My client in Phoenix said their sales went up 30% after I stopped sending them daily reports.

I was drowning them in data they never looked at, and focusing on that instead of just doing the actual work that moved the needle.

4 comments

4 Comments

dylan37629d ago

That is such a real thing. My old boss used to make us track every single minute of our day in a spreadsheet. Filling out that stupid sheet became the main part of the job, not the work itself. We spent more time logging tasks than actually doing them. It was a huge relief when they finally killed that system. Sometimes the measure of work just gets in the way of the work.

the_claire15h ago

But what if the real problem was how the sheet was used? I've had to track time before and it actually helped me see where my day went, so I could fix it. Maybe the boss just used it wrong.

kelly63829d ago

My last job had a 15-minute rule for the time tracker, so you'd have to split a 45-minute call into three separate entries. It felt like a tax on thinking. I mean, @dylan376, it's like the whole idea of being "productive" got twisted into just making a good looking report.

robin59129d ago

I read an article once that called this "goodhart's law". It said when a measure becomes a target, it stops being a good measure. Like a call center that only tracks call length. Soon, agents are rushing people off the phone to hit their time goal, even if the customer's problem isn't fixed. The number looks good, but the real work gets worse.