The Programmer’s Guide to a Sane Workweek

I have a remote team, spread across the western seaboard of the US. I don't track hours, I don't do the whole "burn-down chart" crap. I keep almost no metrics about my team's productivity. As a result, my team are all far higher performing than I ever was as an engineer. If higher-ups want an assessment of my team's abilities, I'll figure out a way to give them what they seem to want that is truthful to my beliefs.

The employment contract says 40 hours, and our timesheet system will freak if you enter less than 40 hours, and of course you mustn't lie on your timesheet (hello HR! :) ) but what hours you work and when are up to you. My only caveat is that if another team member needs your help in office hours, you need to be able to talk to them and help them. The business pays for 40 quality hours, thats the rule. But nothing is black or white...

If you're "at work" but really you're on hacker news - as I am right now - then I'm not getting "quality" brain time.

Believe it or not, there are people in the world who'll spend 1 hour working, 7 hours on hacker news, then shut their laptop and demand that the rest of their time is out of bounds of work.

Honestly, though, those people are so easy to spot and manage. They're the ones who do deliver what I ask, but never more. They'll spend 3 days writing a post function, not because it took 3 days but because thats how much time I seemed to agree with in the estimate.

There are other people, who'll maybe spend 1 hour on a post function and say "done, whats next?"

There are others still who'll spend 1 hour and say "Hey, boss, the post function is done, but this entire framework is kinda crap, mind if I take three days to look at what else is out there?"

There are others still who'll spend 1 hour and say "Hey, boss, the post function is done, but its kind of weird for the users, how about we do this instead?"

Those last 2 types of people seem to enjoy life more, they're happier in themselves and I'll fight tooth and nail for anything they want. If they really work 30 hours a week, get their shit done and don't let any team members down: who cares, the lying on the timesheet issue is the only problem and I'll cover for them the best I can if they get caught. But the best folks will generally happily work 40 hours, and the 10 or so extra hours - I've found - are best "given" to them to do with as they wish.

The first person (the person who spent 1 hour on code and 3 days on netflix) might be temporarily useful to get code written, but really they're not worth hiring. Yes - I know - its my fault - I should get better estimates - I should follow up - I should write out requirements better. But that person is getting seriously out-shined every day by their team - who (lets be honest) know they're slacking - and that person at the very least is going to first on any chopping block. But more likely I'll work with HR to get rid of them.

The other one - the one that says when they're done and asks for more work - that person I'll try to coach into thinking for themselves more so in future they say "I've done the post function, now i'll go ahead and write the get/delete etc and document it, and there's a new unit test package i'd like to fiddle with"...

Now - to join back along with your comment - "We should accommodate workers such that they can cultivate a fruitful and creative mental state for use in employment when inspiration and flow is most likely to strike"

In my head I have an expression that I can't quite get into language - let people be people, let them be the best they can, and compensate them enough so that their best is directed towards the business - the thing that also compensates me for being the best I can be. but Don't demand more than that, don't try to take ALL their best time, don't try to elbow out their family or their hobbies etc. It needs to be voluntary, given. Not in a contract somewhere, demanded. It can be done, I've seen it, even in a big ole faceless corporation you can make a team perform just by shaping the environment to work for humans, rather than spreadsheets.

If you want me to be on call, pay me to be on call.

If my code blows up, I don't owe you 45 hours of work for 40 hours of pay. If my code blows up, it's because you haven't managed testing and quality assurance properly. I shouldn't be able to get shitty code into production — that's why you're the manager and I'm the peon.

It may sound harsh, but demanding free work is exploitation. And trying to guilt people into working for free is immoral.

That said, I always get worried whenever someone starts advocating for getting rid of 40-hour work week without a very clear idea of how to replace it in concrete terms. See, maybe I'm cynical, but it seems to me that a lot of people forget that the whole concept of 40-hour work week comes from a compromise between the workers and the employers: it's supposed to mean you can be expected to work no more than 40 hours a week. Naturally, the employer will expect you to work no less, otherwise they're "not getting their money's worth".

Whether we like it or not, there is a power imbalance between workers and employers and it's usually in favor of employers. I don't want to touch sensitive topics of how that imbalance might be redressed, but as long as the imbalance is there, having a fixed number of hours in a work week -- even if that's only nominal -- is still better than getting rid of that and making workers vulnerable to having their historically hard-earned rights eroded or downright stripped away.

If that sounds too jaded and bitter, consider the "unlimited" vacation policy. At best, it means you'll still take roughly the same time off as the rest of the team. At worst, everyone ends up taking less vacation time than before and the company profits because they don't have the financial liability of unused vacations anymore.

Your style totally matches mine.