5 ms·

Does 20% realistically come between 80 and 100%, 100 and 120, or 120 and 140%?

na85 13y ago
What does that even mean? edit: Yes, let's downmod the guy who doesn't understand an obtusely-worded question. Well done.
- reikonomusha 13y ago
  He's asking if the 20% time is exclusively: 1. genuinely 20% of one's full-time schedule; 2. 20% beyond one's full-time schedule; or 3. 20% beyond one's over-time schedule.
- mschulkind 13y ago
  It means that for a long time people have called it 120% time because most of the people who still 'used' their 20% time were working 120% the amount of people that didn't use their 20% time. Despite Google not really stack ranking, it's kind of like inflation. If you work 40 hours a week and 20% of the time, you work on your 20% project, you look 20% worse than the average 40 hour a week worker that doesn't use their 20% time.
afhof 13y ago
100 and 120, at least in my brief experience. Coworkers start expecting 100% output from you, which means you are going to get a lesser review for putting out 80%. That they don't let you do 20% in the first 6 months there is what makes it so hard to start it back up.
- nostrademons 13y ago
  This is hackable if you're strategic about it. The trick is to always make sure your coworkers are unblocked. If someone needs a code review, do it before your regular work. If someone's waiting on an e-mail response from you, send it first. If someone needs your CL to be in before they can proceed, make sure you get it in. Then once everybody is unblocked, your time is yours. On a well-functioning team you still need to pick things up on your own initiative (eg. fix bugs, volunteer to take on new features), but in general you can do just enough to show activity, and don't need to worry about always being the best on the team. So that's your chance to do 20% work, or play with other technologies, or investigate other areas of Google. Another tricky bit is making time for professional development and advancement, and the way to do this is to take advantage of the 6 month review cycle. Make sure you can demonstrate tangible accomplishments in the 1-2 months leading up to a review, then spend a couple months assimilating the big picture and learning the skills you need to get known as an expert on the team, and then use your newfound knowledge to improve the effectiveness of the team. What people look for come perf time is "Does this person make my job easier, or harder?" As long as the answer for them is "easier", you'll get good reviews. That doesn't necessarily mean working flat out all the time, it means being mindful of the people around you and what they're hoping to accomplish and then making sure your actions are a help and not a hindrance.
  - mathattack 13y ago
    Great tips. Unblocking folks also applied to taking an afternoon off, or even using the office pool table.
jobu 13y ago
The joke that Google's 20% time is more like 120% time has been around for a long time. There was even a Dilbert strip about it a couple years ago: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-12-19/ http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-12-19/
nostrademons 13y ago
Depends on what you're using it for. For Gumbo I found that it was more like 50-120%, i.e. for a good portion of time I was spending something like 50% of my work time plus nights & weekends on my 20% project. I was lucky to have a supportive manager, where after I showed him what I was hoping to do and some feedback from coworkers that believed it was very necessary, let me spend some of my regular time on it. I have friends that do things like teach Lego Mindstorms to 5th graders though, and that by definition is bounded to 20% of your actual time and won't overfill the workday.

na85 13y ago

What does that even mean? edit: Yes, let's downmod the guy who doesn't understand an obtusely-worded question. Well done.

reikonomusha 13y ago
He's asking if the 20% time is exclusively: 1. genuinely 20% of one's full-time schedule; 2. 20% beyond one's full-time schedule; or 3. 20% beyond one's over-time schedule.
mschulkind 13y ago
It means that for a long time people have called it 120% time because most of the people who still 'used' their 20% time were working 120% the amount of people that didn't use their 20% time. Despite Google not really stack ranking, it's kind of like inflation. If you work 40 hours a week and 20% of the time, you work on your 20% project, you look 20% worse than the average 40 hour a week worker that doesn't use their 20% time.

afhof 13y ago

100 and 120, at least in my brief experience. Coworkers start expecting 100% output from you, which means you are going to get a lesser review for putting out 80%. That they don't let you do 20% in the first 6 months there is what makes it so hard to start it back up.

nostrademons 13y ago
This is hackable if you're strategic about it. The trick is to always make sure your coworkers are unblocked. If someone needs a code review, do it before your regular work. If someone's waiting on an e-mail response from you, send it first. If someone needs your CL to be in before they can proceed, make sure you get it in. Then once everybody is unblocked, your time is yours. On a well-functioning team you still need to pick things up on your own initiative (eg. fix bugs, volunteer to take on new features), but in general you can do just enough to show activity, and don't need to worry about always being the best on the team. So that's your chance to do 20% work, or play with other technologies, or investigate other areas of Google. Another tricky bit is making time for professional development and advancement, and the way to do this is to take advantage of the 6 month review cycle. Make sure you can demonstrate tangible accomplishments in the 1-2 months leading up to a review, then spend a couple months assimilating the big picture and learning the skills you need to get known as an expert on the team, and then use your newfound knowledge to improve the effectiveness of the team. What people look for come perf time is "Does this person make my job easier, or harder?" As long as the answer for them is "easier", you'll get good reviews. That doesn't necessarily mean working flat out all the time, it means being mindful of the people around you and what they're hoping to accomplish and then making sure your actions are a help and not a hindrance.
- mathattack 13y ago
  Great tips. Unblocking folks also applied to taking an afternoon off, or even using the office pool table.

jobu 13y ago

The joke that Google's 20% time is more like 120% time has been around for a long time. There was even a Dilbert strip about it a couple years ago: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-12-19/ http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-12-19/

nostrademons 13y ago

Depends on what you're using it for. For Gumbo I found that it was more like 50-120%, i.e. for a good portion of time I was spending something like 50% of my work time plus nights & weekends on my 20% project. I was lucky to have a supportive manager, where after I showed him what I was hoping to do and some feedback from coworkers that believed it was very necessary, let me spend some of my regular time on it. I have friends that do things like teach Lego Mindstorms to 5th graders though, and that by definition is bounded to 20% of your actual time and won't overfill the workday.