Tool Rationality Spillover

Tool rationality spillover is the leakage of workplace calculation, efficiency logic, and task-management habits into relationships that need presence, care, and non-instrumental attention. In 《大厂小民》：我们必须克制对系统与上岸的期待, 小满 notices that after big-company work she could become impatient with ordinary chatting because it felt “useless,” and the host says he does not want family life governed by the same instrumental logic as work.

The concept is not a claim that efficiency is bad. It names a boundary problem: work can teach useful coordination methods, but those methods become harmful when friends, partners, parents, pregnancy, childcare, or idle conversation are reduced to productivity, cost, or role allocation.

Key Claims

• Work can train people to value only measurable output, making ordinary emotional exchange feel like a low-value meeting.
• Tool rationality can turn pregnancy or family care into a loss-allocation question rather than a human event.
• The spillover is easier to miss when the workplace methods are genuinely useful for planning, writing, or collaboration.
• A healthy boundary keeps task management available for tasks while protecting friendship and family from becoming miniature organizations.
• The concept explains why leaving an organization does not immediately remove its habits; the person may carry the system inward.

Connections

• Workplace Relationship Boundaries — boundary concept extended from coworkers into family and friends.
• System Humanity — humane systems need limits on pure instrumental logic.
• Family Labor Boundaries — family care requires both economic clarity and non-instrumental respect.
• Communication Boundary Setting and Workplace Communication Risk — adjacent concepts around where words and expectations belong.
• 江小鱼 — contrast case for separating work from life more effectively.