The tyranny of the “billable hour”: how it destroys value for customers and makes life hell for professionals

If you have ever engaged someone to do work for you by the hour and found that you are getting a lot less and paying a lot more – you are not alone. This is a common experience when dealing with professionals – consultants, mechanics, builders, therapists, life coaches, accountants, lawyers … this list goes on.

Billable Hour

While the billable hour may make you feel that you are being ripped off, it can be soul destroying for some of the professionals involved too. It stifles their creativity and leads them to loathe what they do.

 The ultimate autonomy crusher

 Autonomy, challenge, experience and knowledge are essential for a creative answer to a complex problem. Complex problems are those that do not have a precedent, have far too many variables and involve complex interpersonal interactions.

 In the last post we were introduced to two kinds of knowledge workers – the “light blue collar worker“, skilled at  carrying out algorithmic tasks (usually steeped in precedents, but without complex interpersonal interactions); and the “heuristic knowledge worker” – best suited to solving complex problems.

 While it has a negative impact on all professionals, the “billable hour” affects the “heuristic knowledge worker” the most. Daniel Pink in his book “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” calls the “billable hour” the most effective “autonomy crushing mechanism” ever. It moves the focus away from the output to inputs. Given the fact that for a service professional there is only kind of input “the human effort”, the focus moves to maximizing the billable hours.

 The question here is “why do professionals try and maximize billable hours, and what is the impact of this behaviour”? The answers lie in understanding the interplay between social expectations, stress, cognitive neuroscience, health and quality of life.

 Temptation

 Our society values professions that earn a lot of money, this is the reason that lawyers, doctors, consultants etc are allocated a higher status than teachers, nurses and social workers with at-home parents towards the bottom of the heap.  This is also the reason that some of the best and brightest appear to be attracted to these professions, especially those who seek status and social recognition. It is important though to note that a lot of the “bright sparks” escape this tyranny as they opt for self actualizing jobs like scientists, artists, entrepreneurs etc.

The more the professionals earn, the more they are admired by society. This leads them to want to earn even more. Earning more is possible only through working longer hours, which are a limited resource. But as they have many clients, no single client knows how many hours were worked in total by the professional. This leads them to exaggerate the hours that they say they worked. “If one is to bill more than 2000 hours a year” former Chief Justice of the US Supreme court William Rehnquist once said,” there are bound to be temptations to exaggerate the hours put in”. (William H Rehnquist – The Legal Profession Today, 1986). On a side note – if we added up all the hours that some professional have billed, they could easily be as long lived as Methuselah and Noah.

 While this dishonest behavior results in poor “value for money” for the client, it also does great harm to the profession, professional and the society. These professionals soon start feeling that they are on a treadmill that they can’t get off. They believe that they are wearing ‘golden handcuffs’ and are turning into “overtime warriors” who have very little time for their friends and family.

Golden Handcuffs Mural

 The Neuroscience and physiology of “the billable hours”

 This combination of long hours, isolation & separation from loved ones, dishonesty and golden handcuffs results in very high stress. These continuous high levels of stress result in an impaired ability to reason, analyze and solve complex problems. Stress increases the production of the hormone cortisol, which shuts down the Pre Frontal Cortex (PFC) and moves all the responses to the limbic brain (primitive brain). The PFC is unique to the human brain and is responsible for our ability to take rational and considered decisions, work toward a defined goal; prediction of outcomes; as well as personal and social “control” (the ability to suppress urges that, if not suppressed, could lead to unacceptable outcomes.).

  This impaired cognitive performance means that these professionals have to work harder and longer to accomplish similar tasks. This leads to a reinforcing spiral that ultimately leads to stress based chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, headaches, anxiety neurosis, and depression. It is no surprise that professionals are the biggest user of anti-depression medication. The inhibition of the personal and social “control” function also results in addictions – alcoholism, drug dependencies etc.

 Long term stress also reduces our ability to taste; latest research shows that it has a negative impact on our physical vision – distressed people do see the world as grey. On the whole it reduces our ability to enjoy and experience life to the fullest.

 Locked in a golden cage

The professional focus on the “billable” hour is a two edged sword. It not only results in poor outcome for the client that has commissioned the work but also damages the creativity, capability, credibility and the ‘quality of life’ the professionals. The professional ends up locked in a golden cage, running on a treadmill that they can’t get off.