In Portugal, effort continues to be confused with productivity. We work long hours and we may be dedicated, resilient and available, but the results are generally less than desirable. It’s easy to blame workers, as if most of us aren’t or haven’t been workers; It is also easy to blame public policies, because government structures at national, regional and local levels have “broad backs”.
The truth is that a large part of the Portuguese business community still lives trapped in a work culture based on physical presence and hierarchical control. The schedule replaces the result, which means that “being” is worth more than “doing”. Quite often, workers who leave late tend to be seen as more committed than those who produce more in less time. All of this reflects an outdated logic, which rewards the appearance of dedication to the detriment of real effectiveness.
In fact, low productivity is, first and foremost, a problem of an organizational nature. In too many companies, training is treated as an expense, innovation as a luxury and delegation as a risk. Continuing to confuse authority with leadership and command with motivation, people are managed as if they were machines and then it becomes strange that there is no creativity, autonomy and desire to progress.
We all know that there is no shortage of talent – the problem is that it tends to be dispersed among companies and other organizations that do not know how to value it. This is why a significant part of the talent that we generate so well in our universities prefers to go to other places where, due to better organization, it is better utilized, creates more wealth and, ultimately, is better paid.
All of this would be relatively easy to resolve if it were just a question of public incentives. The great difficulty is that it presupposes a cultural change. Companies need to move from a logic of survival to a logic of growth; that they learn to manage time, resources and people with vision and intelligence; that apply real performance metrics, instead of limiting themselves to controlling entry and exit times; that replace the fear of error with a culture of continuous learning.
The countries that made leaps in productivity – such as Ireland and the Czech Republic – did not do so by decree. They did so because their companies invested in competent managers, training and technology. In Portugal, there are still too many organizations that confuse savings with efficiency, cutting costs but not creating effective value. They believe that working more is synonymous with producing more, when the real challenge is to work better.
Productivity is not about doing more with less: it is, above all, doing better with what you have, which means generating more wealth. Now this requires focus, autonomy and responsibility. It requires leaders who know how to inspire and not just control. And it demands that we stop glorifying tiredness as proof of merit.
At a time when changing labor legislation is on the table, Portugal needs a new “employment contract” – not only at the legislative level, but, above all, of a cultural nature. A “contract” that, based on a new mentality of employers (and their associations) and workers (and their unions), values results, competence and trust. Only then will we stop being the country that works a lot but produces little. Because the future does not belong to those who make the most effort, but to those who best transform effort into value.