Predicting Human Productivity

Well, this might be the worst way to begin writing an essay…but here we are, talking once again about human resources. Read it one more time: human resources! Seriously? Since when are men and women “resources”? Could that just be it? A wrong approach to a reality made of flesh and bones rather than steel and bolts?

“Resources” sounds like something that can be used and disposed of, a machine, a raw material, anything that can be turned on or off, or simply used at our pleasure. If that is so, then most speculations on productivity are correct: take a person, assign her/him a productivity value (100%?) and put her/him at work estimating the required time to complete the task. Just like a machine. If my factory can produce 10 cars a day, I won’t be wrong estimating it will take 10 days to produce 100 cars. My factory, though, will definitely not be keen to experience a “bad day” or have family issues or any other type of emotion that could positively or negatively affect its performance.

Now, what you may be expecting is a psychological essay centered on dealing with assigned resources and a sympathetic approach to their peculiarity: human beings. Not really.

The purpose of this article is to present my view on how the productivity…