This text was originally writen in Brazilian Portuguese. Enjoy!
What problems would you solve at work right now if you didn't have the option to work overtime? How would you prioritize your work, your tools, the project stack, the backlog? The agreement with the client? The meeting to set all goals for 2024/2025?
It's Friday, you're finishing your work day, about to open your first beer. The company calls you to say that they need that delivery that's late, and because of that the team needs to make an extra effort and work over the weekend to get the features ready for the next few weeks.
Nearing the end of the project, we are in a mad rush to launch the MVP. Only now are we developing the functionality that the product team believes is a killer for a successful product, but which still needs to be analyzed better and divided into smaller deliverables. There is no time, we will have to work even after hours and on weekends to complete the delivery.
Product almost ready, project nearing completion. All that's left is to ensure that the approval with the backend services continues to work and that the data migration will go as planned. But the APIs have changed since we defined the contract in the design phase, and the data migration will be compromised. We need to make an extra effort, we can't miss the approval and deployment window. The business area needs to validate the delivery. It has to be done , it has to fit the deadline, we have to deliver. A few more weekends working won't hurt.
Stress, health issues, personal problems, fights, medical emergencies, resignations - we all have stories of the impact of a culture that is alive with stories of heroism at work, where the team worked day and night to meet a deadline, under all possible consequences to deliver. It is nice to present the scars of war in the IT world: how many sleepless weekends, how many deployments that went wrong on Friday, how many marriages ended because of a project, who ended up in the hospital or in Alcoholics Anonymous .
You know that job you accepted just to meet a sales target? That same one that the whole team knew was impossible to deliver, and yet they committed anyway for fear of losing their jobs? Well, we need to broaden the discussion about its impact, the solution we are bringing to companies, and how we can attack the problem differently.
Overtime is the consequence of our inability to solve the right problems. It is the symptom of our failure, not a badge of honor to wear to the next job interview.
And even writing about it puts me in a weird position - because the whole industry thinks and acts differently.
But to those who follow along, I hope to make my case clearer.
I believe that overtime is not a solution for any product or project , but rather a symptom that something is failing in the organization. The problem is that the asymmetry will only be seen in the future. Although there are times when working more intensely is understandable, the crunch culture, so present in our industry, is much more harmful than one might imagine.
If your company’s response to any challenge is “let’s just push harder this month to deliver,” there’s a real problem that no one wants to talk about. Prioritization of deliveries? Lack of money to expand the team? Unrealistic deadlines? Commitments made by other people that impact your work?
Libby Marks extensively describes the impact of this culture on the gaming industry, which is known for having extremely toxic and impactful environments. It is common for employees to be hospitalized due to stress in the last few months before the launch of a new game. Huge failures like Bioware's Anthem and Cyberpunk 2077 are examples of how companies can suffer the consequences of cultures that believe that everything can be solved with more hours in the office.
Crunch ultimately results in a worse and longer game production cycle. You will have a better gaming experience if the industry treats its employees better. Mike Bithell
For those who are interested in the gaming industry,Jason Schreier presents in detail the most emblematic cases in recent years in his book. And in the famous post EA: The Human Story , he provides a perspective on the emotional impact on the families of those who work in the industry,
What motivates?
Moments of overtime are inevitable, and creative work in many ways can lead us to work an ungodly amount of hours. Turning this into an expectation of work is what is inhumane.
In case of emergencies or critical operational needs, overtime may be mandatory , and the brazilian labbor law CLT, provides for the payment and accounting of these hours, fortunately for Brazil. In these cases, employees may be called upon to work overtime and receive payment for it.
The article "Why do employees actively work overtime? The motivation of employees' active overtime in China" ( Published in Frontiers ), explores the motivations for overtime work and its impact on the Chinese workplace. It highlights that motivational and hygiene factors can promote employees' motivation to work overtime. These factors include overtime culture, institutional arrangements, a good physical office environment, career growth, and financial rewards.
Any financial reward for extra work affects the work done during regular working hours. After all, why do good work during working hours when you’re just making extra money by pretending the work is more complex than it really should be? This behavior reflects an incentive model that prioritizes time on the problem, not problem solving .
