Volunteering And Maximizing Efficiency
When I am working, I dislike wasting time. Unless they’re obviously framed as social or team-building events, I feel frustrated when meetings repeatedly drift and do not stay focused on what we are trying to accomplish.
Recently, this constant drifting happened during a planning session with my volunteering team: we had to define our next moves. But then, when annoyance started rising, I reminded myself that merely being there was enough: I was still offering my time and energy for the cause. We didn’t have to be maximally efficient for my conscience to be satisfied. Still, at some point, I had to steer the meeting back to its goal; we were making no progress and were already one hour past the planned meeting length.
I wonder now how common this view is in the workplace. I don’t know which viewpoint is right or wrong; black-and-white thinking likely does not apply here. On the one hand, being irritated is rarely a useful state to be in: it can lead to less cooperation, saying stupid things, and is a bad experience overall. On the other hand, if you choose to believe that merely being there is always enough, there’s a risk nothing gets done due to a total lack of focus.
There is some value to drifting: building rapport with team members, relaxing, and making work more enjoyable, etc. All in all, it’s likely that the rule of the golden mean should be followed here: be efficient, but not excessively. We are not robots. Perhaps the how of work matters just as much, if not more, than the accomplishment of a goal, which, in the big picture (e.g., the next thousand years), likely isn’t that important.