Over a hundred years, Fredrick Taylor went around a factory with a stop watch taking notes to make it more effecient.
Today, Zoom calls are being monitored to see if someone is working when they say they will be. Like all seeing eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings–always wathching.
Watching every move of someone who has no incetive to go faster or cheaper isn’t a way to move faster and cheaper.
The alternative is trust. The alternative is agency. Give people the keys to decision making and all of sudden they will make decisions. Perhaps, not all at once. Perhaps, not the decisions you would make. But with time, most of us want something significant. Something to point to and say, “I made this.”
The industrial mindset is dated. And frankly, is unsustainable going forward. Workers are wising up and this ecosystem is falling apart in the apparent need for growth.
Growth isn’t the answer and neither are babysitters. Which means there is room for something else.
If your job is to look at the work of other, what are you even contributing?