the least savory by-products of the new economy has been an almost complete disregard for sleep, family, and personal time. Macho companies marching toward IPOs pride themselves on the army of their totally committed employees, who are all too happy to endure sleepless nights and to take showers at the office.

When I was working on my first product launch about 15 years ago, a team of 40 of us stayed in the office all night and all day for about a month. We slept on the floor (when we slept at all) and only left the office for an occasional shower. And if I remember correctly, the showers were pretty occasional.

We made our deadline (just barely -- we had to bribe the ups man with champagne in order to get the last 100 units off of the assembly line) and saved the company. I remember the perverse pride we all took in our insane dedication. The camaraderie that we developed during those late nights lasts to this day.

But it almost cost me my girlfriend (I ended up marrying her, which is definitely the good news here), and it definitely cost me my health: I was sick for six months afterward.

If you're shaking your head in understanding or agreement, then we need to talk. There is no correlation at all between success and hours worked. People who run huge corporations, superpower governments, and insanely profitable, tiny proprietorships are all working fewer hours than you are. It's time to stop the madness and reset your internal clock.

I think the sleeplessness started when we moved off the farm. Sure, there are a few weeks a year of really long hours on a farm, when you had better get the crops in or they'll die. But there's a limited amount of stuff to harvest, and bringing in more sharecroppers and putting in longer hours isn't really going to pay off. Sooner or later, you run out of corn.

It wasn't that way in factories or in mines, however. That kind of grunt work-brunt work had a simple mantra: Work more, get more. You lived off the sweat of your brow, and the more your brow sweat, the more you got. Even better, getting your employees to work longer hours made you more money -- without the sweat (at least not yours).

Understandably, the workers of the world united. They realized that while management got more, they really didn't. Hence, the 40-hour workweek.

Suddenly, in came the new economy, entrepreneurs, freelancers, free agents, speed to market, first-mover advantage, IPOs, and cutthroat competition in a winner-take-all world. The workers got their wish: They got to feel like owners, and all bets were off.

File this part of the new economy under the lesson, Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. Check your email. There are people sending you messages at midnight or at 4 AM. One of my closest friends regularly calls me from work at 9 AM my time, here in New York -- which would be fine, except that she lives in California. The original Macintosh team may have gotten the finest massages and the best catering, but they worked like dogs for more than a year.

One company in Silicon Valley often schedules important strategy meetings at 6 PM. Of course, by that time, most people are running late, so the meetings start at 7:30 or 8 PM. That accomplishes a few things: First, only the really dedicated hard-liners show up. The folks who don't really care are at home hanging out with their family, cooking dinner. The true loyalists -- at least, according to company culture -- are at work. Second, everyone is tired and punchy, which ensures that crisp, analytical thinking will be in pretty short supply. And third and most important, even the diehards are beginning to think about going home, so there won't be much dissent unless the decision about to be made is really dumb or really important!