What type of working culture?

People in Spain are commenting that  we have to go back to a  ” making an effort culture”.  We are expensive and not very productive, the solution is working more for less and doing this we will manage to survive, there is no other way forward. Is it the only option we ask ourselves? It is not my intention to go into a discussion about which are the best options for coming out of the crisis but I would like to express what is for me ” to make an effort”.

Now people who are full time employed and working long hours are telling us that they don´t have any option . Unemployed are not risking to ask themselves anything-regarding salary and long hours if a job comes up-.

We all know that working long hours are not synonymous of productivity and quality, we can accept we have work peaks that requires us working longer. There are also situations where we are working hard to achieve personal objectives: studying and working, setting up a business…We sacrifice ourselves because we believe is a good investment. Nevertheless I don´t believe that is necessary that our lifebecomes a long working pattern that we end up living for work. They might be people addicted to work but in general we look forward to enjoy our free time.

Technology, intelligence and capacity of innovation should be able to maintain our life work balance.Would it be possible to organise ourselves differently and being able to advance instead of going backwards in managing our time?

I believe that working hard aligned with strategy, knowing where you are going and what your aiming at is positive. However working very hard all the time and going beyond our own limits for longer term is definitely counterproductive.

Karen Revell talks us about her personal experience in the corporate world, what she calls ” The Great Corporate Scape “http://www.karenrevell.com.  With professional experience in the finance world, getting up the ladder in senior management positions was more demanding each time around, she asked herself about the education received “ if youwork very hard you will get your compensation at some point”. They required me to work more and more, with more responsibility and pressure. I earned a good salary but the rest of my life was suffering. I realized that this was what people called success.At the end I couldn´t go on anymore, as they required me to do work that was not natural tomyself”

The hardwork Karen was doing for a big salary and high stress was not compensating her, although for some  people this would be satisfactory, Karen didn´t feel that way. Each person has different values and needs, in my opinion what is important is that we have the capacity and the possibility of deciding what is best for us at all times.