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“…But the reward for lots of work seemed to be lots more. If you dug the biggest hole, they just gave you a bigger shovel.'” – Sir Terry Pratchett, British fantasist. There's an old saying that goes, "No good deed ever goes unpunished." Sadly, that's often true in business, especially in terms of personal productivity. Like so many other things, high productivity can backfire in surprising ways. I have a colleague who came roaring into a new job, working 60 hour weeks for the first six months, doing his best to impress his superiors. It worked too well. He was their golden boy while overclocking it; but once he'd settled into his job, he cut back to 45-50 hours weekly. Afterward, they treated him like he was slacking, despite consistently exceeding the number of hours his colleagues spent … [Read more...]