There is a lot of talk among labor experts about increased workload, stress and burnout. Sociologist Paulsen, on the other hand, in his book “Empty Labor” talks about staff who are almost exclusively concerned with being busy in their work. About people who get paid while they have nothing to do at work. To make it not noticeable, they even declare overtime. How does that rhyme with each other?
Achieving more and more in less and less time
According to Roland Paulsen, a Swedish sociologist, the increased workload is mainly due to a densification of labor. Employees have to perform more and more in less time. But that doesn’t apply to everyone. According to him, wage labor is an unfair institution:
- unfair in terms of payment;
- unfair in terms of job security;
- unfair also in terms of stress .
Often those who are paid the least have more and more to do, without even taking a five-minute break. Others, on the other hand, can take it easy at work.
Is ,doing nothing, mainly a phenomenon among well-paid employees?
According to Paulsen, insufficient research has been conducted to answer this statement with a resounding ,yes,. Although he interviewed employees who spent about half of their time on private matters, these were extreme cases that should not be generalized. But the fact is that most of them were highly educated office workers with a certain degree of autonomy within their work. The majority of them therefore belonged to a privileged group of employees.
Who is most likely to feel stressed at work?
According to Paulsen, employees at machines have no chance to express themselves because their work processes are highly standardized and controlled. Anyone who wants to focus on their work needs autonomy and a knowledge advantage. You must be able to make your expertise credible.
Don’t effort and performance guarantee success?
According to Paulsen, it goes too far to claim that effort and performance are no guarantee of success in an organization. One thing is clear: we are all assessed for our performance. It mainly comes down to how our performance is measured and assessed. Knowing your way around those procedures is often more important than achieving something objectively. But as a rule there is a correlation between these assessments and actual performance.
Isn’t ,pretending, at least as stressful as hard work for some?
According to Paulsen, such situations do indeed occur. That phenomenon is referred to as ,bore-out,, a state of complete apathy and boredom. It can be fun at first to discover that you don’t have much to do. But gradually, if you don’t have a creative use for your empty working hours, boredom sets in. And then it can sometimes be difficult to ask for new assignments.
Shame and fear that your position will be divided
That is perhaps the most important observation in Paulsen’s book: if you admit that you have little to do, you also indicate how little you have done so far. And the longer it goes on, the harder it becomes to get out of that state. Because at a certain point there is also a feeling of shame involved, and the fear that your position will be reduced to a part-time job. That fear is not unfounded.
As an example
Paulsen interviewed a bank employee who was responsible for a project that effectively only required him to work 15 minutes a day. He soon didn’t like that anymore. So he openly informed his boss about it. He was rewarded for this openness by dividing his position into two. At work we are all part of power relations. If we communicate openly, we risk losing our jobs.
Can the phenomenon of “Empty labor” be avoided?
Surveys that Paulsen cites in his book show that the average employee spends between one and a half and three hours at work on private matters every day. The phenomenon of ,Empty labor, therefore seems to be inevitable and normal to a certain extent. It is therefore not surprising that some companies allow the private use of computers and telephones. According to Paulsen, this is the right decision for all parties. But of course this only applies to privileged office staff. Only they can really benefit from such moments of their own choosing.
Tips for people who want to escape work
Although Paulsen does not make any concrete recommendations in his book about the career choice one should make, he does provide a number of hints. For example, he interviewed a copywriter at an advertising agency who spent most of his time working on his personal blog. He indicated that it was impossible for his employer to determine how long it took to write good advertising text. It is therefore important to deliver a performance that is not easily measurable for others.
Paulsen got the idea for his book as a student. He had to cut tickets on the Stockholm metro and was always deployed at night. There were nights when he had absolutely nothing to do and just sat around looking around. He did not feel unhappy because he had time to read books. But he did wonder: how on earth is it possible that I get paid for doing nothing? my view on