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Not only creative work, but manual work too. It's been over 100 years that Frederick Taylor showed regular breaks reduces fatigue and increases productivity. [1

Not only creative work, but manual work too. It's been over 100 years that Frederick Taylor showed regular breaks reduces fatigue and increases productivity. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management

williamcotton 3y ago
Taylor would, correctly, have knowledge workers filling out very detailed timesheets of their daily activities in order to optimize overall efficiency. Sure, let's factor in breaks, but let's also factor time spent in meetings, emails, interviewing candidates, maintenance work, capitalization work, training new hires, R&D, etc, etc. Only then can we understand the true costs of this kind of labor. Taylor had factories where it was easy to inspect and measure. If you want the kind of scientific management that shows a measurable increase in how long and how many breaks that a knowledge working should take, then you need detailed data on their baseline productivity.
- shermantanktop 3y ago
  Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:— We murder to dissect. Ok, with high school poetry class over…this “scientific management” approach seems to hold a particular appeal to technical types, who also say it could never apply to them. So bravo for volunteering your own working life to the altar of manageable metrics, but for me, I’d rather not.
  - williamcotton 3y ago
    As margins slim in our industry, which they will, would you rather have management understand the true costs of things or would you rather have over-hiring followed by mass firing? I already fill out hourly timesheets as I work in legal services and we bill clients by the half hour, albeit just for external purposes. This isn’t just Taylorism. I’m also describing Activity-Based Costing, a key component in managerial accounting for high complexity services and products with lots of fixed costs. Most non-VC backed companies engage in such practices. This if course needs to: 1.) come from the top down. The CEO should be doing the same thing, and 2.) have an incentive structure tied directly to profits and “public” reporting. Buy-in from the entire organization is required and everyone must be motivated to keep costs under control. Look at the efficiency of software developers for Formula 1 teams. Any additional costs in that division impacts time spent in the wind chamber, etc, because there is a cap if $190 million per team. They are motivated to win and their costs are constrained by the format. Motivation for organizational cost analysis must be shared amongst all employees.
    - shermantanktop 3y ago
      That’s very industry-dependent. I worked in a tech company that acquired a creative production company, and the tech leadership attempted to impose a metrics-based approach to what was a traditional creative process. That process had obvious signs of waste, including a high failure rate, excess travel expenses, etc., when compared to averages. The result of this approach, centered on metrics, ranking, making lists and using “objective data”? They almost killed the golden goose. The successes dropped off and the averages declined. The tech side finally had to back off, and those people are back to acting like they always did.
      - williamcotton 3y ago
        I’m talking about simple costs! Putting dollar values on activities, not weird Git rankings, OKRs, etc.

williamcotton 3y ago

Taylor would, correctly, have knowledge workers filling out very detailed timesheets of their daily activities in order to optimize overall efficiency. Sure, let's factor in breaks, but let's also factor time spent in meetings, emails, interviewing candidates, maintenance work, capitalization work, training new hires, R&D, etc, etc. Only then can we understand the true costs of this kind of labor. Taylor had factories where it was easy to inspect and measure. If you want the kind of scientific management that shows a measurable increase in how long and how many breaks that a knowledge working should take, then you need detailed data on their baseline productivity.

shermantanktop 3y ago
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:— We murder to dissect. Ok, with high school poetry class over…this “scientific management” approach seems to hold a particular appeal to technical types, who also say it could never apply to them. So bravo for volunteering your own working life to the altar of manageable metrics, but for me, I’d rather not.
- williamcotton 3y ago
  As margins slim in our industry, which they will, would you rather have management understand the true costs of things or would you rather have over-hiring followed by mass firing? I already fill out hourly timesheets as I work in legal services and we bill clients by the half hour, albeit just for external purposes. This isn’t just Taylorism. I’m also describing Activity-Based Costing, a key component in managerial accounting for high complexity services and products with lots of fixed costs. Most non-VC backed companies engage in such practices. This if course needs to: 1.) come from the top down. The CEO should be doing the same thing, and 2.) have an incentive structure tied directly to profits and “public” reporting. Buy-in from the entire organization is required and everyone must be motivated to keep costs under control. Look at the efficiency of software developers for Formula 1 teams. Any additional costs in that division impacts time spent in the wind chamber, etc, because there is a cap if $190 million per team. They are motivated to win and their costs are constrained by the format. Motivation for organizational cost analysis must be shared amongst all employees.
  - shermantanktop 3y ago
    That’s very industry-dependent. I worked in a tech company that acquired a creative production company, and the tech leadership attempted to impose a metrics-based approach to what was a traditional creative process. That process had obvious signs of waste, including a high failure rate, excess travel expenses, etc., when compared to averages. The result of this approach, centered on metrics, ranking, making lists and using “objective data”? They almost killed the golden goose. The successes dropped off and the averages declined. The tech side finally had to back off, and those people are back to acting like they always did.
    - williamcotton 3y ago
      I’m talking about simple costs! Putting dollar values on activities, not weird Git rankings, OKRs, etc.