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Making 20% Time Work

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Re: Making 20% Time Work

#51

Post by darren_ »

mianos wrote: post #35

Googler please chime in, but as far as I read it's been dead for years. http://qz.com/115831/googles-20-time-which-brought-you-gmail...

It's not dead. It's manager dependent, I guess - It's not carte blanche to do whatever you want (was it ever?), so whatever you're doing needs to have, or potentially have, _some_ value to Google, but the bar for that value is pretty low.

It also isn't necessarily just "picking up other team's bugs" (I mean, you can if you want) - just last week my teammate finished up a 20% project to make a new UIView templating/auto-layout system for iOS, for the first example I can think of. This sort of thing is pretty common.

Re: Making 20% Time Work

#52

Post by thrownaway2424 »

mianos wrote: post #35

Googler please chime in, but as far as I read it's been dead for years. http://qz.com/115831/googles-20-time-which-brought-you-gmail...

I've had a number of different managers at Google and I've never had one that ever tried to tell me not to do anything, and even when they wanted me to do something their direction wasn't particularly strong. As far as my experience goes you can do anything you want at Google as long as it appears to have some value.

Re: Making 20% Time Work

#53

Post by Deregibus »

k__ wrote: post #21

I don't get it... They give you 20℅ 'off' to do stuff they need?! Either they want me to solve their problems and plan this with me to do it like normal work, which IT IS or they want me to do my own thing and don't bother me if they can't use this...... Sounds like all this crap loke pingpong, Snacks and billiard tables to me :D

No one ever said "off".

It's 20% of the time you're paid to work on things that aren't necessarily part of your core responsibilities but still have a plausible positive impact to the company, even if it's just goodwill and team building.

It was never claimed to be a 4 day work week.

Re: Making 20% Time Work

#54

Post by codeonfire »

How to make 20% time: Just do it. Don't tell anyone. Tell that asshole trying to control your work to fuck off. When you've got something, tell the right people about it. Watch the other assholes at your job trip over themselves as they trash your work that you already got buy in from from the right people. Publish it. Launch it. Put it on your resume. You'll probably get fired because the assholes will resent that you're not under their control. So what? Make getting fired part of your career progression plan. Start your new, better job, rinse and repeat.

Re: Making 20% Time Work

#55

Post by HappyTypist »

jmspring wrote: post #3

The method seems interesting from the "help people be aware of what's out there and how other people are working" perspective...However, personally, I get lost on one major point in two ways: - Organized 20% time First, for me, twenty percent time is that thing I work on when I'm blocked on something, have an inspiration, or just need a distraction from my major project. Second, I can respect the organizational aspec…

Exactly. I take 20% time to make my 80% time at least 25% more productive, whether that's by tooling, using new approaches or frameworks, or just need a small break.

Re: Making 20% Time Work

#57

Post by bobwaycott »

meric wrote: post #27
k__ wrote: post #21

I don't get it... They give you 20℅ 'off' to do stuff they need?! Either they want me to solve their problems and plan this with me to do it like normal work, which IT IS or they want me to do my own thing and don't bother me if they can't use this...... Sounds like all this crap loke pingpong, Snacks and billiard tables to me :D

Many jobs give you 28% time to do stuff you need. It's called the weekend.

Jobs don't give workers 28% time to do what they need. Workers exchange 72% of their time to jobs for income, and retain that 28% to do as they wish. It's worth noting there's a difference. Said your way, it's as if workers ought to be grateful to their jobs for allowing weekends. And that is fucked.

Either way, it's still fucked that working and living isn't an even 50% split. It should be.

Re: Making 20% Time Work

#59

Post by modarts »

codeonfire wrote: post #54

How to make 20% time: Just do it. Don't tell anyone. Tell that asshole trying to control your work to fuck off. When you've got something, tell the right people about it. Watch the other assholes at your job trip over themselves as they trash your work that you already got buy in from from the right people. Publish it. Launch it. Put it on your resume. You'll probably get fired because the assholes will resent that y…

Id be happy to hire anyone who got fired under these circumstances

Re: Making 20% Time Work

#60

Post by meric »

bobwaycott wrote: post #57
meric wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many jobs give you 28% time to do stuff you need. It's called the weekend.

Jobs don't give workers 28% time to do what they need. Workers exchange 72% of their time to jobs for income, and retain that 28% to do as they wish. It's worth noting there's a difference. Said your way, it's as if workers ought to be grateful to their jobs for allowing weekends. And that is fucked. Either way, it's still fucked that working and living isn't an even 50% split. It should be.

Hours of commuting and working per week: (2 + 8) * 5 = 50.

Hours of living on weekdays per week, exclude sleep: 6 * 5 = 30.

Hours of living on weekends per week, exclude sleep: 32.

Total hours living per week: 62

Total hours working per week: 50

You're right, it's not an even 50% split.

There's 6 hours of free time a day, plus 32 hours on the weekend.

Three nights a week I watch a movie or a couple of episodes on netflix (90 minutes), I play an hour or two of games (90 minutes), I write code for another hour or two (90 minutes), and the rest of the time is spent eating dinner.

Two nights a week, I forgo gaming and netflix to hangout with family and friends. I still manage to code. It may be on the train, but I do it.

And there's the weekend.

You know what? I have a good life, and fucked or not, I am grateful for it.

If a company is paying you for your time, what do you expect to be doing, if not to do what the company wants you to do?

If you want to not do what others want you to do, and still receive a regular pay check, that's called taking on welfare.

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