Surviving the Workday

The Productivity Myth is a good dissection of the notion that we are more productive in the recession. Why are we more productive? Because we’re scared of being laid off! Additionally, the entire notion of productivity is a bit warped:

Getting more tasks accomplished — say writing and responding to scores of emails in between other activities — may technically represent higher productivity, but it doesn’t necessarily mean adding greater value.

Instead, the ethic of more, bigger, faster ultimately generates value that is narrow, shallow and short-term.