The recovery paradox: why more work doesn’t mean better results

You would never want your pilot, your surgeon, or your favorite athlete to go to work depleted and exhausted, so why do we expect this in the office? 

 

Somehow the business world has been won over by the assumption that you can just keep pushing; that you can drink a Red Bull and push harder or pull an all-nighter and stay at the office 24/7. For decades that has been the stamp of commitment and engagement while avoiding recovery was something to be celebrated.  

 

But this way of operating, says Alyson Meister, is deeply inefficient. She says we need to challenge wide-held assumptions about how much we can, and should, be doing in the workplace and that the lack of adequate recovery is quite literally killing people.  

 

Meister argues that recovery is more of a skill than a passive process and, in her second appearance on ManagementCast, she explains how executives of all levels can learn how to unwind more effectively. 

 

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Alyson Meister is IMD’s Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior. She helps organizations to develop inclusive and resilient leaders, teams, and workplaces. Her research specialties include topics surrounding identity and diversity as well as workplace stress, mental health, and well-being. She was named on the Thinkers50 Radar list in 2021 and subsequently nominated for a Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement Award.