How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)
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Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)
#2This makes perfect sense to me. From what I've seen anecdotally, it seems most people can work 80-hour weeks at full productivity for maybe one or two weeks, tops. After that, the fatigue starts to set in and that person's performance starts to decline. In the long run, the person working 80 hour weeks isn't getting much more done than someone working far fewer hours, simply because during those 80 hours they are operating at greatly diminished mental capacity.
Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)
#3I have definitely seen this is various ways. Another outcome of the intense pressure to deliver hours is when you have a simple phone call with lawyers / accountants and there are 2 parters, 3 associates, and an assistant taking notes. Haven’t you guys heard of email?
Oh yes, everyone must be there in person because it’s critical they hear it directly (so you can bill us $5000 for a 30 minute call).
Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)
#4This makes perfect sense to me. From what I've seen anecdotally, it seems most people can work 80-hour weeks at full productivity for maybe one or two weeks, tops. After that, the fatigue starts to set in and that person's performance starts to decline. In the long run, the person working 80 hour weeks isn't getting much more done than someone working far fewer hours, simply because during those 80 hours they are ope…
Depends if they are engaged or not and how taxing it is. People can play MMOs or MOBAs way past 40hr/week and they don't all have a huge performance dropoff. They are probably more prone to RSI and stuff at more hours though.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a productive 100hr week in some kind of MMO player.
Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)
#5I'm convinced that most of the long hours of corporate America can be explained as a form of signaling. This is just more evidence that there are a whole lot of bullshit jobs out there. [0]
Anecdotally, when I worked as an investment banking analyst, there was hardly anything to do from 9-5, then 6-8 hours of work was dumped on my desk at 5pm. Half of that work was un-doing changes I made the day before because the VP on the team didn't like the updates the Associate wanted. Organizations are set up to be inefficient in order to signal how serious they are and what hard workers they have.
Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)
#6men and women. parity folks. dont be so misogynist
Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)
#7Interesting but unsurprising article.
I receive a thank you note from our practice lead every time my utilization exceeds 100% in a week. I have repeatedly asked to be removed from such "congratulatory" emails, as I don't find it something to be lauded. In my mind, this means I/we have not properly planned, scheduled, costed, or staffed a project.
Market disagrees though; long hours are absolutely the norm in my segment, and while I've seen managers of all types, those more and less understanding that there's life outside of the office, nonetheless there is an overall feeling that if you're not working long hours, you're not working hard or contributing or dedicated enough.
At the same time, it is an accepted paradigm that project/client/company will suck what they can out of you, and it's up to you to set the limits, communicate them and deliver quality. I have observed people who at beginning of the project indicate "I will take my vacation, and I will spend my weekends at home", and due to quality of their work and abilities, are respected, promoted, recognized.
So there's culture and there's individual response to the culture.
[personally, I "enjoy" a sprint or two every now and then, there's excitement in building something and working hard towards it; but still believe that continued crunches are failure of planning. That doesn't mean I'm immune to them :P, just that I refuse to consider them the norm]
Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)
#8"consultants who quietly lightened their workload did just as well in their performance reviews as those who were truly working 80 or more hours a week suggests that in normal times, heavy workloads may be more about signaling devotion to a firm than really being more productive."
Except that they didn't measure productivity, they measured performance reviews. Those might not be the same things.
I think it has long been known that if you make a big fuss about your contributions, you will be noticed more (and maybe even be promoted). Productivity and perception of productivity might be only weakly correlated.
I don't know if the conclusion should be to fake more, or for managers to notice more. In any case, would expect the market to take care of it (good workers aggregating in companies that notice their productivity).
Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)
#9men and women. parity folks. dont be so misogynist
Quoted from the article: "Some of the people ostensibly turning in those 80- or 90-hour workweeks, particularly men, may just be faking it."
Re: How Some Consultants Fake an 80-Hour Workweek (2015)
#10(2015)