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Can't that kind of "work" be done just as well while doing yardwork or cooking or similar things? I don't see a strong reason to confine employees for 40 hours

by Zarel 12y ago

Can't that kind of "work" be done just as well while doing yardwork or cooking or similar things? I don't see a strong reason to confine employees for 40 hours a week for that.

thaumasiotes 12y ago
This relates to a personal pet issue of mine -- schools like to run surveys asking how much time you spend on homework. But, as far as I can see, the question is ill-posed. Take a non-hypothetical example: I'm given a math assignment, with the problem "prove (something complicated)". I look over the assignment, think for a few seconds about the problem, think "nah, that won't work", fail to come up with a different approach, and file it away somewhere in favor of surfing the net and watching my roommates play old console RPGs. Days later, a new approach occurs to me and I come back to the assignment. This time I'm able to prove (something complicated). Writing out the proof takes 20 minutes. How long did I spend on that question? I wasn't able to do the work immediately, so "21 minutes" can't be right. But I probably didn't actually need to spend several days having it in the back of my mind either. Maybe if I'd been confined in a little room with just me and the assignment I would have had it done in two hours, or five (really frustrating) hours. There's just no way to measure how long I spent "working". My quality of life goes up if I take the approach of "don't sit down to work until the solution serendipitously occurs to you", but, in an analogous situation, my boss might be a lot happier confining me in a room to sit "unproductively" for 5 hours and write ("productively") for 20 minutes.
toadi 12y ago
it's physical work vs knowledge work. When I'm trying to solve a problem for work I sometimes find a solution while doing yard work. I've been thinking about it at work for 8 hours no solution. But doing some mindless activity I found a solution. With knowledge work we should think about the value you deliver not at amount of hours you put in.

by Zarel 12y ago

Can't that kind of "work" be done just as well while doing yardwork or cooking or similar things? I don't see a strong reason to confine employees for 40 hours a week for that.

thaumasiotes 12y ago

This relates to a personal pet issue of mine -- schools like to run surveys asking how much time you spend on homework. But, as far as I can see, the question is ill-posed. Take a non-hypothetical example: I'm given a math assignment, with the problem "prove (something complicated)". I look over the assignment, think for a few seconds about the problem, think "nah, that won't work", fail to come up with a different approach, and file it away somewhere in favor of surfing the net and watching my roommates play old console RPGs. Days later, a new approach occurs to me and I come back to the assignment. This time I'm able to prove (something complicated). Writing out the proof takes 20 minutes. How long did I spend on that question? I wasn't able to do the work immediately, so "21 minutes" can't be right. But I probably didn't actually need to spend several days having it in the back of my mind either. Maybe if I'd been confined in a little room with just me and the assignment I would have had it done in two hours, or five (really frustrating) hours. There's just no way to measure how long I spent "working". My quality of life goes up if I take the approach of "don't sit down to work until the solution serendipitously occurs to you", but, in an analogous situation, my boss might be a lot happier confining me in a room to sit "unproductively" for 5 hours and write ("productively") for 20 minutes.

toadi 12y ago

it's physical work vs knowledge work. When I'm trying to solve a problem for work I sometimes find a solution while doing yard work. I've been thinking about it at work for 8 hours no solution. But doing some mindless activity I found a solution. With knowledge work we should think about the value you deliver not at amount of hours you put in.