In case you're not a sports fan or hadn't heard about it (I certainly hadn’t), load management is essentially giving top players extra rest time. It's been all over the NBA the last two seasons. LeBron James was very against load management, until he was slow to recover from an injury. Then, suddenly this:

It wasn’t always like this. Back in the 80s and 90s, Michael Jordan was on the court nearly all the time. If you ignore the 1985 and 1994 seasons where he only played 18 and 17 games respectively due to injury, he averaged playing 81.7 games per season (out of 82) and averaged about 39 minutes (out of 48 total).

There’s a lot of controversy associated with load management. The answer boils down to one question– who does the player work for?

Fans?
Imagine the disappointment showing up to a game to see your favorite player live, but instead, seeing her in street clothes on the bench. (NBA and WNBA have been known to be fined $100,000 by the league for benching a star player in a nationally televised game).

Team?
As a coach, it makes sense to give star players a rest in back-to-back games early in the season so they could peak towards the playoffs. In the 2018 season, the Toronto Raptors' Kawhi Leonard was load managed all season, playing only 60 of 82 games. But it brought an unlikely championship to Toronto and Leonard was named NBA Finals MVP.

Him/Herself?
Having some rest to get one or two extra seasons out of a career makes sense too. After all, even though he had 6 championships, Michael Jordan still retired at age 34 (and then came back for 2 seasons and played his last game at 39). Imagine being pushed into retirement before 40 because you're unable to sustain work.

For all of us, we should consider the same question: who are we working for?
If it’s for our clients, customers, and users, it might feel silly to take time to rest and sleep. To not check our email every second of the day.

If we’re working for our company, what might be best is to have a sustainable work pace. To perform at a high level every day, maybe even having our most energy during peak times.

And if we’re working for ourselves, load management is about preventing burnout. Take a day off here and there.

We’re likely not going to retire and just stop working at 40, let alone 65 (many of our parents don’t even do that). Our careers are long. Burnout is real. We’re all the Michael Jordan or Elena Delle Donne of our own work and career. We need to manage our loads. And we need rest.

Reference
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/j/jordami01.html
https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2019/11/8/20954096/load-management-definition-kawhi-leonard-lebron-james-fines-controversy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawhi_Leonard

Caveday is a company aimed at improving your relationship to work. We write regular posts on Medium and send out monthly newsletters with productivity tips, life hacks, and recommendations. Sign up for the mailing list here.

Jake Kahana is a cofounder of Caveday. Sign up for his personal emails, called “The Email Refrigerator” here.

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