The Productivity Trap: How Achievement Culture Can Foster Isolation and Inequity
by Ren Taylor
Do you ever feel as though no matter what you accomplish or how much you get done, you are still falling behind? This sentiment is not necessarily a symptom of personal failure, as so many of us are taught. In fact, it is an intentional function of Western productivity culture and late-stage capitalism. If we all feel we are falling behind, we will continue to tolerate high-stress and low-reward work environments that permeate our professional and personal lives.
This function of our society arises in many faces and forms from hustle culture to social meritocracy. Moreover, this function is often proffered as beneficial. This can be grounded in a very real place. Many individuals have to engage in “hustle culture” in order to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.
However, this culture does not end when we are comfortable and satiated. In productivity culture, no amount of production is deemed enough. When we are told often and long enough that what we produce matters more than who we are, we start to believe it. This can lead to inequitable work hours, rampant social comparison, and struggles with stable internal self worth.
Productivity Culture & Workplace Inequity
Workplace inequity is not a symptom of productivity culture, but a function of it. In productivity culture, the nuances and unique attributes that make us a human being are set aside in pursuit of “human doing”.
What might this inequity look like?
Overwork as a proxy for commitment
Individual responsibility for structural issues
Penalization of disability and/or lack of resources
Masking at work
This culture can lead to a sense of competition between coworkers and foster an environment of isolation and social masking. These factors of isolation, overwork, masking, and competition can also lead to earlier burnout.
Productivity Culture & Social Comparison
Productivity culture does not only impact the workplace. This mindset also embeds itself in our social interactions and relationships. For example, one of the first questions people ask upon meeting someone new is, “What do you do for work?”
While work, career, and achievement are often important parts of our identity, productivity culture encourages us to frame work as our identity. This often exacerbates social comparison and fear of vulnerability. If what we have achieved is the most salient piece of our identity, it limits our ability to meaningfully connect with others. This can lead to feelings of inferiority and inadequacy that further a sense of isolation and alienation.
Productivity culture encourages us to consider our achievements as metrics of our inherent worth. This is further fueled by social media and the instinct to only share and post what is deemed most impressive and attractive. This leads not only to comparison, but to unfair and unrealistic comparison of worth.
Vulnerability and true human connection don’t fit in productivity culture’s quantified narrative.
Productivity Culture & Self Worth
Productivity culture encourages the idea that our worth is inherently out-put based. Human worth is not something we simply have, it is something we are forced to earn. And, in productivity culture, the earning never ceases and the goalpost is constantly shifting.
Moreover, the more we achieve the more we shift our own goals to diminish our achievements. In productivity culture, no achievement is quite enough. This leads to feelings of helplessness, burnout, and shame. We often start shoulding ourselves (ie: I should be doing even more).
Vulnerability, struggle, and failure are treated as symptoms of internal deficiency, not the reality of learning and growing as a human person. This metric discourages not only our connection to others, but our connection to ourselves.
So…What Do We Do About It?
To be frank, this is the hard part. Productivity culture is the backbone of modern capitalism and will not be easily replaced by a more nuanced picture. Moreover, engaging in productivity culture is often necessary for people to keep their jobs and provide for themselves and their families.
While we can’t necessarily change structural systems in one sweep, we can start to change our perceptions and cognitions around them. We can begin to get curious about who these ideas and patterns serve, as well as who they harm. We can have honest dialogue with friends, family, and coworkers about our struggles and vulnerabilities. We can intentionally take the time to get to know ourselves outside of what we have to offer. We can allow ourselves to take the space to be instead of always doing. We can challenge the growing narrative together.
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