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I do you feel, like Jennifer Lots of being talked about how AI may replace workers? Different maybe from the last big automation wave where many blue collar jobs were taken out. This time around, the concern is that artificial intelligence will make white collar jobs obsolete. That's one of the concerns that's out there.
It is, And then you wonder, if you've got your job at stake, you might perhaps think I might be well advised to work a little harder, work longer hours, for example, and that might have some very bad impact onto your health, healthier family, and maybe even the healthier company.
This from two workaholics. I can feel it. I can feel it. We're trying to justify it. I will say the flip side too, is AI might ultimately help us. But anyway, we wanted to get some thoughts on how we work and overwork on a day that we had a lot of news flow. Very very busy with us right now is Melissa Associate Professor of Industrial Organizational Psychology at the University of Georgia, director of the Healthy Work
Lab at UGA. She's got a new book out, Never Not Working While the always on culture is bad for business and how to fix it. She joins us from Athens, Georgia. Melissa, nice to have you here. With Jennifer and myself. We want to get into the book. But I do wonder in your day job and the things that you talk about with your students, the role of something like we are talking about AI all day. We've been obsessed with it because of Nvidia's results. But I wonder how you
think about it. What are some of the conversations that you are having in the classroom and in your Healthy Work Lab. Is this a good thing or a bad thing or we don't know yet.
Yeah, that's a great question. One thing with AI that I find very interesting it's, you know, I'm less concerned about it replacing our jobs. I feel like there's always going to be a need for humans, but it's also making us more efficient. And so one thing that I I'm very curious about is with AI, with technology, uh, things that are faster to do. Why are we adding more to our plate? And you know, why are we not leveraging the efficiency of things like AI to work smarter instead of longer.
Well, I guess would an answer there, if you would forgive me would an answer? There be competition because you've got everyone's putting in there. Everyone's trying to feel their way around this new, this new AI world. Everyone's trying to work out how they can get a leg up on their competition. And so that's not the time when
you want to see companies start to pull back. But I mean, I know this is something that you study, and this is you've had a lot to say about it, So I mean, what's your response to that kind of a view.
Yeah, I think one of the common myths is that working all the time is going to lead to greater productivity. And you know, I understand the need to keep up with the competition, but I think we need to think of the long game too, because burnout is so prevalent now and it's just not sustainable to be working these really long hours and not giving ourselves the rest and recovery that we need so that we can be sharper
and more creative I'm and more innovative. I mean, think of how tired you are at the end of the day. Compared to the beginning of the day. I don't know about you, but I do my best writing in the morning and I'm sharp, and so, you know, leveraging tools like AI to be able to shorten you know, it's it's almost like wasted time at the end of the day when you're not as productive. So why don't you
just call it a day then? And also you're improving your you know, employee satisfaction and they're going to want to stay at the company. So I do think, yes, I understand the urge to just keep on going, going, going, because that's what everyone else is doing. But maybe you think a little bit more strategically and think about the long game as well.
You know.
What's interesting is and I think about how I grew up to it's just like work harder, you know, yeah, put in not one hundred percent, but one hundred and fifty percent into anything you do. Having said that, I get what you're saying. And I think coming off of COVID, we talked a lot more about balanced work situations. And what's interesting is that may play true in a tight labor force where companies are worried about losing workers. I do wonder as that shifts whether or not employers care
so much about the work balance. I'm not being critical or making, you know, a viewpoint, but you know, employers have things that have to get done, and you know they're going to be deadlines. What's the right balance? Because it does sound like this is an argument or something you need to be telling employers, because.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I'm not against hard work. You know, I struggle myself with being a work That's partly why I wrote the book, and so, you know, I think it's about fostering an environment where you are working very hard when you're at work, and you have an engaged workforce, which has a ton of positive outcomes according to research. But you're letting your employees disengage when they leave work, and that has been shown to lead to a ton
of positive outcomes and greater performance. And so it's almost like you're leveraging the best of both worlds. I do think it's possible, and we can use AI and the other you know, in technology to help us accomplish that.
You know, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the policy space here, because certainly what you see for companies in Europe, for government officials. In Europe, there's a right to switch off, there's a right not to get emailed. It's not necessarily in every country, but it's certainly a vibe that you've got over there. And you know, here in the United States, do you see any similarities anywhere with that culture.
I'm not seeing that happening here in the US. You know, I would love it, but I'm a realist too, and so I do think this is going to have to be at the company level. And you know, I think there are things you can do in your organization to have similar policies, even if it's just a pop up that you're trying to send an email after hours and a pop up occurs and it says, are you sure you want to send this at nine pm? Or maybe you schedule it for the morning. What's wrong with that?
Is the deal going to go bad because you didn't send an email at ten pm? Maybe? But probably not. Things are you know, not as urgent as we tend to think they are. And you know, for those dire projects, sure, maybe you need to work outside of your normal work hours, but I don't think every project necessarily has to be like that.
Hey, well, Melissa just about a minute left. He I feel like there's a million more questions we could ask you. But what's the biggest misconception about working harder longer. We all think that's a good thing, but maybe it's not necessarily always a good thing. And unfortunately just got about thirty seconds.
Yeah, I mean, it's just it's a myth that, you know, working harder will lead to greater productivity. Workaholics tend to think everything is a crisis, and I think it's important to think about the big picture and be forward thinking instead of backward thinking. And so that's that's my take on it.
It's an interesting point, isn't it. Not everything is a crisis, Ladies and gentlemen, there's another way to think about that. That's a that's a really interesting thing to take away.
It's a really smart message here, all right, listen, great stuff, Glad we got some time with you. Melissa Clark, Associate Professor of Industrial organizational Psychology at the University of Georgia, just got a new book out, Never Not Working, Why the always on culture is bad for business and how to fix it. So check it out, everybody. Hey watch an Nvidia share still up about seven percent, in the aftermarket. But this is Bloomberg