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There's a simple solution. Just give up on the idea that we can expect people to work many hours ~continuously, on a regular basis. Sure, there must be times w
by mirimir 6y ago
There's a simple solution. Just give up on the idea that we can expect people to work many hours ~continuously, on a regular basis.
Sure, there must be times when ~everyone is available to talk. But otherwise, just let people work when they're ready to work. And let them self report their work time.
- somurzakov 6y agoif you are flipping burgers, sure, you are expected to work continiously every hour. but for salaried people - it doesnt make sense, sometimes you just need to sit on a problem for some time to solve it, or just sit and think about it. Salaried people arent paid by the hour, so why control them? this I dont understand
- mirimir 6y agoI consider thinking to be "work". You say that salaried people aren't paid by the hour, but that's arguably a fiction. There's always a defined work day. Some employees end up "working" for inordinate amounts of time. And some employers do push employees to be more productive. So if the standard is 40 hours per week, I'm just saying that you do the work whenever, not eight continuous hours per day, for five days per week. That decreases control of employees by employers.
- rhizome 6y agoJust give up on the idea that we can expect people to work many hours ~continuously, on a regular basis This conflicts with the much, much stronger profit motive.
- mirimir 6y agoHow is that?
- Supermancho 6y agoThe easiest business metric for measurement is profit per worker hour. What do you mean, "How is that?"
- regularfry 6y agoIt's also relatively useless as a measurement, so you'd expect the profit motive to drive people away from it.
- Supermancho 6y ago> It's also relatively useless as a measurement It is not. It's specifically used because of the utility in the simplest tasks. Factories are designed around throughput and efficiency of workers.
- mirimir 6y agoFair enough. I was mostly talking about professional staff, such as engineers, and some trades. Most traditionally, for example, lawyers and plumbers.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- regularfry 6y agoWhat would you do with it in an office, though? It's well known that you can't just throw man-hours at cognitive tasks and expect linear or even monotonic returns.
- mirimir 6y agoI asked "How is that?" because relying on worker-reported hours is no less consistent with the profit motive than are current standards for salaried employees. Employers can still calculate "profit per worker hour". And it's arguably more accurate when based on reported work time, rather than just days worked.
- rainyMammoth 6y agoyou hit the nail on the head. The main issue here is also that MOST employers/managers don't really know how to measure your productivity, especially in modern software engineering. That's why "Busyness" and "Butts in Seat Per Hour" are seen as proxy for productivity. That's also why politics play such a big role. Until we find a GOOD way to measure productivity, Control and "Busyness" (the illusion of productivity) is unfortunately not going to go away.
- Shorn 6y ago"Busyness" I thought to myself: "what if that was the etymology of the word, how ironic". https://www.google.com/search?q=etymology+business https://www.google.com/search?q=etymology+business Oh wow.
- mirimir 6y agoI've always kinda "known" that, in a joking way. And never bothered to actually check. So thanks :)