The Work Around the Work "Why Employees Spend So Much Time Doing Everything Except Their Actual Job" Every organization has work that creates value. Unfortunately, most organizations also have work that exists simply to support the work. Meetings to prepare for meetings. Reports that summarize other reports. Email chains to clarify previous email chains. Manual workarounds, duplicate data entry, and unnecessary approvals quietly consume time and attention every day. It never seems to end. Over time, these activities become part of "the way we do things," making them difficult to recognize and even harder to challenge. The result [...]