“I work at a Fortune 500 company. Each year we have layoffs so more work is given to each of us; no pay increase. This additional work adds 5-10 hours per week. Last year I averaged 60-70 per week and am working more this year.”

“I have worked in Manufacturing for nearly 30 years. Our plant had 4000 employees when I started. Today we have 187 people left, 72 of them are on the executive team. We are expected to come to work an hour early, work through lunch and stay two hours late everyday.”

“I work as a Web Producer for a publishing company. Over the past 6mo. they’ve laid off 50% of our staff. . . . So, now we’re stuck with a limited staff, each one doing 2-3 times as much work, most of which we’re not qualified or experienced in.”

These actual postings from www.cnn.money  illustrate one of the key hazards of these unpredictable times: Trying to do more with less. Of course, the concept is a virtuous one—everyone wants to get more return from fewer resources. That’s what productivity is all about.

But real people are paying a real price for unintelligent application of this principle.

The problem is too many companies lay people off and then expect the survivors to pick up the slack, doing two or three jobs at once. The obvious downside is spikes in stress, burnout, quality problems, and disengagement. You can’t expect overwhelmed people to do quality work or to get engaged in what they’re doing.

Everyone wants to do more with less. But the real question is “more of what”? More of the same? Or more of the kind of work that your customers really value?

In our recent book  we focus hard on this question. The turmoil we live in is displacing workers in unprecedented ways, and companies are paying a heavy price for mindlessly shedding numbers without re-thinking the business model. Service levels drop, quality plummets, and revenues slide.

On an airliner, serving peanuts to everyone might be in the flight attendant’s job description. But in turbulent air, you really don’t care if the flight attendant does that job. It’s not as important as caring for the safety and well-being of the passengers. Maybe you can do without serving peanuts for a while.

Isn’t it time to stop asking people to do the impossible by trying to work two or three jobs at once? Isn’t it time to push the re-set button and ask what work really adds value and forget the rest?

We’d like to hear from you. Are you trying to do “more with less”? Are you like the people we’ve quoted above? Or are you doing more of what really matters and less of what doesn’t?

Stephen M.R. Covey, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything, is sharing the power of trust in a 13 city North American speaking tour.

In a recent interview with The Orange County Register Covey addressed the economic worldwide crisis of confidence and how he sees trust as the remedy.

• When leaders ignore or forget their principles, they behave in ways that cause others to lose trust and they loose moral authority, causing social and economic impact. Trust is not a soft social virtue but is a hard-edged economic driver. Financial markets work because of capital and liquidity, but these two elements are not enough. Currently, the government has stepped in to help out with liquidity, but trust cannot be artificially created.
• As the recession continues, the lack of trust feeds on itself, creating a perpetuating downward cycle where distrust and suspicion create more distrust. Scandals and gross trust violations cause suspicion and people are cautious, trying to protect themselves. Distrust produces more distrust in relationships, teams, companies, markets and economies. Transversely, trust can create a virtuous, upward cycle and become the standard. Then, when one behaves outside the norm, the individual must either reform or leave, while the organization continues to become a high-trust culture.
• Recently, a Fortune 500 company who has truly embraced trust experienced a massive reorganization and significant layoffs. However, these layoffs were approached quite differently. They said, “If there ever could be such a thing as a healthy reduction of force, we just experienced it.” They confronted the economic reality, were very transparent, worked out solutions with employees, talked straight, avoided manipulation and treated everyone with such respect that the survivors were more proud of their organization than ever before.
• Covey doesn’t advocate blind trust and indiscriminately trusting anybody and everybody as that is being gullible. He’s not a Pollyanna, but he also doesn’t believe that just because you’ve been disappointed you can’t trust anyone. Some managers don’t trust others because it’s risky. But, there’s a risk in trusting as well as in not trusting. When there’s distrust, it creates more bureaucracy, politics, disengagement, turnover and fraud. In the past, trust may have been seen as a soft, cuddly idea. Today, people see it more clearly.

 Click here to read more articles by Stephen R. Covey 

Author: Debra Lund, Public Relations Director, FranklinCovey

 Tip #1: Eliminate Chaos

When everything around you is moving fast it’s hard to get organized. Does this sound like your typical day? You return from one meeting only to go to another and yet another throughout the day; you don’t have time to focus strategically on one project because your time is spread so thin over a dozen; you have three people at your door waiting for a decisions on three different projects.

Unless you gain control over the madness of your days, it will control you. You need to do whatever it takes to prepare yourself for these tornadic days – because they’re not going to stop. You need time management. You need to get organized.

• Come in 30 minutes early and straighten your desk and reply to urgent e-mails: It’s amazing how much quality work you can do when nobody else is in the office.
• Organize your files so you know where everything is: It’s a great feeling to be called into a last minute meeting and be able to grab the appropriate file.
• Block out chunks of your days to ensure you have time to get your work done: I find that I’m most productive on Monday-my brain is fresh and I’m still thinking clearly. After my morning meetings I’ve blocked out a few hours in the afternoon to actually work.
• Take time to help others: You’ll find that when you’re organized, you’ll be better able to help others and help them with things they need.

I’ve learned that when my life is chaotic, I work minute-by-minute. I can’t see the horizon and I start to feel overwhelmed and stressed. So, take some time and eliminate the chaos by getting organized.

 In my next post I’ll talk about Tip #2: Embrace Others

Author: Matt Murdoch, FranklinCovey