In a recent LinkedIn post, Katherine McLennan has perfectly articulated something that has been bubbling in my mind since the Government announced it was holding an economic reform roundtable, which has been informally dubbed the "productivity summit." But what is productivity? The productivity commission definition says:
"Productivity measures how good we are at producing output.
Put simply, productivity measures how efficiently inputs (say, labour, capital or raw materials) are used to produce outputs (goods or services).
It is calculated as the ratio of the value of output produced to the quantity of inputs used."
McLennan contrasts Inertia and Ingenuity. She challenges the outdated 40-hour work week, arguing it's a relic of the "Inertia Age" that undervalues the impact and ideas of knowledge workers.
I still find myself pondering the very nature of "value."
What's the economic value of an hour spent providing care to a child or an elder? Or the value of hours spent tracking down an obscure bug in a complex computer system? or the 5 minutes enabling a free and open source software feature that makes it easier to manage complex workflows?
One of the key measures of Labour productivity is the ratio of output to hours worked. But not all hours are equal. Some of our lowest paid workers, produce vast economic value.
Great food for thought Katharine McLennan - thank you!