I was originally gonna make a whole rant, but I don't want to throw myself into a wall of negativity. So I figured I'd turn this into a question instead.
To kind of get to my point I'll give a mini example.
I have friends who work in call centers, say billing or tech support scenarios. They have a genuine care and desire to help people on the other line, but are hampered by a need to turn over calls as quickly as possible. If they don't resolve a certain number of calls an hour, they get in trouble. On the other hand, they also know if they genuinely don't help the person on the other end of the line, they're just gonna call back eventually anyway. In order to "do their job properly," they gotta hit their numbers. But if they "hit their numbers," they're often not really doing their job.
I've seen people in everything from warehouse/shipping work, to teachers, to HR, to retail and sales all struggle with similar systems.
Personally, I think it's crumby on two fronts. One, everyone from the workers to management know the system is one big sham, but everyone sticks to it anyway. Which is crazy. But two, and more importantly, by worrying about numbers on paper, people who genuinely care about their jobs and what they do and are trying to be good people in their daily lives, are held back from doing just that. If you ask me, frankly, it robs them of their ability to be responsible, proactive, human beings. It's awful.
There's gotta be better ways out there. What are they? What's keeping us from using them? And before anyone gets snarky, yes, I know a lot of the problem stems from a love for money and a lack of empathy. But I mean, besides that. What's keeping people from doing better?