There are a few words that are really hot these days: curly, lying flat, working person, social animal, 996…… Before, I asked my friend in a state-owned enterprise about the overtime work in their company. He asked me to go under their building at 10 o ‘clock in the evening to see what is called “bright as day”. Too magic, the Internet young people volume also stopped, how to be said “pension” of the state-owned enterprises volume. The friend said again: roll, but not really roll. I just stay at work and play on my phone until 10:30.

** It’s not your boss who makes you work overtime, it’s someone else who does. Hurry up with your work and you can finish it before you leave work. But there are always people who procrastinate, who just sit in front of the company computer and wave their heads so that the boss can see their diligence. As a result, the rest of the staff have to sit in front of the computer, or even later, for fear of being fired. Is the salary more than before? Don’t. This is the prisoner’s dilemma in the workplace.

What is prisoner’s dilemma?

Prisoner’s dilemma is a classic theory of game theory. The original case refers to a particular kind of game between two captured prisoners.

Merrill, 1950. Dreischer came up with the prisoner’s dilemma game. Duke finalized the idea.

Two criminals were captured as suspects, isolation imprisonment awaiting trial, two people are thinking about confessing or not.

If they do not confess, they shall each be sentenced to one year in prison;

If one confesses and the other does not, the confessor shall be released in meritorious service, and if he does not confess, he shall be sentenced to five years’ imprisonment;

If they both confess, they each get two years in prison.

Why is it called a “dilemma”?

If everyone did what was best for them, why is this still a dilemma? One answer is that “gross revenue” has fallen **.

Add up the number of years served, and it’s not the best choice for the group. In terms of total prison terms, a total of two years for joint cooperation is better than a total of four years for joint betrayal.

Obviously, the more people choose to cooperate, the higher the overall benefits will be.

Let’s talk about the prisoner’s dilemma of working in the workplace.

There is a game company, five years, the company all programmers are strictly implement 955, take 300,000 a year’s salary and 50,000 year-end bonus, every day off work can play ball, walk, Saturday and Sunday can accompany their families.

Later, the company recruited a highly educated turtle Xiao Ming. ** Xiao Ming works very hard. He arrives at 8 o ‘clock in the morning and gets off work at 12 o ‘clock in the evening. Even on weekends, you can see the small computer lit up on his enterprise wechat. At the end of **, the department leaders gave Xiao Ming an annual salary of 300,000 yuan plus a year-end bonus of 100,000 yuan, and publicized the distribution of this year-end bonus.

Chen saw this and wanted to get more year-end bonuses, so he clocked out at 12 o ‘clock. In the following year, more and more people leave work at 12 o ‘clock, we gradually have no life, every day is work. Only Xiao Li, every day one to five o ‘clock, clock off on time.

At the end of another year, the leader gave everyone an annual salary of 310,000 yuan and a year-end bonus of 50,000 yuan, and fired Xiao Li for slacking off. From then on, Chen sweated every day, but had to work until 12 o ‘clock.

In other words, in this example, workers are working longer hours but not getting more money.

This is the prisoner’s dilemma in the workplace, also known as internals.

So how do you break this dilemma?

(1) Think for yourself and don’t always follow others

I always talk about independent thinking, but it’s really hard not to be influenced by others. So how do you reduce the influence of others on you? The easiest way is to read a book. Instead of reading vertical professional books, read widely. For example, if you are a business operator, you can read books on other topics, such as Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Evolution, rather than just “Operating Light” and “Growth Hackers.” Once you open your mind, you can see the narrowness of someone’s point of view when they say something, and it naturally becomes harder to listen to.

Another thing you can do is to make friends with people from all walks of life. This is a little difficult for social organizations, but you can encourage yourself to try. For example, if you are in a taxi, you can talk to the driver. When you go out to eat, you can talk to the waiter. Or go to the park and talk to mom and dad. Different people have different experiences and have different views on things. If you listen to them more often, there will be more natural solutions.

(2) Stay away from “ineffective overtime” and give priority to value orientation

In the workplace, there are always some people, work perfunctory, work efficiency is low, from time to time also touch fish, come off work time obviously can not finish, then how to do? Have dinner, come back and work overtime, and then get things done. This kind of overtime is “self-touching”, always in a low-level cycle, a total waste of life.

Then everyone in the work, we must keep awake, always maintain high efficiency and goal thinking, can make themselves always in the update state. At the very least, you should be able to prioritize your tasks as light, heavy, slow, and urgent, and prioritize important tasks first. Do important but not urgent things every day. Give up unimportant things or let someone else do them.

(3) Institutional construction

If you have friends who make policy to read this article, please raise more topics, promote the perfection of our labor law, save the workers under the scroll.

Ordinary workers like Li should learn more about law and rights and interests, at least when they are squeezed, they can also take up legal weapons to protect themselves. There is, is to open your eyes, choose a law-abiding, internal volume is not so serious company, after entering to gradually develop their own pace of work, do not consume, find a balance between life and work.