The crunch culture is the norm in many industries, and cases of overtime work are responsible for MANY reports of exploitation at work. There are companies where this vision is shared even in hiring, and the expectation is that you will work 80, 100 or even more hours a week! But in IT, in the corporate world, this is still seen as a commendable effort to achieve success. The eternal Ramster Wheel that was sold to us very well. We are stuck in this model and without different work options:
An HR professional from an investment bank, during a conversation with me: “we tell the candidates we interview: 'Do you have family? Because you won't see them here. You have to understand the model to accept them'
And the body of research on overtime is extremely clear: Working extra hours simply doesn't work. And more than that: Most likely, anyone who says they work too much is lying .
And if that wasn't enough: The Quality is ALWAYS worse !
In other words, we are being deceived, with the perspective that everyone is lying together, to maintain the image of heroes, when in fact everyone is organized to turn a blind eye to the companies' expectations.
Overtime is always a symptom of problems, never a solution.
A financial market company, famous for its culture of excessive work, spends twice the amount of its payroll per year on overtime pay and labor lawsuits. This same company, on the day that the bonus is paid to employees, a line forms in HR to resign. Those who need to stay stay. What is the merit of such an environment in the market? By what standard of success are we placing our organizations?
The problem is not in putting in the extra effort and hours into something you believe in and want to see happen. I can understand a one-off effort agreed upon by everyone for a critical moment. But when the organization normalizes this practice, the long-term results are clearly catastrophic, and always for those who are doing the work.
There is no professional who does a good job working 80+ hours a week. It is impossible to achieve productive medium/long-term results under these conditions - and I'm sure you know stories of entire teams that worked weekends for months on end to achieve some questionable goal from a backlog that perhaps didn't even need to exist.
A mental exercise for your company:
If there was no option to work beyond the team's actual capacity, what would you solve in your process, code, structure or team? What real problem would you attack?
How would you change your planning? If you can’t make up for the delay with sweat equity on the weekend, what problem do you know exists but seems too big to solve?
What can we stop doing that no longer serves the team? What difficult conversations do we need to have? What is left to resolve?
Is it possible to eliminate overtime in the company culture?
I believe that, in general, it is possible to improve the culture of the organization to prevent overtime from being encouraged and rewarded in the company. In addition, clear work policies also help to reduce the promotion of overtime as a work practice.
But eliminating overtime in your company is difficult: because it requires you to be willing to work to solve the real problems that are causing the overtime. When overtime is out of the question, what needs to be solved?
In organizational design, the incentives we put in place through people management policies dictate much of the team's behavior, and they can be allies or enemies. In my experience, important policies for this are:
Explicit employment agreement regarding the impossibility of overtime, highlighting that problems must be resolved at times appropriate to the work
Reprimand heroic behavior in the team, which, despite being romantic, destabilizes teamwork and worsens people's collaboration.
Treat Overtime strictly with an authorization process, as it is impossible to completely abolish the practice
Based on my own experience , I can say that yes, it is quite possible to build environments where overtime is the exception to the exception, and that it requires a great deal of effort to overcome the belief that sweat is much better than intelligence at work. This effort is an integral part of building humanized work environments.
In the book "Humanized Companies: People, Purpose, Performance" , by Raj Sisodia, David B. Wolfe and Jag Sheth, released in 2019, they highlight the importance of creating humanized work environments, focused on human development. The book is aimed at managers, leaders and professionals interested in improving organizational culture.
The authors argue that companies can achieve success by putting people at the center of their strategies and operations. They argue that, unlike the traditional approach that prioritizes profits and results at any cost, a humanized company values the well-being and self-fulfillment of its employees.
The book contains several success stories, demonstrating how it is possible to create a happy and productive work environment. The authors emphasize that concern for employee well-being is not only for the company's image, but is also beneficial for all stakeholders - including shareholders, managers, employees and customers.
One of the book’s main arguments is that successful companies should not neglect the emotional aspect, suggesting that true success combines operational efficiency with emotional sensitivity. “Humanized Companies” is a guide to creating a culture based on human development, showing that it is possible to have a workplace where people feel good and are productive. This approach not only improves employee morale and satisfaction, but also boosts the company’s overall performance.
Is there any way out?
I am still exploring the possibilities to prevent this from happening in the teams I work with, and I hope to be able to share much more about it here. By expanding my understanding of the current moment in the corporate world, I believe we have a path to understanding with Byung-Chul Han.
*images in this post generated using DALL.E
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