POUSSEletter 3: productivity

Welcome to POUSSEletter, the letter that cultivates your well-being at work.

Each week, we share with you:
🥰 1 inspiring and positive news
🌱 A blog post
🎤 1 resource to progress
✍️ 1 quote that nourishes
❓ 1 question to think about

Reading time: 4 mins

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Before you start: alternate breathing

1. Sit comfortably in your chair, feet firmly planted in the ground, hands on your thighs.
2. Focus on your breathing. Inhale deeply through your nose, making your belly swell like a balloon. Hold your breath for a second, then exhale slowly through your mouth, releasing the air from your belly.
3. Repeat 3 times.

The theme of the week

WHAT IF WE REINVENTED PRODUCTIVITY?

Productivity. Efficiency. Performance. Success.
These terms borrowed from business have invaded our lives to the point of becoming injunctions to always do better, all the time, everywhere.

They don't make us any happier.

What if we reinvented what they mean?

At POUSSE, we believe that what contributes most to improving our ability to work effectively and achieve our long-term professional goals is taking care of our mental and physical health, our relationships with others and our working environment .

It inspires us

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR LAETITIA VITAUD FOR WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE: What if we were done with productivity?

In her latest book, Laetitia Vitaud tackles a vast subject: productivity. What is Productivity? How is it calculated? How to get out of the cult of the "busy lifestyle"?

We read the article for you. What you must remember :

On the calculation of productivity:

• Productivity is a key indicator of the world of work that dictates the good health or not of an economy. It corresponds to a ratio, a fraction. For example: the number of cars leaving a factory at the end of the day, on the number of workers present. This gives a clear figure, hence the illusion of indisputable information.
• The problem: there is a big gap between what is recognized as "productive" in society and the reality of work, which distorts the calculation of productivity.
• This discrepancy contributes to suggesting that women are less productive than men , in particular because many of them work in so-called "support" jobs and perform tasks whose arduousness is not recognized (⅔ of domestic tasks and parents, hello mental load).
• This shift also contributes to completely forgetting the negative impact of productivity on the environment.
• What is needed is to integrate into the way of measuring productivity the influence of things on each other. For example: the male BMW engineer who is super-productive because he has a wife who does not work or works part-time, who takes care of the children, who takes care of the administration and social life and family more broadly.
• The ideal ratio, which serves both the feminist and environmental cause, would be the number of paid hours deemed very productive, over the number of invisible hours (the submerged part of the iceberg!) that actually serve to support these so-called productive hours .

On the notion of productivity in our lives:

• Productivity in itself is a good thing, it's even “ecological” to produce in less time, with fewer resources, by wasting less.
• Except that nowadays, being very busy has become a symbol of power, a cult. 150 years ago, the greatest symbol of prestige was precisely not needing to work!
• Not everything has to be productive: getting out of unproductive spaces is good for our mental health.

Read the article

POUSSE talks about it

HEALTHIER PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH PLANTS: THE SPOTIFY OFFICE

It's been proven that plants increase employee productivity and creativity (+6 and +15% respectively, according to a Human Spaces study ). Find out how we reconnected the Spotify offices to nature on the POUSSE blog.
Read the article

In our ears

It's ok to do nothing!

Our capitalist society glorifies productivity. Working a lot, being ambitious, performing is valued. You have to optimize your time, make the moments off profitable. Do “useful” things.

Doing nothing, “hanging out”, is often perceived as a waste of time, a lack of ambition or laziness . So we make sure to occupy every minute of our existence. You feel proud of yourself when you accomplish a lot of things. But when you're tired, it was a disaster. We feel worthless, useless. We feel guilty for doing nothing or not doing enough. To have wasted an afternoon strolling. To simply rest.

How do you get out of this toxic productivity cycle? No longer feel like we're not doing enough?

This is the subject of this episode of "I'm scared therefore I'm going".

Listen to the podcast

The quote of the week

"Productivity should be seen as a way to free up time, avoid emergencies, and strike a balance between work and personal life."
- Laura Vanderkam

The question of the week

✍️ WHAT IS IT FOR YOU?

The POUSSE team was asked to answer the question:

For Lucie, our Customer Success Manager, being productive means "creating value for my clients" .

For Thomas, Landscape Designer, being productive means "feeling that I am satisfied with my work at the end of the day" .

And for you, what is it? To share your story, a thought, an advice, click on the "Reply" button. We will share our exchanges in the next POUSSEletter.

Can't wait to read you!

Answer to previous question

✍️ HOW TO CULTIVATE BEAUTY IN THE OFFICE?

"I need a space full of natural light, with minimalist decoration. And of course, plants!"
- Leah

"For me, cultivating beauty in the office always means having a tidy, clean and pleasant space for the eyes."
-Sarah