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There’s something that’s been in the back of my mind for a while, and I think I haven’t acknowledged it due to shame. I believe that many people will relate, th

There’s something that’s been in the back of my mind for a while, and I think I haven’t acknowledged it due to shame. I believe that many people will relate, though. As technology continues to automate more and more “mindless” work, knowledge workers are forced to actively think for a larger and larger portion of our work days, and with increasing intensity—and this is highly stressful. Of course, doing some thinking at work is enjoyable and fulfilling, but most people can’t put in 6+ hours of concentrated thinking five days a week for extended periods of time without burning out. In the past, the educations we received were like investments in an autopilot mode that we could turn on for large portions of the work day. Some thinking has always been required for professionals, but there were also many situations which could be handled with minimal effortful thought, thanks to education. These situations are disappearing, and it’s literally tiring us out.

AznHisoka 2y ago
After reading your comment, my first instinct was to disagree but I think there is actually some truth to it. I find so much satisfaction in just doing rote work sometimes. Not all time, mind you but there’s a certain peaceful state when your’re mindfully and even effortlessly doing something over and over. Sort of like grinding in RPG games
- ConspiracyFact 2y ago
  Right, it’s a break. Actual thinking is like a physical activity, and we need breaks. In the past we had more frequent and longer breaks even if we were diligent, because we could leverage our knowledge. Increasingly we have to leverage our knowledge and actively think for almost the entire workday. I’m not sure that we can adapt to that the same way we’d adapt to jogging all day.
  - BehindBlueEyes 2y ago
    I think the difference is that knowledge + actively thinking is more akin to sprinting all day, jogging being more akin to just relying on knowledge.
    - ConspiracyFact 2y ago
      That sounds about right to me.
- BehindBlueEyes 2y ago
  I couldn't find a reference to the specific case study but there's definitely human factors/ergonomics research about this - one example was about a factory introduced task rotations which should increase meaning of work and therefor productivity and operator retention, but it resulted in increased absenteeism because operators could no longer let their minds wander like they used to during routine repetitive tasks and burned out quicker. The point of all these case studies was to not randomly change a work situation using generic best practices before understanding it because there's no one size fits all solution.
JPLeRouzic 2y ago
I once was showing the benefits of a new technology to check ISDN lines to an employee. She listened and then said, "Jean-Pierre I can work on whatever you ask me, but don't ask me to think". In the same service, they worked routinely on a complex technology (SDH), then one day one employee asked me "Jean-Pierre, we are not trained on this technology, what is it really?". The baffling thing is that her colleagues had no problems working for many years on something they didn't understand at all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronous_optical_networking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronous_optical_networking
sadcodemonkey 2y ago
Yes! I've found this to be true too. Early in my programming career, work was a mix of repetitive, somewhat mindless tasks (implement this webpage, fix this bug, etc) and more intensive, thoughtful activities (figure out a better algorithm for something, help architect a solution for a problem). I think this is healthy. We can't be "on" 100% of the time. And I'm convinced that during those times when we're doing mindless tasks, our brains are actually working in a different way that we're not conscious of. It's like how a solution will sometimes come to you in the shower. I don't think increasing intensity of work is the single cause of burnout, but it's definitely a part of the equation, and one that's definitely overlooked.
BehindBlueEyes 2y ago
the low thinking work still exists in housekeeping tasks but those are non promotable and seen as wasting time/skill... so people shy away from doing these. Those are also the things managers may tell you to delegate to manage an impossible workload, effectively removing downtime from you and leaving you with 40h of high effort/intensity work.

AznHisoka 2y ago

After reading your comment, my first instinct was to disagree but I think there is actually some truth to it. I find so much satisfaction in just doing rote work sometimes. Not all time, mind you but there’s a certain peaceful state when your’re mindfully and even effortlessly doing something over and over. Sort of like grinding in RPG games

ConspiracyFact 2y ago
Right, it’s a break. Actual thinking is like a physical activity, and we need breaks. In the past we had more frequent and longer breaks even if we were diligent, because we could leverage our knowledge. Increasingly we have to leverage our knowledge and actively think for almost the entire workday. I’m not sure that we can adapt to that the same way we’d adapt to jogging all day.
- BehindBlueEyes 2y ago
  I think the difference is that knowledge + actively thinking is more akin to sprinting all day, jogging being more akin to just relying on knowledge.
  - ConspiracyFact 2y ago
    That sounds about right to me.
BehindBlueEyes 2y ago
I couldn't find a reference to the specific case study but there's definitely human factors/ergonomics research about this - one example was about a factory introduced task rotations which should increase meaning of work and therefor productivity and operator retention, but it resulted in increased absenteeism because operators could no longer let their minds wander like they used to during routine repetitive tasks and burned out quicker. The point of all these case studies was to not randomly change a work situation using generic best practices before understanding it because there's no one size fits all solution.

JPLeRouzic 2y ago

I once was showing the benefits of a new technology to check ISDN lines to an employee. She listened and then said, "Jean-Pierre I can work on whatever you ask me, but don't ask me to think". In the same service, they worked routinely on a complex technology (SDH), then one day one employee asked me "Jean-Pierre, we are not trained on this technology, what is it really?". The baffling thing is that her colleagues had no problems working for many years on something they didn't understand at all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronous_optical_networking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronous_optical_networking

sadcodemonkey 2y ago

Yes! I've found this to be true too. Early in my programming career, work was a mix of repetitive, somewhat mindless tasks (implement this webpage, fix this bug, etc) and more intensive, thoughtful activities (figure out a better algorithm for something, help architect a solution for a problem). I think this is healthy. We can't be "on" 100% of the time. And I'm convinced that during those times when we're doing mindless tasks, our brains are actually working in a different way that we're not conscious of. It's like how a solution will sometimes come to you in the shower. I don't think increasing intensity of work is the single cause of burnout, but it's definitely a part of the equation, and one that's definitely overlooked.

BehindBlueEyes 2y ago

the low thinking work still exists in housekeeping tasks but those are non promotable and seen as wasting time/skill... so people shy away from doing these. Those are also the things managers may tell you to delegate to manage an impossible workload, effectively removing downtime from you and leaving you with 40h of high effort/intensity work.