5 ms·

Thank you very much for this, I think it strikes a major chord with many in the "knowledge worker" community at large, and I hope it stays in the top spot for a

by cjauvin 12y ago

Thank you very much for this, I think it strikes a major chord with many in the "knowledge worker" community at large, and I hope it stays in the top spot for a while, and spawn a healthy discussion. For my part I've been doing a mix of freelance and salaried work in the last few years (as a data scientist), and I have reached the conclusion that a strict 40-hour week is not an easy thing to handle. I think it stems from the fact that the "knowledge worker"/hacker ethos is often deeply rooted in a self-driven and motivated agenda of learning and experimenting with new things on a constant basis, very often just for the sake of it. This can easily conflict with a regular work schedule in terms of number of hours and commitment. But the point is that it really shouldn't, because very often, those two "modes" nourish each other, which can result in a stronger, more robust and ultimately more meaningful and happier work like. I've been trying to convince my current boss that a 3-day week would be a more efficient and compressed use of my time, while giving me more time to pursue other contracts and projects. But it seems that there are some cultural barriers that makes it a difficult message to pass. I actually intend to use that thread to show that I'm not the only one in that situation, that such a culture really exists, and thus that it must be taken into account somehow. It might be somewhat cliché, but I really believe that this mentality is a glimpse of the future in terms of work ethics.

mistercheese 12y ago
How did you find your mix of freelance work initially? Do you go through agencies? If so, how did you find the best agencies starting out?
VLM 12y ago
"I've been trying to convince my current boss that a 3-day week would be a more efficient and compressed use of my time" I do four tens per week on flextime to avoid commute traffic and one major "cultural impedance mismatch" is discussing this face to face with people who are at their workplace (note that I don't describe that as working, merely being at a certain location), perhaps five twelves or even six fourteens per week on salary. Its possible to be polite on the internet, but face to face they tend not to take it very well.
- taf2 12y ago
  Sorry but this all sounds lazy to me. If there are any real customers using the software they are going be rather unforgiving of your desired work ethic. Perhaps in a large org with a staggering of staff this could work... But would be challenging to keep the continuity throughout the work week. Certainly an interesting idea for the larger orgs.
  - coldtea 12y ago
    >If there are any real customers using the software they are going be rather unforgiving of your desired work ethic. So? "Real customers" could also want him to work 24/7/365, and to respond immediately to their every demand and whimsy.
  - spacemanmatt 12y ago
    Perhaps his real customers are internal, and his continued employment proves they are satisfied.
    - VLM 12y ago
      The above, and I'm on call 24x7x365 although I only get a call about once a month. Also both the company and I have a motto of fail gracefully. So the automated testing system and the ticketing system decide they're not on speaking terms anymore, well, we could all set our hair on fire and run around and scream, or just buckle down and do it manually, 5x as slow and much more error prone than my integration system. They expect me to fix anything 24x7 or have an excellent excuse (most recent excuse was my kid is in surgery so I'll go home and log in later) but they only expect me to invent or create new stuff in a much more restricted set of working hours (And the end users have absolutely no idea what those hours are...). Actually they're pretty pissed off at me if I make any production changes outside of certain work hours, unless I have an excellent excuse, so in the ebb and flow of work sometimes I have to read HN until I get the mgmt thumbs up if there's nothing else on my plate. Enlightened self interest provides a strong motivation to automate the hell out of all error recovery and have backups to the backups. My systems for error recovery and resumption of production are much more complicated than the actual production itself, most of which is fairly simple although on a very large scale. I literally can't remember the last time I was woken up at 2am, although it could very well happen tonight... (Oh and edited to add, I don't work in Ops. A drive fails in the NAS, a vmware server needs rebooting, they take care of it, that type of thing. The problems I get involved in after hours are higher level than ops, like somebody thought it would be funny to upgrade the software on a testing machine removing my access, or they changed firewall rules without telling anyone, that kind of thing, big fun)

by cjauvin 12y ago

mistercheese 12y ago

How did you find your mix of freelance work initially? Do you go through agencies? If so, how did you find the best agencies starting out?

VLM 12y ago

"I've been trying to convince my current boss that a 3-day week would be a more efficient and compressed use of my time" I do four tens per week on flextime to avoid commute traffic and one major "cultural impedance mismatch" is discussing this face to face with people who are at their workplace (note that I don't describe that as working, merely being at a certain location), perhaps five twelves or even six fourteens per week on salary. Its possible to be polite on the internet, but face to face they tend not to take it very well.

taf2 12y ago
Sorry but this all sounds lazy to me. If there are any real customers using the software they are going be rather unforgiving of your desired work ethic. Perhaps in a large org with a staggering of staff this could work... But would be challenging to keep the continuity throughout the work week. Certainly an interesting idea for the larger orgs.
- coldtea 12y ago
  >If there are any real customers using the software they are going be rather unforgiving of your desired work ethic. So? "Real customers" could also want him to work 24/7/365, and to respond immediately to their every demand and whimsy.
- spacemanmatt 12y ago
  Perhaps his real customers are internal, and his continued employment proves they are satisfied.
  - VLM 12y ago
    The above, and I'm on call 24x7x365 although I only get a call about once a month. Also both the company and I have a motto of fail gracefully. So the automated testing system and the ticketing system decide they're not on speaking terms anymore, well, we could all set our hair on fire and run around and scream, or just buckle down and do it manually, 5x as slow and much more error prone than my integration system. They expect me to fix anything 24x7 or have an excellent excuse (most recent excuse was my kid is in surgery so I'll go home and log in later) but they only expect me to invent or create new stuff in a much more restricted set of working hours (And the end users have absolutely no idea what those hours are...). Actually they're pretty pissed off at me if I make any production changes outside of certain work hours, unless I have an excellent excuse, so in the ebb and flow of work sometimes I have to read HN until I get the mgmt thumbs up if there's nothing else on my plate. Enlightened self interest provides a strong motivation to automate the hell out of all error recovery and have backups to the backups. My systems for error recovery and resumption of production are much more complicated than the actual production itself, most of which is fairly simple although on a very large scale. I literally can't remember the last time I was woken up at 2am, although it could very well happen tonight... (Oh and edited to add, I don't work in Ops. A drive fails in the NAS, a vmware server needs rebooting, they take care of it, that type of thing. The problems I get involved in after hours are higher level than ops, like somebody thought it would be funny to upgrade the software on a testing machine removing my access, or they changed firewall rules without telling anyone, that kind of thing, big fun)