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Why do people waste so much time at work?

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#131

Post by pinaceae »

because I pay you for 40h of productivity per week, not a fixed amount of output? for the latter, consulting/freelance exists.

if you get paid for 40h per week, the expectation is to devote those hours to the benefit of the employer. do your tasks, if you have time to spare, think of other benefits - improvements, better ideas, learn, etc.

people that finish a task and then wait to be given another are the bane of the workplace. you never hire them at startups, but at some size they creep in and kill, kill, kill any company. walk into HP, Oracle, IBM today and you'll see them, in droves. that is why you can lay off 30% workforce at that size with no sizeable impact on your customers.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#132

Post by caseysoftware »

I think this involves setting some clear boundaries and expectations. I learned some things while I was consulting that I've carried into everything since:

- After a certain time each evening (7pm for me), stop sending email. You can still write and respond to it but schedule it to go out the next morning. If people see you respond at 2am, they'll begin to expect it.

- Do the same for weekends. Schedule email for Monday morning. If people see you respond on Saturdays, they'll begin to expect it.

- Only check email every N hours. I've found N=3 or 4 is best. This is the hardest for me. If you respond to every email in minutes, they'll begin to expect it.

- If you're not explicitly on the To line, filter it from your inbox. I have an "other stuff" folder where email goes if I'm not explicitly on the To line. I check this folder 1-2 times/day at most. If something is important to me, address it to me.

- Have a fixed todo list each day. If someone brings you a task, put it at the end of today so it often ends up tomorrow and communicate that. (Obviously, if something is really important, you can shift the order but that should be an exception, not the practice.) If you drop everything every time someone asks, they'll begin to expect it.

- Leave the office at a predictable time each day. I try to leave by 6pm. If you occasionally stay late, they'll begin to expect it.

- Don't answer your phone the first time someone calls. I always wait until their second call or if they email/text/dm too. If you're always-accessible, they'll begin to expect it.

- Don't take your phone into the bedroom at night. I leave mine charging on my desk at the other side of the house. If you answer your phone in the middle of the night, they'll begin to expect it.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#133

Post by talmand »

falcolas wrote: post #106
300bps wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those who believe they own an entirely imaginary thing called "money" The fact that someone can write this is laughable to anyone that was ever poor in their life. Money is not at all imaginary. It's quite real. The lack of money can ruin your day, your year, your life. As for what money is - it is a productivity storage mechanism. Once you've been productive it allows you to store that productivity in a fungible for…

> Once you've been productive it allows you to store that productivity in a fungible form. What is a trust fund then? Were the folks on the receiving end of trust funds productive? How about high frequency trading? Is the money made from computers intercepting and manipulating trade prices the result of someone's productivity? Money has been divorced from productivity for quite some time.

Where did the funds in the trust come from? Was that being productive? Just because the person receiving the funds is not being productive doesn't mean the person who provided the funds in the first place wasn't productive.

As for high frequency trading, you may disagree with the means of production but that doesn't suddenly mean it isn't productive. Becoming efficient doesn't reduce productivity.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#134

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

Anderkent wrote: post #66
niklasni1 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laziness is just another word for having your priorities in order.

I know you're probably saying it tongue-in-cheek, but not really. I'm a fairly lazy person; it bothers me to no end. I wish I could do more work more reliably, but I can't (yet! growth mindset). A degree of laziness might look like having your priorities in order, but they're not really the same thing

For software developers, being lazy is a good trait. Say you knock out all the work you needed to do in a day in 6 hours and then fill the other 2 hours with fixing bugs or other low level tasks to fight the "I don't want to be lazy" urge.

Chances are those bugs or low level tasks are truly unimportant and not a priority for the business, right? If they were, then one of your team mates would have been working them as a priority.

You probably can't start tomorrows work since you are waiting on a team mate to finish their work for the day. If you try to help them out it will slow them down.

This is probably only for knowledge workers. If you are doing manual labor like building a shed for bicycles, you should be able to help out and do other tasks.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#135

Post by kamaal »

juliangregorian wrote: post #108
300bps wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those who believe they own an entirely imaginary thing called "money" The fact that someone can write this is laughable to anyone that was ever poor in their life. Money is not at all imaginary. It's quite real. The lack of money can ruin your day, your year, your life. As for what money is - it is a productivity storage mechanism. Once you've been productive it allows you to store that productivity in a fungible for…

The fact that anyone was ever poor should be an affront to anyone who believes that money is real. People of your ilk are fond of resorting to the old canard "everyone needs a roof over their head and food in their belly". Well, there quite simply is an astounding surplus of such. Those who really believe that the lottery system we currently use of assigning who gets what is truly effective and just will have to answ…

Money is a medium to exchange effort/productivity and hence wealth. It is important because no one gives away their work for free. That is not because we are good/bad, that is because that is how we are by evolution. Our ancestors never climbed a tree unless there was a fruit to pluck or ran unless there was a deer to hunt. And given the effort involved in this, it made zero sense to share things for free.

