LET’S BE FWENDS ISSUE #27:

ON WORK THAT MAKES UNHAPPY

“A smart machine will first consider which is more worth its while: to perform the given task or, instead, to figure some way out of it.”

~ Stalislaw Lem

When mindfulness goes wrong - or right?

Two researchers recently embarked on the journey to find an answer to a question literally no-one was asking: Does practicing mindfulness and meditation make you more productive? I was under the impression that mindfulness might have mental health benefits for you, protect you from burnout, establish better work-life-boundaries and is in otherways good for the mind, but not necessarily for the bottom-line of your employer. But here we go. Vohs and Hafenbrack found that indeed, practicing mindfulness actually makes you less productive, because you appear to be less motivated:

_“The tasks were similar to everyday workplace jobs: editing business memos, entering text into a computer and so on. Before embarking on the tasks, the participants were asked about their motivation: How much effort and time would they put into the assignment? Did they feel like doing it?__Among those who had meditated, motivation levels were lower on average. Those people didn’t feel as much like working on the assignments, nor did they want to spend as much time or effort to complete them. Meditation was correlated with reduced thoughts about the future and greater feelings of calm and serenity — states seemingly not conducive to wanting to tackle a work project.” _(Source)

I think that when your work looks like editing business memos and entering text into a computer, that says tons about your job, and very little about mindfulness.

And here’s the interesting thing: The researchers claim that the lack of motivation is because mindfulness makes you except the present as how it is, and motivation needs the strong urge to change things. They claim it is this contradiction that makes mindful workers less productive.

But they fail to add any sort of proof for this claim. Instead, I’d wager it’s the other way round: Maybe the mindful meditation simply added some perspective to the importance of those jobs, in relation to the importance of how you spend the limited number of days you have here on earth.

Even robots fail. With IKEA.

Talking about jobs nobody wants: A recent study found outthat there is at least one job robots and humans are equally lousy at: Assembling IKEA furniture.

A robot tried to assemble an IKEA chair - and succeeded. It took it roughly 10 minutes to look at that thing trying to figure out what to do with it, and another 10 minutes actually assembling it. The tested human, on the other hand, was a full 50 seconds faster than the robot. But still 10 minutes slower than the time IKEA said it would take to build the darn thing.

Helloooo? Anybody there?

There are jobs nobody wants. And jobs that don’t exist. Like in the newest warehouse of JD.com, one of Chinas largest retailers. The vast structure is fully automated, and is operated by only 4 employees.Their jobs? Servicing the robots, not hauling parcels.

A call for VR-Projects

Got a great idea for a Virtual Reality project but lack some funding? The Vienna Business Agency has a call ‘Digital Realities’ for VR and AR projects.Projects are funded with up to 150.000 Euro.

Thank you for reading this edition of Let’s Be Fwends.

Have you ever been successful in deciphering the assembly instructions of IKEA furniture? If so, please high-five yourself,because there is at least one occupation you’re equally qualified for as our new robotic overlords. 🕺