> If I was an employer and an employee said "I can meet all the deliverables in 20 hours a week", I'd say either: > * great, let's get you working on more d

> If I was an employer and an employee said "I can meet all the deliverables in 20 hours a week", I'd say either: > * great, let's get you working on more deliverables, or > * great, let's give you 50% of your pay I would urge against this. As a manager, what you have to deliver, is output, not work. Your team generates work, and your job is to find the right mix of team that meets that output given the other requirements (which are usually cost, time, or some mix of the two), and remove any blockers your team has towards providing you that output (not the work!) you need to deliver. > I wonder how folks would feel if the situation were reversed. Say you hired an assistant to help you for 10 hours a week and they were meeting all their goals. Yay! Then, after a few months you find out they were charging you for 10 hours but only working 5. I don't know about you, but I'd feel pretty bummed. You feel bummed because you overbid. If you're happy with the output and not the price and can do better, go ahead and shop around, but it's not your employees fault you don't know how much that help is worth. > Some might say "well, just set the goals and the payment and let the assistant decide how much to work". That's called contracting, not employment. Goals change and it is hard to nail them down in a contract (it requires effort from both parties and is inflexible if things change). That's called managing. A pimp that is collecting a stable that they can pimp out to whatever goals they have (or their customers' have), must continuously work very hard to prove to their "employee" that they're actually helping them make more money (even including the vig!). How they "manage" that stable varies wildly, but only the output matters: If you don't bring them anything, they will walk. People who don't know what they're worth often have to work in this kind of environment, but communication speed is increasing, and the successful manager will not be able to rely on the ignorance of their team forever. At some point, the "manager" will have to start thinking about their goals, and decoding them into roles and responsibilities, instead of merely redistributing the goals like chum.