The benefits of a more asynchronous workplace

Post by thrownaway954 » Wed, Oct 16, 2019, 5:21 PM UTC

siffland wrote: post #128

thrownaway954 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My manager _constantly_ will shout out, "does anyone know what X is working on?" It pisses me off to high hell that a manager has to ask his workers what another worker is working on. I honestly think that EVERYONE should be using a ticket tracking system and just put assignments in a person's queue. I don't see why this is such a big deal or looked down upon. It's so easy to see what everyone is working on, run repo…

A huge problem with ticketing systems is then management uses it to track all productivity. We had a ticketing system and one guy in our group had between 60% and 80% more tickets than the rest of us. So it would seem we were all slackers, however he took the tickets that took like 2 minutes to do (password resets, account unlocks, etc...), meanwhile i would get stuck troubleshooting a production performance issue th…

Post by Notorious_BLT » Wed, Oct 16, 2019, 5:24 PM UTC

alexis_fr wrote: post #35

BigJ1211 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As one of my ex CEOs put it: "If I don't see my employees stressing out at thier desks I get the impression they're not working." This really hits the nail on the head, in my experience this is accurate for employers that are anti-remote , they want to be able to see people "work". I've argued that that means they are essentially paying people to be there 8 hours a day, not that they're working 8 hours a day. You s…

It’s easy when work gets completed. I would hire anyone remotely or let them play games at work if work is done. It is more difficult when we think their work in average or has a lot of defects. Then, the contract is for them to put in the required hours with decent concentration, and they have fulfilled their part in a measurable way that satisfies the manager. And truth be told, if their work were perfect, they wou…

Post by otakucode » Wed, Oct 16, 2019, 5:48 PM UTC

fizx wrote: post #144

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #2

I tried sharing these studies at my ex employers in Europe hoping they'd spare me the hellish 40 minute commute in stop/start traffic and they weren't interested at all. Management there only values "butt time in seats" and the ability to come over and interrupt you by tapping you on the shoulder whenever they need something. As one of my ex CEOs put it: "If I don't see my employees stressing out at thier desks I get…

As someone who has gone to the dark side, there's an interesting tradeoff here. There's basically three scenarios: (1) all employees are trusted and unmeasured, but you have to tap people on the shoulder every once in a while to confirm that they're on track. Naturally, this is easier if everyone is on-site. (2) everyone is accountable for producing of tickets, and you can check that everyone is at least doing some w…

Post by fizx » Wed, Oct 16, 2019, 5:52 PM UTC

otakucode wrote: post #185

fizx wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has gone to the dark side, there's an interesting tradeoff here. There's basically three scenarios: (1) all employees are trusted and unmeasured, but you have to tap people on the shoulder every once in a while to confirm that they're on track. Naturally, this is easier if everyone is on-site. (2) everyone is accountable for producing of tickets, and you can check that everyone is at least doing some w…

I would like to suggest a tremendously simple (4) : Every day, each employee spends no more than 5 minutes reporting what they did the prior day, and what they are planning to work on that day. If they're blocked by anything, they can mention that and ask for assistance. I just finished working on a fully remote contract that worked that way, every day at noon there was a conference call that never took longer than 1…

Post by fizx » Wed, Oct 16, 2019, 5:57 PM UTC

baron_harkonnen wrote: post #157

fizx wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has gone to the dark side, there's an interesting tradeoff here. There's basically three scenarios: (1) all employees are trusted and unmeasured, but you have to tap people on the shoulder every once in a while to confirm that they're on track. Naturally, this is easier if everyone is on-site. (2) everyone is accountable for producing of tickets, and you can check that everyone is at least doing some w…

In the many jobs I've had I've never seen "things go side ways" because those tricky employees have finally found a way to not do any work! By and large the vast majority of workers have the capitalist cultural logic deeply ingrained in their psyche and personally feel value only when they produce meaningful work. Most people are not trying to get away with doing less, and, at least in my experience, feel the most sa…