If someone's backlog goes to zero, their manager can't find more work that needs to be done, and there is no reason that person needs to be available during cor

If someone's backlog goes to zero, their manager can't find more work that needs to be done, and there is no reason that person needs to be available during core working hours, requiring them to sit in the office and kill time is ridiculous. The catch is that for most of us, those conditions are almost never met. When was the last time had a job where the entire backlog of work was cleared out and there were no tasks you could be helping with? Usually if that happens more than a few times, the team is on their way to being reassigned or even laid off. The 40-hour workweek target is best viewed as a feedback loop. If everyone is consistently working more than 40 hours per week, something is wrong. Team size needs to be increased, schedules need to be pushed out, scope needs to be reduced, inefficiencies (meetings!) need to be pulled out of the way. Something has to give. Likewise, if someone is consistently running out of work early, the schedule needs to be brought in, the person should help take pressure off of some other tasks, blockers need to be removed, and so on. The challenge as a manager is that estimation and work-assignment are a two-way process. I work with team members to assign backlog tasks. If someone is consistently taking 20 hours of work for themselves and pretending its a full work week, someone else has to pick up the remaining work.