Cumbayah

Is the Cult of Efficiency destroying the quality of life?

blackberry.jpgOne night last weekend the ringing blackberry woke me from a deep sleep. It was the second weekend in a row that my sleep was disturbed by a call from the computer room. The problem was fixed in short order but not my sleep. Aah the modern world. With today’s gadgets if you get a fax, email or phone call you are notified immediately. Quite impressive but you have to wonder, what price are we paying for all this efficiency? Is the cult of efficiency destroying the quality of life? You decide. If you can…

In a former life I worked for a big company that bought a small family owned business in a small town. The big company was amazed at the inefficiency of the small business and set about making it more efficient. They discovered they only needed half the workers and so they laid off about 50% of the staff. The previous owner was making money as the business was profitable so he tried to help his neighbors by providing jobs. He wasn’t trying to eke the most profit out of it. But he wasn’t efficient. A couple of years later, the big company sold the small company to another big company…

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