The Myth of Productivity
January 11, 2022
In the creation of Ages of Cataria, it has been tough at times to maintain the level of productivity that would be expected at a more established company. Striking a balance between schedule flexibility and our desire for exceptional output is a regular challenge for us, yet we encourage our team to take regular time off from work. This is because, as with everything, we at Third Pie Studios choose to use this situation as an opportunity to challenge the ingrained ideas of what a business “should look like”. In this instance, I see a growth point for the way we view productivity.
In my experience, there is a national myth in the United States that says that you are only worthy if you are productive. This has been ingrained in us for decades, even affecting the way we view feminism and the worthiness of women and men who choose to raise children rather than have a career. I believe this myth is at the foundation of why mental health and emotional healing seems to some people like activities for the weak or lazy. I believe it’s responsible for the stress kids experience around school and homework, when childhood is one of the only times in life it’s even acceptable to not be productive. This emphasis on productivity causes working people to grind themselves to a breaking point wherein they may have a mental breakdown at work or project angrily on their loved ones at home. In my own life, I notice that on my days off, I tend to judge myself for being “lazy”, when doing nothing is really the entire point of having those days off to begin with. We are collectively so worried about being labelled unproductive that we suffer whilst thinking about productivity both whilst we are working and not working.
Luckily, we are now in an era when people are waking up to the terrible working conditions they put themselves through. Every day on Reddit, one of the top trending posts is from r/antiwork, a page dedicated to people who want to stop working. We are seeing massive exodus from menial jobs where employees are overworked and underappreciated. So now that people are aware of what they don’t want, the onus is on us, the managers of the world, to demand from ourselves a shift in the way we see productivity and the value of our employees.
What actually happens when managers focus on the well-being of the people rather than the number of hours worked is the creation of trust, joy, and team. As a result of all of those things, productivity flows naturally. I know, because I’ve seen it with my own team. As you likely know, our team is approaching a major project milestone on February 15th — the Kickstarter campaign for Ages of Cataria. That upcoming goal means we are grinding every day to finish out any last things we need to get done to present to our community. And then in December the holiday season hit and we realized it was time for a break: we invited our team take all the time they wanted over the holidays to be on break from work. What actually happened when we all returned was that my team was far more productive after their holiday than they were before it. Not only did they hit their deadlines earlier than expected, they also returned to work with a renewed fondness for the project and for each other. At the end of the day, the results we had from valuing the health and wellness of our team are worth far more to us than the results generated by this myth of productivity.
What I argue is that the health of a project and company has more to do with the wellness of its team than the amount of work they produce. Excellence is only attained by healthy and happy team members. Are we extremely ambitious in our vision for this game? You bet. Are we also extremely passionate about creating a creative and connected workspace for everyone on our team? Absolutely. And we see these two aspects as mutually dependent: your vision can only be executed in excellence when you create a space of ease and wellness for the people who are working on it. Whether you are a team leader or the whole of a team on your own, I hope you take this away: challenge yourself to demand the same amount of non-work as you demand work and see if you and don’t start producing better results for your projects and for yourself.