Productivity - a mis-directed obsession

Since the mid 1980s New Zealand has had an obsession with productivity. As a nation we have become much more productive. This has been due to better technology, better work practices, working more and focusing on things we are good at and letting lower wage countries do stuff like make our clothes.

This has been good. We have a reasonable wealthy country. We certainly have the safest country in the world to live in.

But I feel we have missed the point. We have lost the understanding about what being more productive is about. To put it simply, we should become more productive so we can spend more time doing the things we enjoy.

The aim of being more productive at work should be to spend more time with our kids. To spend more time with our partners. To be able to spend an extra week a year plummeting down the ski slopes. To spend an extra week fishing. To start that rose garden you had always wanted. Whatever pushes your button, that should be the goal. Not to produce five extra widgets an hour.

Productivity is about producing as much as possible in as shorter space of time. There are two variables. Output and time. In NZ we have held the amount of time constant and lifted the output. I would argue it is time we held the output constant and dropped the amount of time.

There are a number of ways of doing this. The way I favour is to ratchet up wages. Let's make our wages so high that it is not economic for us to make widgets. Let the Chinese make widgets. They are good at that type of thing. Let's focus on making "super widgets". Basically, let's move up the food chain.

Want some practical examples...

Make the finest paper instead of selling bulk paper pulp
Make pre-built bathrooms instead of exporting raw trees
Make pre-prepared meals instead of exporting live lambs
Make cider instead of bulk apple juice
Make ATM machines instead if PCs
Make 98% fat free beef steaks not unprocessed carcasses
ETC...

We should make it our nations aim to work four days a week. Let's actually benefit from being more productive!