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The surprising reason we have a 40-hour work week

7 points by juanrossi 13y ago

adamio 13y ago
Anecdote: In a 40hr/week corporate job I was evaluated on time at desk. My managers would tell me I needed to be at my desk more, because upper managers would walk around and check on who was at their desk. These upper managers had come from operations, and had managed production environments their entire careers, and would primarily judge performance on time spent at work. I was hardly ever asked by the upper managers on what I was working on, I wasn't; I just had to be at the desk. Later these managers were given flex time, no set hours. Everyone actually worked longer without set hours. Japanese company.
- caprad 13y ago
  This was a sign that they didn't know how to measure what you were doing, or possibly didn't even understand what you were doing. The best job I had, the manage was a technical guy, every week we would have a meeting to discuss what needed to be done, what we were going to do. And as long as the projects got done, he didn't care if he saw you at all the rest of the week. He could measure your progress by looking at the project, or by talking to you. One of the frustrating aspects of working for a big American company was that they had this policy of moving department heads around, so they all got experience in working and understand all the aspects of the company. No doubt this was great for the managers, but the idea that the head of IT could just as easily work as the head of marketing is ridiculous.
yetanotherphd 13y ago
I'm always suspicious of "We do X because..." stories. Just because the world is complex, and almost nothing happens for one specific reason. I just can't believe that something so natural and obvious (everyone going to work/leaving at a fixed time) can be attributed to a single CEO and his misguided economic theories. He might have provided a nudge in that direction, but I don't believe it was an important factor. And yes, I am too lazy to check.

7 points by juanrossi 13y ago

Anecdote: In a 40hr/week corporate job I was evaluated on time at desk. My managers would tell me I needed to be at my desk more, because upper managers would walk around and check on who was at their desk. These upper managers had come from operations, and had managed production environments their entire careers, and would primarily judge performance on time spent at work. I was hardly ever asked by the upper managers on what I was working on, I wasn't; I just had to be at the desk. Later these managers were given flex time, no set hours. Everyone actually worked longer without set hours. Japanese company.

caprad 13y ago
This was a sign that they didn't know how to measure what you were doing, or possibly didn't even understand what you were doing. The best job I had, the manage was a technical guy, every week we would have a meeting to discuss what needed to be done, what we were going to do. And as long as the projects got done, he didn't care if he saw you at all the rest of the week. He could measure your progress by looking at the project, or by talking to you. One of the frustrating aspects of working for a big American company was that they had this policy of moving department heads around, so they all got experience in working and understand all the aspects of the company. No doubt this was great for the managers, but the idea that the head of IT could just as easily work as the head of marketing is ridiculous.

yetanotherphd 13y ago

I'm always suspicious of "We do X because..." stories. Just because the world is complex, and almost nothing happens for one specific reason. I just can't believe that something so natural and obvious (everyone going to work/leaving at a fixed time) can be attributed to a single CEO and his misguided economic theories. He might have provided a nudge in that direction, but I don't believe it was an important factor. And yes, I am too lazy to check.