He who stays latest is working hardest.

It's 10 O Clock as you turn the lights out that you switched onthat morning as you leave after a 16 hour slog of a day. Grabbing aquick bite as you run for the train home knowing that the kids willbe fast asleep by the time you get there. Another day inparadise.At least you can relax easily at home knowing what a hard workeryou are. Thinking of all you have accomplished today in themistaken belief that effort equals results.You could be suffering the busynessdelusion.

Being too good at your job might reducethe perception of the value you are giving!

I worked for a French company for a while some years back. Inspite of their reputation for taking incredibly long lunch breaks,French companies often display what I call a very macho culture.It's essentially based on being seen to be busy and activelyinvolved.There was essentially, a competition to be first into the officeand last out of the door at night. And, at a minimum, arriveearlier than the boss, and leave after he had left thebuilding.The staff would turn up early in the day and place their coat orjacket on the back of their chair and on into the computer. Then gofor coffee.Whenever any of the bosses were around, there was a flurry ofactivity and people rushed.I never really figured out whether people were busy because theywere so focussed on being seen to be busy, or whether they werebusy because they wasted so much time appearing to be busy.Sweating my assets

When we put in a lot of effort, we sweat.And in financial terms, we want our assets sweating to show thatthey are productive

Businesses have long been aware that assets, once bought, needto be used as productively as possible. 24/7/365 ideally, elsethere is some productivity left unused. The financial term for thisis to 'sweat your assets'. It's based on the same idea that when weare working hard, we sweat. The harder we work, the more we sweat.And the harder we work, the more productive we are. Or at least,that's the theory.As I live in Singapore, it's pretty easy to get a sweat on. AllI have to do is turn off the AC. Doesn’t make me any moreproductive, just hot and a little pungent.If you were any good at the job, you’d do it in half thetimeDan Ariely's meeting with a locksmith http://danariely.com/2010/12/15/locksmiths/No one really cares how hard or long you work http://99u.com/articles/51908/nobody-cares-how-hard-you-workWhilst you worry about what everyone else is thinking about you,they're worrying about what you're thinking about them. So youshould be worried about what you are thinking about them but you'renot, because you’re too consumed with what they're thinking aboutyou, but they're not because they're spending all this neurologicaleffort thinking about you thinking about what they're thinkingabout.No balance

Striving for work life balance because weallow work to take over our lives

Levels of stress that cause your body's cells to age prematurely

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/give-up/410485/

Hard work doesn’t lead to rewards

Show leadership - what your boss really want is help to getthings done. Not analysed, not talked about, not paraded, done!Share and carry the load. reason-get-promoted.html">http://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/real-reason-get-promoted.htmlBeing seen to be busyPerceived value. People prefer to watch how busy and hardworking a website is when searching for results. They actually liketo watch the illusion that the website is working hard!http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=40158

It's not enough to jump through thehoops. You've got to be SEEN jumping through the hoops

This increase PERCEIVED value.So why do we need to be seen to be busy?Remember that website being SEEN to be working hard as itsearched for the results?That seems to be true in most offices as well.The people who get promoted are those who are seen to beactively busy and producing results.It

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.joyatwork.coach