Our productivity is a problem to be solved by the slackers in the workforce
Britain’s ailing productivity and sluggish economic growth won’t be fixed by simply working harder, writes John Oxley
There are few things politicians seem to like more than hard work. While many question their own diligence, it is one of the subjects our leaders talk about most. Policies are framed around “hard-working families”, or the “strivers” in contrast to the “shirkers”. Indeed, we still have a “Labour” party as one of our major political forces. Yet perhaps we might be better served by embracing a bitof laziness.
Britain’s problem is perhaps not that we don’t work hard enough, but that we don’t work smart enough. OECD surveys indicate we log more hours on the clock than many richer European nations – it is our output that is lagging. Productivity in Britain has been stuck for ages and our workers are outperformed, rather than outworked, by the Germans, French, Americans, and even the Italians.
This productivity problem is a major source of our faltering economic growth and stagnant wages. Since the 2008 crisis, productivity has improved at around 0.5 per cent per year, compared with an average of 2.3 per cent from the seventies to the 2000s. Had we continued that trend, our work would be almost 40 per cent more productive today, with a consequential uplift in living standards and prosperity.
With that in mind, we should be focused on working better, rather than necessarily harder. Our predicament is partly the result of policy choices. Tax systems have discouraged some of the necessary investment, while governments have tended to prioritise high employment and immigration, in a way which has encouraged people to work longer rather than better. Our economy has also become more focused away from areas like manufacturing, which tend to have bigger growths in productivity.
This rhetoric also has implications on a personal level. When we talk about improving ourselves or developing our careers, most people cite the importance of hard work. Yet this can often be a misdirection. It was Bill Gates who said that lazy people make the best employees because they are the most efficient. Their desire for an easy ride helps them find the most direct way through a problem. A diligent person will climb a mountain every day, a smart slacker will build a tunnel once.
To encourage people to build personal wealth, we should also be talking about creating value rather than slogging away. Those who find a niche that other people need are the ones who prosper most. It of course takes effort and dedication to execute this, but often no more so than in less valued pursuits. By talking this up more, politicians could help to foster more of a spirit of entrepreneurship – building up the value-creators, rather than the hard workers.
The narrative around hard work is an appealing one. It feels morally just that what you put in is echoed in what you get out. But if industry was the only thing that mattered, we’d still be digging holes with our hands. Efficiency, progress and value creation are vital too – and Britain is sadly lacking in all of these.
To drag us out of our economic malaise, we perhaps need to embrace laziness a little more. Our nation’s problem is not that we are skiving off. Most people work long hours, in fairly tough and unforgiving roles. Low productivity, however, means that at a personal and a national level, we are not seeing the rewards of this. With better outputs, we could be better off and have more money for public services – whether that is investing in green technology or stopping school roofs from falling in.
In the run-up to our next election, the politicians should perhaps give the talk of hard work a break. Rather than the strivers, we should hear it for the problem-solvers, the short-cut finders, and the value creators. Such a re-orientation might help pull us out of the rut.