Member-only story
I’ve had a bunch of different jobs, and at every single one, someone in a middle management role or higher has constantly referred to how understaffed their department (or the entire organization) is. Then, let’s say I’ve been in 1,900 or so happy hours and whatnot. Whenever someone talks about their current work deal, they usually include some variation of how understaffed they are, leading to how busy they are, leading to how everyone is pitching in more, but you know there’s some jamoke in the corner who isn’t carrying his weight and OH MY GOD CAN I TELL YOU ABOUT MY ANNOYING CO-WORKER.
The point is, everyone seems to think their team or department is completely understaffed at all times. But what if that’s a myth?
The understaffed myth and the Temple of Busy
This first step in the understaffed myth shouldn’t be that hard to follow or conceptualize. Basically, people love to be busy. They often think “busy” means “productive” — it does not — and in a world where your direct manager feels they “don’t have the time” to respect you, being busy — i.e. heaping a lot of stuff on your plate that has no real tie to business outcomes — is crucial to how relevant you feel at a job. See, you’re not getting standard human affirmation from your boss in a lot of cases (they got targets to hit), and you’re not getting true purpose from…
