American workers, ....working harder not smarter

[wuushew]

-snip-
For several years now, economists from Alan Greenspan on down have been praising the tech-driven improvement in the productivity of the U.S. work force. The theory is that, as computers allow us all to produce more with less work, our incomes will continue to grow and our standard of living will rise. But there’s a darker side to productivity that some economists are now beginning to look at more closely. Simply put: Are we all really working smarter? Or just a lot harder?



-snip-
But some economists are beginning to acknowledge that as cellular phones, home computers, and fax machines lengthen the tether to our jobs, a big chunk of those rosy productivity gains are really coming from a fundamental shift in the workplace that is leaving us all toiling longer and harder.

“I believe that is a permanent and unreported, unrecognized outgrowth of this expansion of information technology,” said David Jones, a longtime Wall Street economist and now a private consultant. “Everybody works harder in their own ways. But some of that is misread as higher productivity.”


http://www.msnbc.com/news/952422.asp?0cv=CB10

[cthrumatrix]

1. we could spin this...the sad truth is jobs are leaving this country and I

haven't heard a plan that is going to stop this dangerous path we walk

[teryang]

2. People who mine data

...from the internet can stay employed at higher pay levels. The problem is that it has to be massaged and put into a business compatible form. You also need to have a pretty good education, research and communication skills to put it together.

Hook up with the time management millionaire who doesn't want to do his own work, you know the type, country club, golf, private airplane, just got back from the seminar in Hawaii or the 6 week mediterranean cruise. Make him more productive. He doesn't want a $250 dollar an hour consultant to do it and you are locked in.

You collect data for hours and hours, or days and days massage it, hone it down, convey it to him in 45 minutes so he can play the genius earth shaker to the other big shots and deep pockets and you have a place in the world. One problem, you're working all the time, no forty hour weeks here. The 60 - 70 hours a week brain drain is killing me. Someone has already made me a six figure offer to lure me to an 80 hour a week postion because "he's getting lazy." He promised me the use of his yachts "whenever I wanted" as a fringe benefit. My current boss offers rides to Bimini in his plane but somehow I've never had time. He even sent me to Coronado one time. The guy making the new offer couldn't understand why I wasn't impressed. I'm too tired to be interested.

[Demobrat]

3. This is why I refuse to get a cell phone.

There are times when one would come in handy, but I don't really feel like being at the company's beck and call 24/7. They've hinted, but I just laugh and say the only way I'm getting a cell phone is if they buy me one and pay the bill. So far they're too cheap. I hope my luck holds.