Essay: Managing distractions in the workplace (Jason Fried)

Jason Fried is the Co-originator and CEO of Basecamp, in the past known as 37signals. Basecamp is a privately held organization established 19 years prior in 1999 established by Jason Fried, alongside assistance from Carlos Segura and Ernest Kim. Their headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois and the company focuses on web application development for some of the worlds largest companies; and smallest. To put it in simple terms, the company Basecamp builds and sells web-based productivity software tools for business and install them. They are quite successful and provide a flexible, intricate, yet simple and efficient software called Basecamp for a big range of companies. On their website they reach to a big target audience and sell them the service by stating, “It’s rare that a business tool is equally popular with the big guys and the small guys, but Basecamp is that kind of tool. Freelancers, small shops, mid-size companies, and multinationals all rely on Basecamp” (Basecamp.com/about, 2018).
The Ted talk website has a summary of Jason Fried’s video in which it claims we should listen to him because “Jason Fried thinks deeply about collaboration, productivity and the nature of work. He’s the co-founder of 37signals, makers of Basecamp and other web-based collaboration tools, and co-author of “Rework” (Ted.com, 2018). Also because Scott Rosenberg called Fried’s New York Times Best-Seller book, Rework, “a minimalist manifesto that’s profoundly practical. In a world where we all keep getting asked to do more with less, the authors show us how to do less and create more.” Now that context intertwines with the leadership essay because Jason Fried gives a provocative TED Talk on the obstacles to productivity created by managers. It leads one to ponder from the moment you read the title of this TED Talk “Why work doesn’t happen at work” due to the fact that it seems to be a contradiction because managers are the leaders that push employees to do work.
An important and astonishingly revolutionary proposition Jason Fried makes in this video is for managers and bosses to cancel any meetings effectively today. Not to push back a meeting for another day but to stop them all together. Meetings allocate company resources in a way that is time-consuming and detrimental to productivity. He to lay back on being so on top of workers and watch how things resolve themselves.
For Jason Fried to believe in that proposition and sharing it publicly it is evident that he is a Theory Y leader. In him believing that things will solve themselves without a manager having to call a meeting to address any particular work issues or technical defective areas seems more Laissez-Faire which leans towards Theory Y as opposed to an Authoritarian leadership which leans towards Theory X.
` What Jason Fried assumes of workers is that they will make conscious choices to work on their own. He trusts that individuals can be focused on the destinations of their work and will try to assume liability and that laborers are characteristically clever. In particular, Jason likewise accepts that laborers have the ability to participate in an extensive variety of objective setting and innovative critical thinking acts; which is why he promotes that leaders such as managers and bosses discontinue meetings. That assumption he makes of workers concludes that he is in fact a Theory Y manager.
In his analysis of the workplace, Jason Fried devised three types of distractions in the workplace: Voluntary, Involuntary, and one he likes to call “M & M” which stands for managers and meetings. To him the greatest distractions in the workplace are involuntary to workers and are generally caused by the M &M, in other words the managers and meetings. Voluntary interruptions include those such as watching tv, going to the fridge or going for a walk. I agree with Fried’s analysis of workplace distractions because he poses a question that goes, “how can we possibly expect people to do their job if they go to the office and are interrupted?” Managers complain that they do not want their employee working from home because they will have all sorts of distractions such as watching tv or laying on the couch and they will not be able to monitor if they are working or not because the manager cannot see the worker. As Fried explains to us, it turns out those aren’t the things that are distracting, because they are voluntary distractions. We decide when you want to turn something on or when you want to do downstairs or take a walk. However at the office most of the interruptions and distractions that really cause people not complete their work are involuntary. That is where his M & M problem steps in and it is in fact the primary issue as far as interruptions and distractions go in the office. That is because the manager is the one that interrupts your work, ironically enough to ensure that you are working. Meetings are disruptive to the allotted work time because they take away work time to get everyone together and not work but just talk.
Fried’s recommendation would in fact work in most settings. I only do not see it working in industries such as the fast food industry where workers do not want to be there and only do the bare minimum to get the day over with. They lack encouragement to go above and beyond because they do not get paid enough and can careless about the company, they just do what they want to do. In other more professional settings, it is sure to work. In an environment were workers acknowledge their competence, not one of these workers are going to want to be interrupted by their manager just so that the manager is sure that the worker is doing his job. It is called micromanaging and it is a big interruption and distraction in the workplace and not to mention also annoying. The way he promotes Theory Y leadership it seems to be a great recommendation to all other managers. It looks to have nothing but positive outcomes. It is important to note that he does this TED Talk because his company focuses on improving common operating software to be efficient for all kinds of companies and is able to let people work from home because his software is web-based. As a CEO he recognizes his need to lead his workers but is more leisurely with it because on his Theory Y mentality of his workers.
An alternative recommendation I would have to deal with distractions in the workplace would be to implement optional social media breaks, or as I would go on to call them, Phone breaks. 11 minutes of every hour would go to checking your phone. Make that phone call you have to make, catch up on your timeline on social media so you don’t miss a thing, or just continue your work. I can tell you that of every work hour every employee looks at his or her phone during his or her  at least 7 minutes combined. Whether its just looking at a new notification or simply browsing the internet, they all do it. So to avoid that distraction you can put aside an allotted phone break so there is no need to have that itch to check your phone you just focus on your work to accomplish what you need to do in order to get that phone break at the end of the hour. It would increase productivity and decrease voluntary distractions. It works similar to smoke breaks.