My favorite catchphrase (not) came up in a discussion the other day. The topic was getting more things done at a lower cost. Typically salary costs are the greatest expense whether its a contractor you hire or employees of your business or organization.
Charitable organizations get around this cost somewhat by using volunteers but many still have a lot of paid employees which inflate the ongoing operational expenses of the organization.
Do more with less
For a vibrant organization (or even just from a personal or family perspective) if you can get more or even the same at less cost, well, go for it.
Doing less should cost less but cutting product quality or services does have negative impacts. Hence the catch phrase, everybody needs to work smarter not harder.
Sneaky eh. Basically the theme is we will reduce our resources so we have less to work with but because you are smart you will be able to do more without increased effort.
Really! It is a bit insulting to think I am not smart yet nor have been smart in the way I work. Due to cost cutting I will suddenly become smart enough to do more with less. What does that say about my work right now, ouch.
Overspending comes home
In the case of governments spending cuts often are tied to service reduction. For other organizations who need to balance budgets to survive working smarter not harder becomes a mantra.
Squeezing the lemon for everything is the approach. Unfortunately cost cutting usually is heightened in times of recession and high unemployment so we workers just put up with the squeezing.
We work harder all the time being told we are just being smarter.
