61–70 of 140 posts
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Just curious, in which country is 36hours/week standard? Or is it just your company?
I think most of Europe has a 37 hour/week work schedule, and because "we're better" we have 36 hour/week. At least some of mainland Europe: Germany, France, Scandinavia, and IIRC the UK.
Europe is not a single country but every EU nations has different labor laws and working hour contracts.
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I sometimes wonder where the hell most HNers work where 9am is not considered late start. At a warehouse I worked at the shift was 6am to 2pm. And it was great that way as you avoided most of the summer heat. The software company where I work now, 8am is standard, that way you're nicely done at 4pm and have the entire evening to yourself. My wife is also a programmer and usually starts at 7:30am because that's their…
I don't think I've ever worked on a development team where you could book a meeting before 10:30am and expect the team to be there. I've always liked an early start for an early finish, I was one of the very few working early though in most places.
My second software job was with a company that was just as old but much more modern (not startup-ish). the boss required the team to be in before 9am, daily team meeting was at 9.
My job now has flextime with core hours between either 10-3 or 10-2 (can't recall which) but very few people arrive after 9am. All other jobs I've worked have flextime with similar core hours, there was only one job that had a true "no rules" approach.
Being on call, this is more working actively and being attentive throughout almost all night!
Yes - the post describes shift work. Oncall is where you go in, then go home, then go in, then go home, but as you touch your back door, you are called back. You say something regrettable to the caller and then apologise. You’re so tired your almost crying and can’t get your laces done up. You drive in, can’t recall the drive and the you are due back for your day shift in 2 hours.
In a 24/7/365 cargo operation for a hundred years the port chemists were on call to open their lab after hours and on weekends & holidays each time our ships came in, to operate the office no differently than when you get a vessel during the regular workday. But during regular office hours you definitely need to be there too. These ships are big and they don't always come in every day or on time very often. You get an ETA but very few things can make a vessel get there early, and many different things can delay a vessel, either case being unpredictable. For these call-outs excessive after-hours fees would be added to the nominal invoice, and good incentive pay would trickle down the food chain.
Statistically since there are only 45 office-hours in a 168-hour week, most of the vessels had always incurred call-outs.
After being in my own private practice for a while one day there was a little flood and lost everything I had worked for for 20 years.
I could recover better financially with a business than a home, and I couldn't keep both so I gave up domestic life and started staying in the lab.
Sure I was "homeless" but I had a roof over my head and I worked with what I had remaining, to survive attending to the vessels where I still had capability.
Since I was always there, I made a deal with a small contractor to get right to work whenever they needed it, charging only decent basic fees per vessel regardless of after-hours. They were expected to benefit by not passing on this arrangement to the ultimate clients who would still be charged after-hours premiums, which was most of the time.
It made survival possible and he was only revealing to clients that things were now covered 24/7 without having to wait for people to be called in. Within a few weeks all of the much bigger international operators in our ports had changed over to full 24 hr shift coverage along these lines just to compete with little old me, the homeless CEO.
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It's like that quote about how the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent - the organization can stay dysfunctional longer than you can stay sane. For any truly big system, inertia is a more powerful force than you think. The isn't a strategic or tactical purpose that makes this kind of situation an intentional or desired outcome. Any sufficiently large organization, and this especially holds tru…
If you're looking for logic then you don't understand how these organizations work The logic is that everyone must be replaceable on a moments notice because they might be shot and someone else will need to pick up that job. Having roles that you need to be intimately familiar with in order to be effective is the exact opposite of what the military needs. If a job can be done by someone with minimal training while de…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes - the post describes shift work. Oncall is where you go in, then go home, then go in, then go home, but as you touch your back door, you are called back. You say something regrettable to the caller and then apologise. You’re so tired your almost crying and can’t get your laces done up. You drive in, can’t recall the drive and the you are due back for your day shift in 2 hours.
