I admire Jonathan Sands’ dedication to the Yorkshireman’s principles of “graft, thrift and brass” (DW 2 November). But as custodian of the spirit of the design industry, he goes too far. It is not healthy for anyone to regularly put in more than 48 hours per week – even when they love their job so much they’re not paid overtime for all those extra hours.
In more mundane pursuits, it is widely recognised that long hours don’t equal increased productivity. How much more so, then, in creative activities – where the quality of your ideas depends on the influences you expose yourself to. A designer whose world revolves around the studio needs to get a life if the wellspring of ideas isn’t going to run dry.
Perhaps Jonathan should take a few days off, and use the opportunity to read Ricardo Semler’s remarkable book Maverick!
Semler’s business, which thrived in the improbable circumstances of Brazil’s 1000 per cent inflation, lays down a blueprint for the saner enterprise of the next century. Among other things, it insists that employees don’t become martyrs to the firm – or let themselves believe they are indispensable.
In a biting indictment of the workaholic, Semler (quoting Aristotle) says “thinking requires leisure time. If you are not in possession of leisure time, you can’t be thinking all that much”. As a “thinking business”, can design afford not to heed his words?
James Souttar
Just Proportion
Lincolnshire LNl1 OQT
