TED Talk Tuesday: Why work doesn't happen at work

Jason Fried explains why going to the office can be counterproductive.

SPONSOREDUpdated 9:09AM • 11/17/15

Why do people struggle to get work done at work? How do you get the best out of an employee when creativity and productivity are generated differently for everyone?

Some people are most focused during the early morning hours. Others are inspired while sitting in the comforts of their favorite Starbucks. So, why do companies spend big money on offices where they force their employees to go to be seemingly less productive?

Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp, shared his thoughts on why people are sluggishly toiling away in the workplace.

“People go to work, and they're basically trading in their work day for a series of ‘work moments’—that's what happens at the office,” he said.

Fried compares the office experience to a Cuisinart. The day is shredded into little moments, comprising of little bits of time being scattered around without focus, leaving employees to be unable to focus on projects.

“You have 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there, and something else happens, you're pulled off your work, then you have 20 minutes, then it's lunch, then you have something else to do ... Then you've got 15 minutes, and someone pulls you aside and asks you a question, and before you know it, it's 5 p.m., and you look back on the day and you realize that you didn't get anything done,” he said.

Fried explains this is a paradox we’ve all likely experienced, and when we look back on the day; we probably get the sickening sense that we accomplished almost nothing.

This is especially true for those who rely on creativity—the writers, designers and programmers. Fried said it’s these individuals, the thinkers, who need the long stretches of unbothered time to get into their work flow.

“You cannot ask somebody to be creative in 15 minutes and really think about a problem,” he said. “You might have a quick idea, but to be in deep thought about a problem and really consider a problem carefully, you need long stretches of uninterrupted time.”

Because most office environments fail to provide creative-minded people the personal space they need to focus on creativity, people opt for the opportunity to work from home, or to work in the office at times when there is less coworker traffic—maybe even on the weekend.

One of the concerns managers share about employees working from home is that they can’t see how productive they are; are they watching T.V.? Maybe, but that’s a voluntary distraction. That’s the same as Facebook and website browsing while in the office. But the distraction that is most problematic, according to Fried, is the “M&Ms,” or the managers and meetings.

“If you listen to all the places that people talk about doing work, like at home, in the car, on a plane, late at night or early in the morning, you don't find managers and meetings. You find a lot of other distractions, but not managers and meetings,” he said. “So these are the things that you don't find elsewhere, but you do find at the office. And managers are basically people whose job it is to interrupt people. That's pretty much what managers are for.”

According to Fried, worse than over managing are meetings—the time- and soul-sucking events during the work day that make employees want to bang their heads off desks.

“...meetings are just toxic, terrible, poisonous things during the day at work,” he said. “We all know this to be true, and you would never see a spontaneous meeting called by employees.”

He points out that meetings are often counterproductive, and tend to breed additional meetings. Fried explains how managers consider a one-hour meeting to be truly a one-hour meeting—but it’s not. If there are 10 people, it’s a 10-hour meeting because it truthfully accounts for 10 hours of lost productivity organization-wide.

So how can the work environment change for the better? Fried offers three suggestions all managers should incorporate to increase productivity:

No Talk Thursdays
Fried suggests finding one day a month where employees don’t talk for half the day—mornings or afternoons. He said managers would be surprised by the amount of work that gets done.

Replace Active Communication with Passive Communication
Instead of distracting employees with conversations or impromptu meetings, consider collaborating through technology.

Just Cancel the Next Meeting
Don’t reschedule it—cancel it. At the end of the day, Fried said managers will see that everything will be just fine if you allow your staff to focus on work.

Click here to watch the video.

TED Talk Tuesday: Why work doesn't happen at work

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