लोभः प्रवृत्तिरारम्भः कर्मणामशमः स्पृहा।रजस्येतानि जायन्ते विवृद्धे भरतर्षभ॥
lobhaḥ pravṛttir ārambhaḥ karmaṇām aśamaḥ spṛhārajasy etāni jāyante vivṛddhe bharatarṣabha
Word by word
The verse says
Greed, activity, the taking up of undertakings, restlessness, craving — these appear, best of the Bharatas, when drive has grown strong.
In plain words
Five signs, and three of them look like virtues from outside.
Activity. Starting things. Those appear on any list of what a good employee looks like.
They are listed here beside greed and restlessness, as symptoms of the same condition.
Where you've felt this · at work
In one week your colleague starts a reading group, volunteers for a committee and buys equipment for a hobby he will abandon in March. Everybody tells him he has a lot of energy. He has not slept properly since the reorganisation was announced.
Going deeper
Putting the beginning of new undertakings in a list of symptoms is the uncomfortable part of this verse.
Ārambhaḥ karmaṇām — the launching of projects. In most settings this is read as initiative and rewarded. Here it appears between greed and restlessness as a sign that one particular strand is currently dominant, which does not make it wrong and does mean it is not evidence of anything good.
Chapter 12 said something adjacent when it praised the one who has given up every undertaking, while in the same line calling him capable.
The distinction both passages are reaching for is about where the starting comes from. Work that needs doing gets done either way. What is being named is the particular restlessness that produces new things to do because stillness has become intolerable, and that is visible in the pattern over a month rather than in any single decision.