I know what you mean, how small do they make violins anyway? In a 24/7/365 cargo operation for a hundred years the port chemists were on call to open their lab after hours and on weekends & holidays each time our ships came in, to operate the office no differently than when you get a vessel during the regular workday. But during regular office hours you definitely need to be there too. These ships are big and they do…
How is it going now? Are you still in this business?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I sometimes wonder where the hell most HNers work where 9am is not considered late start. At a warehouse I worked at the shift was 6am to 2pm. And it was great that way as you avoided most of the summer heat. The software company where I work now, 8am is standard, that way you're nicely done at 4pm and have the entire evening to yourself. My wife is also a programmer and usually starts at 7:30am because that's their…
In the UK I'm 9am to 5pm, however my contract allows for unpaid overtime. Usually management are pretty good with this though, and give some unofficial time off in lieu if I have to work OT.
Unless i was in serious financial trouble, or in a learning situation, i would never accept a contract that "allows for unpaid overtime".
Most of the companies i know don't allow for "paid free time", so why should i give away my time for free to increase profits for the company ?
The exception to this is of course "job salary", but i never accept those either unless i have a say in what exactly makes up the "job" part, and i usually tell the employer that "job salary" goes both ways, so if i'm done with my job Wednesday afternoon, i'll say "enjoy your weekend" and be back next monday. That's when we usually agree on paid overtime :)
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Imo, whether being soldier is noble depends very very much on which army you are in and what are current goals and conduct of said army.
One could argue the qualities of a soldier or officer (individuals) transcend their organisational context (groups) and time. In other words: politics, technology or best practices change, not the responsabilities. The ability (necessity, even) to adapt to that fact defines a fit-for-service soldier/officer. So, I contend you find remarkable soldiers even in terrible groups, and that they (individuals) should not be…
So, we should praise ISIS fighters? I am intentionally picking up example of extreme, but very real organization. Same question can be asked about SS members. They knew what they joined. Does them doing good job in that organization is really praise worthy?
The better quality their service was, the more victims they have.
I'm commited to the company I work at any given time, from 9am to 5pm. That's all the time a company can get from me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's like that quote about how the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent - the organization can stay dysfunctional longer than you can stay sane. For any truly big system, inertia is a more powerful force than you think. The isn't a strategic or tactical purpose that makes this kind of situation an intentional or desired outcome. Any sufficiently large organization, and this especially holds tru…
If you're looking for logic then you don't understand how these organizations work The logic is that everyone must be replaceable on a moments notice because they might be shot and someone else will need to pick up that job. Having roles that you need to be intimately familiar with in order to be effective is the exact opposite of what the military needs. If a job can be done by someone with minimal training while de…
Exceptional workers in key (non-management) positions will take whatever they've learned with them, never to return. That leads to failed excavation projects looking for the original reasoning and business logic. Then, things need to be recreated from scratch because there is no alternative besides hiring the former worker as an expensive consultant. All because people failed to plan ahead and guarantee actual continuity, focusing exclusively on the small subset of elementary tasks. In the end, the work becomes more disorganised and product/service quality suffers because of gaps in domain knowledge, context and competence.
That myth might be relatively harmless in the primary and secondary sectors to a large degree, but is actively harmful in the tertiary, quaternary and quinary sectors. If you factor in that most of the work - both in terms of quality and volume - is done by a small minority of employees, the prevailing management dogma is costing companies lots of money to entertain the notion that worker retention is a secondary consideration. It's especially myopic because it usually doesn't take a whole lot to keep people happy in their jobs, leveraged as they are by their own obligations.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think I've ever worked on a development team where you could book a meeting before 10:30am and expect the team to be there. I've always liked an early start for an early finish, I was one of the very few working early though in most places.
Back in ancient times, my first software job was with an crusty old fashioned company. We were required to be in before 8am, many people arrived as early as 6am. Dress code was also very strict (but more lenient than it was historically) My second software job was with a company that was just as old but much more modern (not startup-ish). the boss required the team to be in before 9am, daily team meeting was at 9. My…