AI ignites the spark of productivity (and also of burnout syndrome)

AI can indeed ignite a productivity spark, but it also accelerates burnout in the workplace.

The introduction of AI into the workplace initially led many to fear that this technology would (sooner rather than later) cost them their jobs. Then the narrative shifted, and AI emerged as a kind of savior for workers, promising to free them from the burden of the heaviest and most tedious tasks so they could focus on truly meaningful strategic endeavors. However, this second narrative, which has taken deep root in our minds from being repeated ad nauseam over the past few years, actually conceals a significant fallacy.

According to a recent study published by Harvard Business Review, AI can indeed ignite a surge in productivity, but it also accelerates (at least potentially) burnout in the workplace. This is because AI doesn’t actually reduce the workload (as originally promised), but rather intensifies it.

By significantly accelerating the pace of work with AI at their side, people tend to take on more tasks and extend their workday beyond what their official hours stipulate. And not because they are forced to do so, but because with AI’s support, this possibility seems less bothersome at first glance. In this sense, and although productivity does indeed take off thanks to AI, it doesn’t translate into more free time for the worker, who feels somewhat pressured to work more (to somehow compensate for the fact that their job responsibilities don’t require as much effort as before).

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the study is that the worker is not confronted with external pressures to increase their workload. And they don’t grapple with explicit objectives and expectations imposed from above. The dynamic of extending (sometimes to infinity and beyond) their workday is something that emerges internally within the worker. As their work becomes easier thanks to AI, it instinctively becomes more logical for the worker to take on more tasks. And so, as soon as they have some free time, they rush to use it not to rest more, but to work more.

AI makes it easier for people to do their jobs, which motivates them to take on more tasks.

What seems like a need arising from the worker themselves quickly becomes an invisible obligation. In modern organizations, opportunity transforms, not surprisingly, into the norm with astonishing ease. And those workers who are capable of performing more tasks are measured based on that capacity, perhaps not officially or explicitly, but certainly in a very palpable way.

Perhaps consumed by the idea that their tasks are now much easier to perform (and the fear of the blank page, for example, vanishes completely), the worker ends up sacrificing their lunch break and other breaks to work more. The integration of AI into work environments blurs the line between work and what is not work. That line becomes much more porous and, ultimately, also more dangerous.

With AI, the pressure to work more and take on more tasks ceases to be external and becomes internal, residing primarily within the worker. It is the worker’s own sense of responsibility that drives them to work faster and be more industrious. In an environment where work suddenly becomes easy, procrastination is perceived as a failure. And efficiency becomes a kind of moral imperative.

In this sense, even though people initially thought that AI would significantly reduce their workload, this technology actually ends up having the opposite effect.

For a long time, the public debate on AI has relentlessly revolved around the same question: Is the productivity associated with this technology real? However, this question inevitably falls short and does not adequately encompass the full spectrum of a technology whose consequences in the workplace extend far beyond what was initially anticipated.

As the research published by Harvard Business Review demonstrates, the important thing is not so much whether AI makes us more productive, but also whether the productivity this technology supposedly boosts actually flows and liberates the worker. And there doesn’t seem to be any liberation whatsoever. If the time savings that AI supposedly provides automatically translates into more tasks, it’s obvious that there is no relief whatsoever in the worker’s workload. In this sense, what ends up surfacing is not so much productivity as condensation. The time spent performing work tasks doesn’t become shorter, but rather denser. And there isn’t less work; in fact, it ends up becoming more intense.

AI makes it easier for the worker to get down to work and start the tasks ahead, but simultaneously makes it more difficult to stop the work at hand. And if the future of work (where AI will play an absolutely leading role) ends up crashing headlong into failure, it will not be because we are not productive enough, but because no one will set limits and adequately define when enough is really enough, the authors of the study emphasize.

Source: www.marketingdirecto.com