#24 Christine Seifert: The Rhetoric of Productivity

Time management, productivity, high-performance—these buzzwords govern the way we view our roles in not only our jobs but society as a whole. But often, notions that center around the idea of high performance are just that: performative.

In this conversation with Dr. Christine Seifert, we unpack what ‘productivity’ really means and the assumption of morality that unpins it. A professor of communication and author of a number of books and articles, Dr. Seifert thinks deeply and often about the mechanics and implications of rhetoric and how we can be deliberate in our engagement with metaphor.

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“We have to seriously challenge this idea that work or production is only relevant to that which makes money. Start naming what work is. Include work that benefits the group and ought to be recognized. This ranges from emotional labor to the kind of parenting work that happens at home. We need to get in the habit of talking about that as labor... acknowledging that those are, in fact, contributions. ”

— Dr. Christine Seifert

Christine Seifert is a Professor of Communication at Westminster College where she teaches rhetoric and strategic communication. She’s written for The Atavist, Harvard Business Review, Inside Higher Ed, Bitch Magazine, Business Communication Quarterly, The Journal of Self-Directed Learning, and The Journal of Competency-Based Learning, among others. She is the author of four books. She is a voracious reader of fiction and nonfiction.