5 ms·

The problem is that salaried work is still coupled with time requirements rather than goal requirements. If you meet your goals early and announce that, you jus

The problem is that salaried work is still coupled with time requirements rather than goal requirements. If you meet your goals early and announce that, you just get more work. Pretending to work covers the difference between expectations of time worked and expectations of goals met. As long as you meet your goals, I don't think most employers care about the fake work. Trying to work knowledge employees as if they are on an assembly line clocking in and out won't work and most employers know this. The only improvement to this situation is if employers let you not show up after completing your goals, within some unit of time like a two week sprint.

lumost 5y ago
I think a 4 day work week could be a good approach to this. I sometimes work weekends when we're behind, I could see an employer introducing a 4-day work week as an incentive for good planning.
- black_13 5y ago
allenu 5y ago
> If you meet your goals early and announce that, you just get more work. Not only that, the larger the company you work for, the more likely the more people will be involved in your project. That leads to all sorts of inefficiencies. If you finish early, you may still need to wait on someone else before your next task. So the work you pick up will often just be busywork anyway, since you can’t do the important work until you’re unblocked. The incentives for working harder or faster are so decoupled from actual results in a large company (i.e. we shipped something and made X more dollars which means Y more dollars for me) that gaming the system and “performing” is the only real meaning you can derive from your actions.
- switch007 5y ago
  > Not only that, the larger the company you work for, the more likely the more people will be involved in your project. I was very unprepared for this when I worked for my first large company. The first three months of a project was figuring out who was who, the politics and making connections.
titanomachy 5y ago
In my experience, it seems like people do whatever they want. Block off an afternoon for appointments, to drive their kids somewhere, or just “heads-down” time where they’re not responding to chat. As long as people have some kind of work to show each performance cycle, and they don’t disappear for extended periods without warning, nobody seems to mind. A 4-day work week would formalize this and reduce the stress, though. Some companies allow it: for example, I know google engineers who work 80% time (with a corresponding pay cut). 80% of Google pay is still plenty for most people.
ericalexander0 5y ago
Reminds me of the book No Rules Rules and Hastings unorthodox view on busy work. Hastings rejects a managers proposal for a promotion because an employee "works really hard". Hastings then clarifies that it's about impact, customer value, not busy work and how much of it you did.

lumost 5y ago

I think a 4 day work week could be a good approach to this. I sometimes work weekends when we're behind, I could see an employer introducing a 4-day work week as an incentive for good planning.

black_13 5y ago

allenu 5y ago

> If you meet your goals early and announce that, you just get more work. Not only that, the larger the company you work for, the more likely the more people will be involved in your project. That leads to all sorts of inefficiencies. If you finish early, you may still need to wait on someone else before your next task. So the work you pick up will often just be busywork anyway, since you can’t do the important work until you’re unblocked. The incentives for working harder or faster are so decoupled from actual results in a large company (i.e. we shipped something and made X more dollars which means Y more dollars for me) that gaming the system and “performing” is the only real meaning you can derive from your actions.

switch007 5y ago
> Not only that, the larger the company you work for, the more likely the more people will be involved in your project. I was very unprepared for this when I worked for my first large company. The first three months of a project was figuring out who was who, the politics and making connections.

titanomachy 5y ago

In my experience, it seems like people do whatever they want. Block off an afternoon for appointments, to drive their kids somewhere, or just “heads-down” time where they’re not responding to chat. As long as people have some kind of work to show each performance cycle, and they don’t disappear for extended periods without warning, nobody seems to mind. A 4-day work week would formalize this and reduce the stress, though. Some companies allow it: for example, I know google engineers who work 80% time (with a corresponding pay cut). 80% of Google pay is still plenty for most people.

ericalexander0 5y ago

Reminds me of the book No Rules Rules and Hastings unorthodox view on busy work. Hastings rejects a managers proposal for a promotion because an employee "works really hard". Hastings then clarifies that it's about impact, customer value, not busy work and how much of it you did.