Does Society Incentivize Inefficiency?
Society incentivizing inefficiency? Did I read that right? Like many of you reading this, before I raised this question, I thought that the answer was a definite no. However, the answer to this question is a bit more complicated than it seems, leading me to conclude that there is a possibility that the answer to this question is yes.
Where you might ask, might the answer to this question be yes? Well, the answer lies in many different aspects of our lives. This includes the way that employers pay their employees, cultural practices around health such as sleep, to how we interact with others.
how we get paid
Alright, so you sit down and do some work, and once you are done with that work, you are paid for your services. As simple as that, right? Well, if you are content with things as they are, then yes. But what if you wanted to earn more money? And what if you were an employer trying to decide how you want to compensate for the services that your employees give?
Here is where we run into some issues. If everyone had equal abilities to do work effectively and worked equal hours, then there shouldn’t be an issue. It would be clear right away if an employer were violating discrimination laws or just simply providing unjust compensation. The debate would end right there. But, that is not the case. Due to a variety of reasons, genetic, environmental, and otherwise, people do not work equally. How should we value their work, then?
In our society, employers generally compensate employees for their time. That means that the longer you are at your workplace, the more you get paid. You may even get paid for overtime and have extra benefits if you are lucky. Now, how does this promote inefficiency?
Simple. Working becomes equated with the amount of time that you put in, not the amount of work that you produce or the value of the work that you produce. If you want to earn more money, then you just work less efficiently. Rather than getting that project done in 20 hours, stretch it out to 30 hours. That way, you won’t have to work harder and still get more money. You can still be ‘working’ yet get more money than your colleague who is pumping out the same amount of work in 20 hours.
Now, before this gets too far, I do want to emphasize that I do not believe that slacking off is the most efficient use of your time. Strictly speaking, however, in a system that incentivizes time over work completed, there is going to be inefficiency.
Combatting This Issue
Okay, so what is the best way to incentivize work? Once again, the answer to this is simple. Well, at least it can be simple.
This ‘obvious’ solution would entail paying people for the amount of work that they complete. That project that took 20 hours on average? If you can get that one done in 15 hours and get another project done in another 15, then you will be paid twice as much as the colleague who completed one project in 30 hours.
Sweet! There are a few problems, however. For starters, the amount of work that you complete is not indicative of the amount of effort you put in. The extremely gifted person can get the same task completed in 15 hours without breaking a sweat, while the person who is not, but works as hard as they can to get the project completed in 15 hours, will not be compensated more. Hence, there are inequities because if you are content with getting a certain amount of compensation, then if you are gifted, you can ‘slack’ off and still have worked as ‘hard’ as someone who is not.
The second main issue arises from the work of blue-collar workers, such as waiters and waitresses. Waiters and waitresses cannot simply work extremely hard for one hour and be off for the rest of the day if they so wish. Nor can they produce a lot of work if the restaurant has no patrons. It would be problematic to let these waiters and waitresses not get paid simply because nobody chose to come in one day, for various reasons. In this case, working around the clock on your shift may require us to stick with the system of paying by the hour. The same goes for similar jobs, such as being a cashier.
cultural practices regarding health
Coming home from that long day of work or classes? What do you think you should do? As a student, it can seem daunting at times to think about what to do. Should you do your homework? What should you do?
Here is where the idea of society promoting inefficiency rears its head again. Amongst students, there is a prevalent on-the-grind culture where it is often seen as a badge of honor if you are working long nights. After all, if you didn’t pull an all-nighter, did you really work that hard?
I started to feel that pressure as a high school student and the pressure has likely increased as a college student. A familiar scenario could go like this: There is a big test coming up in a week. How are you going to prepare for it? If you are like most people, maybe 2 nights before the exam, you will be staying up late trying to study and cram for the test. On the day of the test, you come in and tell your friends about how you stayed up until 2 in the morning studying for it.
Now, get this. Back in high school, I heard stuff like this as early as 9th grade. I looked back at the amount of schoolwork that I had then, and if I were completely honest, I could have completed that work in maybe half the time that it actually took me. There should not be a reason for people to be staying up that late doing homework or studying for a test. Going to sleep and getting more rest will improve your grades at that point more than anything else.
Why does this happen? I mean, it doesn’t feel like you spent all afternoon watching TV and started working at 10 pm. How does this happen? The short answer is inefficiency during work. When you are doing HW, you should be focused on the task at hand, not responding to every notification that pops up. You should remain vigilant of distractions, both inside and outside, that may happen. However, you should also be gentle with yourself, because distractions will happen.
How to Change This Culture?
This one involves slow and gradual changes in both your life and through the ways you talk about your work to others. Rather than bragging about how you stayed up to 3 in the morning, maybe shift to a competition about how fast you got your homework completed. Or better yet, acknowledge the work that you have done, but don’t go around talking about it all the time. That way, those of us who struggle with schoolwork and do need to take a long time working don’t feel as if they are being shamed for being ‘inefficient.’
If we start now, one by one, we can hope to change society for the better.
conclusion
To answer the question at the beginning, the answer is complicated. People get paid for the work they do, and students are rewarded with higher grades if they put in more effort.
One thing to note. I do not want to claim that I am not part of the problem in any way. There are instances when I will be inefficient, but I still thought it would be important to discuss this issue. Through time, perseverance, and energy, hopefully, we can live in a world that lives in greater harmony.