The Understaffed Myth

Companies (and employees) love to talk about how "understaffed" they are. Some of it is purposeful -- layoffs to juice a stock price. Some is more complicated.

I’ve had a bunch of different jobs, and at every single one, someone in a middle management role or higher has constantly referred to how understaffed their department (or the entire organization) is. Then, let’s say I’ve been in 1,900 or so happy hours and whatnot. Whenever someone talks about their current work deal, they usually include some variation of how understaffed they are, leading to how busy they are, leading to how everyone is pitching in more, but you know there’s some jamoke in the corner who isn’t carrying his weight and OH MY GOD CAN I TELL YOU ABOUT MY ANNOYING CO-WORKER.

The point is, everyone seems to think their team or department is completely understaffed at all times. But what if that’s a myth?

The understaffed myth and the Temple of Busy

This first step in the understaffed myth shouldn’t be that hard to follow or conceptualize. Basically, people love to be busy. They often think “busy” means “productive” — it does not — and in a world where your direct manager feels they “don’t have the time” to respect you, being busy — i.e. heaping a lot of stuff on your plate that has no real tie to business outcomes — is crucial to how relevant you feel at a job. See, you’re not getting standard human affirmation from your boss in a lot of cases (they got targets to hit), and you’re not getting true purpose from your company (that’s not their job to provide it), so you gotta look for what you need wherever you can find it. For most people, that’s 40 hours a week (but claiming 75!) of service at The Temple of Busy.

One of the easiest ways to become a regular parishioner at The Temple Of Busy is to constantly talk about how understaffed your team and company is. Because if you’re so understaffed, then obviously you’ve got to be busy. And if you’ve got to be busy, you’re one step closer to relevance. Ah-ha!

The understaffed myth and job role

Alright, check this graphic out. It’s from here: