3 ms·

The 'knowledge worker' section would be a lot more convincing if it provided citations.

magicalist 15y ago
there are several links in there citing sources, the second of which is to a paper from the author's relative(? spouse?), which it explicitly notes "contains a wealth of links to studies conducted by businesses, universities, industry associations and the military that supported early-20th-century leaders as they embraced the short week": http://www.igda.org/why-crunch-modes-doesnt-work-six-lessons http://www.igda.org/why-crunch-modes-doesnt-work-six-lessons
- swampthing 15y ago
  Sorry, I meant to write about the 'knowledge worker' section in particular. I've edited to reflect that. The only cite in that section is supposedly to a US military study but actually goes to a findarticles.com page that doesn't directly support the statement being cited and that makes no reference to said study.
einhverfr 15y ago
A larger question would be whether integrative living (i.e. working from home, spending your coffee breaks with your kids) impacts the optimal level of work. I would bet that knowledge workers burn out FASTER from being overworked than manual laborers. Knowledge work, particularly the inductive side, relies on downtime in order to stay productive.
- DanBC 15y ago
  I'm guessing that having a shitty boss affects manual workers about as much as knowledge workers. Production drops; errors increase; sick leave increases; levels of stress are spread to colleagues; etc.
- steve-howard 15y ago
  Overtime and burnout were covered in Peopleware back in 1987. Looks like we're doomed to relearn our lessons again and again...
  - einhverfr 15y ago
    But my experience is that I burn out a lot slower if I am working at home and taking my breaks with my family. So that is a different circumstance not covered in such work.
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carboncrank 15y ago
Totally agree and I'd go further. I struggled to get past the tendentiousness of the sentence: "Yes, this flies in the face of everything modern management thinks it knows about work." Which is obviously just BS on stilts (not to mention an insult to myriad researchers).

there are several links in there citing sources, the second of which is to a paper from the author's relative(? spouse?), which it explicitly notes "contains a wealth of links to studies conducted by businesses, universities, industry associations and the military that supported early-20th-century leaders as they embraced the short week": http://www.igda.org/why-crunch-modes-doesnt-work-six-lessons http://www.igda.org/why-crunch-modes-doesnt-work-six-lessons

swampthing 15y ago
Sorry, I meant to write about the 'knowledge worker' section in particular. I've edited to reflect that. The only cite in that section is supposedly to a US military study but actually goes to a findarticles.com page that doesn't directly support the statement being cited and that makes no reference to said study.

einhverfr 15y ago

A larger question would be whether integrative living (i.e. working from home, spending your coffee breaks with your kids) impacts the optimal level of work. I would bet that knowledge workers burn out FASTER from being overworked than manual laborers. Knowledge work, particularly the inductive side, relies on downtime in order to stay productive.

DanBC 15y ago
I'm guessing that having a shitty boss affects manual workers about as much as knowledge workers. Production drops; errors increase; sick leave increases; levels of stress are spread to colleagues; etc.
steve-howard 15y ago
Overtime and burnout were covered in Peopleware back in 1987. Looks like we're doomed to relearn our lessons again and again...
- einhverfr 15y ago
  But my experience is that I burn out a lot slower if I am working at home and taking my breaks with my family. So that is a different circumstance not covered in such work.

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carboncrank 15y ago

Totally agree and I'd go further. I struggled to get past the tendentiousness of the sentence: "Yes, this flies in the face of everything modern management thinks it knows about work." Which is obviously just BS on stilts (not to mention an insult to myriad researchers).