The dark history of our obsession with productivity

Americans have been on a quest to get the most out of every working minute since the nation’s founding, often at the detriment of the people doing the work

Excerpt: "You know it’s bad when you start typing “obsession with” in the Google search bar and the first auto-completion prompt is “productivity.”

As workers, we are obsessed with getting stuff done. No wonder there seems to be a bottomless well of advice, filled with evangelists, gurus, and thought leaders proferring hacks, tools, tricks, and secrets to help us pack more output into the waking hours of our workdays. Productivity software alone accounts for an $82 billion market, according to IBISWorld research.

But where, exactly, did this lust for wringing greater efficiency from every possible second originate?"