Tuesday, March 15, 2011

In praise of... inefficiency

A friend was recently informed by her boss that unless she makes herself available for exotic overseas postings at fairly short notice that could last a minimum of three months or could end up being substantially longer than that, she will be on a blacklist when the next round of redundancies are made as a result of being deemed "inflexible". The fact that this would mean leaving her husband at short notice for an extended period of time is not taken into consideration.

And so I praise inefficiency, or rather, those bold enough to take a stand against the idol of efficiency. Efficiency is undoubtedly a good thing, but like all good things, it is a relative good and when it is treated as an absolute, when elevated to a primary and overriding consideration, it becomes a menacing false god, demanding human sacrifice. Idolatry is cruel and the god of efficiency grinds human lives in its well-oiled cogs.
Full series links can be found here.

4 comments:

Anthony Douglas said...

Can't tell you how much I'd like to see that turn into a huge unfair dismissal case. Employers who work for Mammon drive me nuts.

Cecily Anne said...

I'm guessing that the boss was unhappily divorced a few years ago.

By Jarrod Longbons said...

Amen! I believe we are so "efficient" that we have not developed a theory for what life is all about. I find the pic in your post to be an image of true delight...efficiency, as we conceive of it, has no room for delight; rather it is all about libido dominandi. Three Cheers for a little inefficiency.

besideourselves said...

You're channeling Ellul, cool!

Yes, praise for those engaging in inefficiency as iconoclasm, who refuse to locate either the ends or the means anywhere other than united in Christ.