I'd be curious to know how long people have been in their current job vs. pre-pandemic. Many people are now returning to work, or finally getting around to switching to a new company. They need to be trained.
U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why
131–140 of 751 posts
Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why
#132No post body was provided.
Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why
#133I've read that doctors now spend as much as 50% of their time documenting their work. Companies such as Epic, which provide the software that hospitals use to build databases of patient data, have been big winners in the new world of hospitals-depending-on-software. But did the doctors become more productive? By almost any measure, they became less productive. People in tech keep thinking more tech will solve problem…
I don’t think productivity was ever the goal of this software. It was to have a record that is standard, digital, transferable, etc. Doctors fought it as long as they could because they knew what it meant for them. I remember pretty early demos in early/mid 2000s when I was doing some clinical grunt work in college. I had written some software to make my department’s life easier so I was offered up as the hospital’s…
They also fought it because they didn't go to medical school and survive residency to fill out forms all damn day—and they didn't used to have to, they had staff for that.
Then the computerized systems "replaced" that staff but all that really means is they cut the human time needed low enough that full-time workers weren't needed, but didn't eliminate it, so now that's another thing doctors have to do themselves.
AFAI can tell, the effect of tech overall is to cut some jobs while making the remaining ones harder and more stressful, while increasing so-called context switching.
Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Workforce productivity at the national level is typically defined by some measure of output, the amount of goods or services produced (typically GDP), over some measure of input, the number of hours worked/workforce participation.
So, how much money is made off of how much workers work?
No, not at all: for example, you can be a non-profit and still contribute to GDP, since you're still creating economic activity. Heck, even what the government does contributes to GDP, and that's not making money for anyone.
Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why
#135The "quiet quitting" strategy was not well accepted and now they are trying this. > Since the pandemic started, “the link between hard work and reward has been broken” More like "since the 1970s"
https://www.bls.gov/productivity/graphics/2022/graphic-4.htm
"Real compensation" is "Employer costs for wages, salaries, and employee benefits", adjusted for inflation.
Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why
#136I've read that doctors now spend as much as 50% of their time documenting their work. Companies such as Epic, which provide the software that hospitals use to build databases of patient data, have been big winners in the new world of hospitals-depending-on-software. But did the doctors become more productive? By almost any measure, they became less productive. People in tech keep thinking more tech will solve problem…
Are we sure the documentation isn't coming as required from the insurance companies?
I know many Drs and especially nurses who CYA on all their documentation otherwise insurance will try to pin them on an adverse reaction.
Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why
#137I've read that doctors now spend as much as 50% of their time documenting their work. Companies such as Epic, which provide the software that hospitals use to build databases of patient data, have been big winners in the new world of hospitals-depending-on-software. But did the doctors become more productive? By almost any measure, they became less productive. People in tech keep thinking more tech will solve problem…
There are huge productivity gains in private practices that eliminate web pages and email and switch to paper in filing cabinets only. This is also why fax machines still exist and are exclusively used by medical practices.
Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t think productivity was ever the goal of this software. It was to have a record that is standard, digital, transferable, etc. Doctors fought it as long as they could because they knew what it meant for them. I remember pretty early demos in early/mid 2000s when I was doing some clinical grunt work in college. I had written some software to make my department’s life easier so I was offered up as the hospital’s…
They also fought it because they didn't go to medical school and survive residency to fill out forms all damn day—and they didn't used to have to, they had staff for that. Then the computerized systems "replaced" that staff but all that really means is they cut the human time needed low enough that full-time workers weren't needed, but didn't eliminate it, so now that's another thing doctors have to do themselves. AF…
Sounds like modern startup devops-without-devops culture
Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why
#139I've read that doctors now spend as much as 50% of their time documenting their work. Companies such as Epic, which provide the software that hospitals use to build databases of patient data, have been big winners in the new world of hospitals-depending-on-software. But did the doctors become more productive? By almost any measure, they became less productive. People in tech keep thinking more tech will solve problem…
That documentation time is largely driven by the insurance industry which was really painful before these systems. It’s almost shocking how much more productive doctors are inside the VA.
Insurance is part of it, but not all of it. Government regulation is also a big part. EHR mandates under the Obama administration (? who I was generally supportive of, so not a criticism of his presidency in general) created a kind of "false pressure" to move to EHR immediately, rather than "naturally" adopt it at an organic pace, adopting whatever is most beneficial due to demand. I'm not anti EHR, but the way those systems were adopted were definitely forced onto providers top-down, rather than bottom-up like traditional hospital record systems. Hospitals scrambled to implement them in time for deadlines, and there was no room for pushback against poorly implemented structures that were pushed on hospitals essentially.
More recently in my field I've seen additional layers of documentation requirements that have nothing to do with insurance, that are entirely state law.
I have no doubt in my mind that if EHR rules didn't exist, they would have been adopted much more gradually, and selection would have been dictated by the ability of EHRs to supply features in demand. More competition would have existed and it would have cost less. Maybe some government regulation would have been needed in terms of interoperability standards but it could have been rolled out much much much better.
I don't think people fully comprehend the cost overruns associated with adoption of EHRs under government mandates, or how big of a shift there was from records being in-house flexible, and provider and patient-driven, to out-of-house inflexible, and IT-corporation-driven.
Re: U.S. workers have gotten less productive – no one is sure why
#140The reason for anything large and complicated is very nuanced and probably has a lot of small causes that we might all disagree on, but I'd say that the overarching reason for this social malaise might be that a lot of people are feeling a lack of hope for their future.
If you think you're working towards something good: a family, home ownership, kids, a reasonable amount of life enjoyment in terms of leisure, a stable society, and a pleasant retirement where you can enjoy seeing your grandkids and participate in some hobbies for a decade or so before your mind or body collapse....you might be willing to push yourself to achieve as much as you possibly can, even if you're a lowly cashier or janitor.
But who wants to go the extra mile for this degenerate and hopeless society where your money is being destroyed and you have grave concerns about many things? Whether rightly or wrongly, everybody is seeing fucked up things in the world and many people are feeling much greater concern about the future than we've ever seen before. This isn't a recipe for going the extra mile at work or harnessing the energy of society to achieve something great.