The above may seem like a tautology. For decades, workplaces have had less resources for staff and greater demands on work effort per employee. Then many may be attracted by the fact that a certain workplace or professional category has good working conditions. Then they find themselves there and work hard or harder to push their way into the old group. The result is simply that the old workplace or professional category with good working conditions has turned into a group where only hard work and stress will do.
We must work efficiently and not productively. Efficiency is about getting enough and good results from the minimum possible work effort and benefits both the employer and the employee.
Productivity focuses on as much effort as possible all the time. Of course, you are also interested in results, but there must be no downtime for the employees according to the productivity approach.
Then too hard work leads not only to a bad working environment but also to quality deficiencies. When people worked efficiently, they probably discovered principles such as "less is more". Actually, it is a graphic principle but repeats itself in many aspects of life as shown by the expression "He can't see the forest for all the trees."
Another important principle that supports efficient working is the 80/20 proportions or the Pareto rule as it is called. Often this balance exists between opposites and it is harmonious. For example. 80% of the work is often done in 20% of the working time. When you try to push people to produce even more than this balance, I just think you burn people out.
When people start working harder to get a high salary, this leads to an indirect reduction in wages. If the salary is constant and the work effort increases, then the salary/work effort has been lowered. Hard work should be defined as a lot of work in relation to the salary and can then by definition never pay off.
Then, modern neurological research shows that our analytical skills and creativity are at their best when we are relaxed and not thinking too focused on a problem. For example. is it not an illusion that those watching two chess players play chess better than the chess players themselves. The chess players play worse because they focus too much and focusing does not use the problem solving part of the brain.
We have to be efficient at work so that we produce enough and well while maintaining good health and coping with our whole lives and also our free time.