The Problem with Working Hard

Wednesday, 25th March 2009

So El Gordo is in New York today, ostensibly to drum up support for his G20 gabfest. According to the Telegraph's report:

At a breakfast for business leaders, Mr Brown said that values such as “honesty, integrity and working hard” may have been absent from the financial system in recent years.

One might agree about honesty and integrity but the problem with the financial sector is not that people there abandoned the "value" of "working hard". Quite the contrary. They worked too hard. We might not be in quite this mess if there'd been less hard work and more leisurely lunches and 4pm finishes. Greed and incompetence were problems but so too as a culture that prized, nay demanded, 17 hour work days. That is, long hours and very hard work were part of the problem...

Filed under: Brown (180 more articles) , Economy (1006 more articles)

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Conservative Cabbie

March 25th, 2009 5:32pm Report this comment

"That is, long hours and very hard work were part of the problem..."

That's right, indolence is exactly the right prescription for success.

asbolondon

March 25th, 2009 5:41pm Report this comment

quite agree. that was my first thought when i read Brown's speech. He clearly doesn't know anyone who actually worked in the city. If he did he would know of the hard work, long hours and intense pressures demanded of junior and middle ranking staff. He would also know that this, as you say, contributed to the lack of perspective and narrow minded short term pursuit of profit at the expense of a more healthy,long term and rounded outlook.

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