We only have an organized form of that currently. Where you could do a lot of it and store it, and spend it later. Or opt to not earn it at all. Whatever the choice you must learn to live with it.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#136

Post by kamaal »

ramblerman wrote: post #102
300bps wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those who believe they own an entirely imaginary thing called "money" The fact that someone can write this is laughable to anyone that was ever poor in their life. Money is not at all imaginary. It's quite real. The lack of money can ruin your day, your year, your life. As for what money is - it is a productivity storage mechanism. Once you've been productive it allows you to store that productivity in a fungible for…

which hits the key point in Fuller's argument. In modern times thanks to scientific breakthroughs and the like, some people can be 100,000 times more productive than others with 1 invention. Should they then possess 100,000 times the share?

Yes, they should possess 100,000 the share or lets call that X for now.

They deserve X because of the productivity impact that cascades to the remainder of humanity.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#137

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

davidgerard wrote: post #122
Anderkent wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People creating a vibe in pubs doesn't feel like a bullshit job. They're providing a service to other pub goers, making it a more pleasant place. You can't ignore pleasure and satisfaction of other people when considering a job is useful or not. In the end, those are the goals of anything we do; that the job does it directly rather than indirectly (by say improving industry, which makes life easier, which means peopl…

I would disagree. Emotional labour is the essence of many a completely bullshit job.

The pub should A/B test having the person there, and not there, and look at the bar sales. That would determine if it is bullshit or not.

If the person creates a vibe that gets more people there, e.g. patrons texting friends to stop in, or increased bar sales by people staying longer then it might be worth it.

Of course if the bar hired bartenders that created an atmosphere of fun whilst doing their jobs then that would be even more profitable.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#138

Post by noonespecial »

sillygoose wrote: post #62
noonespecial wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, we should all be able to get whatever we need because for the first time in history, we can . If individuals would like to pursue even more (ie the things they want ), they should be free to do so, so long as those wants don't occlude the afore stated needs of others. The interesting thing is that we (humanity) could now actually do this if we wanted to. In the past, the laws of physics (and our lack of knowledge…

Here's a relevant reply I posted to someone else: ----- I'm guessing his point was that we're so accustomed to relatively comfortable living (especially here on HN), that we take valuable things for granted. That leads to a sense of entitlement and confusion. We don't see how valuable the things we have are, so we end up thinking they should be "free", without realizing that nothing of value is actually free, because…

The idea is that $500 is not a fixed cost. First technology came for labor (ex. farming that used to take man-years of labour now takes hours and will soon require effectively 0 man -units), now its even coming for capital as well (a small lump of clever sand can perform what millions of dollars of capital equipment used to do). The only real fixed cost in the long run is going to be the natural resources required to produce things, which are here already. All that remains to us is to decided how to distribute these amongst ourselves.

Most of our political effort right now seems to be spent maintaining an ugly clot of laws and regulations attempting to artificially maintain that hypothetical $500 "cost" and not answering that deeper question.

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#139

Post by icebraining »

juliangregorian wrote: post #108
300bps wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those who believe they own an entirely imaginary thing called "money" The fact that someone can write this is laughable to anyone that was ever poor in their life. Money is not at all imaginary. It's quite real. The lack of money can ruin your day, your year, your life. As for what money is - it is a productivity storage mechanism. Once you've been productive it allows you to store that productivity in a fungible for…

The fact that anyone was ever poor should be an affront to anyone who believes that money is real. People of your ilk are fond of resorting to the old canard "everyone needs a roof over their head and food in their belly". Well, there quite simply is an astounding surplus of such. Those who really believe that the lottery system we currently use of assigning who gets what is truly effective and just will have to answ…

The fact that anyone was ever poor should be an affront to anyone who believes that money is real.

Using "real" in this context is confusing; yes, money is a social construction - a real one. You can also have fictional social constructs (SF works often describe some).

Are you using "real" to mean "natural" (as in "natural rights")?

Re: Why do people waste so much time at work?

#140

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

pinaceae wrote: post #131

because I pay you for 40h of productivity per week, not a fixed amount of output? for the latter, consulting/freelance exists. if you get paid for 40h per week, the expectation is to devote those hours to the benefit of the employer. do your tasks, if you have time to spare, think of other benefits - improvements, better ideas, learn, etc. people that finish a task and then wait to be given another are the bane of th…

There is likely a certain organization size where many sub organizations or groups exist and work gets to a mode of waiting on so-and-so to do that thing.

Big companies like to organize around what they perceive as efficiency - putting common workers together and having common practices, etc. This leads to a waterfall delivery model where in order to x, y and z you need three different groups and they all have requests coming in all directions.

Small companies, including startups, simply don't have that org structure so you would never see that behavior since it isn't needed.

This isn't a type of person, it is a type of organization structure. That is why you hear it being so common across completely different businesses of similar size.

There is a good model in larger companies where you have entire vertical areas of responsibility as a group or organization. They are held accountable for delivering something in total and don't have many other groups to interact with for delivery. Kind of like a startup or small company inside a company. Many upper management types don't like this because they are seen as something they can't control. I've heard the Virgin companies are organized in this manner.

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