Can Hardworking Employees Ruin a Company?—The Culprit Keeping Staffing Shortages Alive

Years ago, I read a four-panel comic somewhere that has stuck with me ever since.

At one workplace, one of the four employees quit. That was when an enthusiastic employee stepped up.

“Let’s all work hard and get through this crisis together!”

The other two employees, however, were not enthusiastic at all.

Left to handle the situation alone, the enthusiastic employee took on the former employee’s workload as well and began working at a furious pace.

Then the other two said:

“If you work that hard, the company won’t hire a replacement.”

“We’re only going to work as much as we always have, so you’ll end up being the only one doing twice the work.”

The moment the enthusiastic employee heard that, they stopped doing the extra work.

It was a truly brilliant four-panel comic.

The Harder You Work, the Less Likely the Company Is to Hire a Replacement

The comic may sound like a joke, but it gets to the heart of how companies work.

If one employee quits and the remaining three work desperately enough to produce the same results as before, what will management think?

“Well, apparently three people can handle it.”

They have even managed to cut labor costs, so from a management perspective, it is a great success.

The numbers do not show how much the people on the ground struggled. And so, operating with three people becomes the new standard.

Then, when someone else quits, the remaining two will be expected to work harder.

It is an exceptionally efficient system for cutting staff by exploiting employees’ sense of responsibility.

Whose Responsibility Is a Staffing Shortage?

If an employee quits and the work can no longer be handled, that is fundamentally a problem for management to solve.

Should they hire a replacement, reduce the workload, or automate the work? Making that decision is the job of managers and executives.

Yet in Japanese workplaces, for some reason, people try to solve the problem through the sheer determination of frontline employees.

“This is the moment when we need to dig in.” “Let’s work together and get through this.”

It sounds admirable, but how long are people supposed to keep digging in?

If the workforce shrinks while the amount of work stays the same, no amount of effort will solve the problem. In fact, working harder only hides it.

Not Overworking Is Part of the Job, Too

In situations like this, I believe it is important not to force the work to keep moving at any cost.

There is no need to deliberately slack off. Do your own work at a normal pace, and do not take on anything beyond it.

If a staff shortage leaves some work unfinished, simply report that fact to your manager.

As long as frontline employees keep overextending themselves to meet every deadline, management will have no reason to hire more people.

The reality that the work cannot be handled needs to remain visible.

A problem that managers should be wrestling with must not be solved through the self-sacrifice of frontline employees.

The Most Conscientious Employees Lose Out

What makes that four-panel comic so interesting is that the two seemingly indifferent employees were actually making the most rational decision.

Meanwhile, the enthusiastic employee thought they were helping the company, but they were about to increase their own workload and eliminate any chance of a replacement being hired.

Worse still, when there is one person like this in a workplace, they may begin demanding the same effort from everyone around them.

“They’re working hard. What are the rest of you doing?”

A staffing shortage that the company should solve is quietly turned into a dispute in which employees blame one another for not working hard enough.

Then, when the hardworking employee becomes exhausted and quits, the workplace is short-staffed all over again.

By working hard for the company, they prevent a replacement from being hired—and ultimately end up quitting too.

From an employer’s perspective, they are a truly valuable employee: someone who helps cut labor costs right up until the very end.