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One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 hours a day

fastcompany.com

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Re: One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 hours a day

#81

Post by jjk166 »

me_me_me wrote: post #52
ianai wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, people should be more like lawyers. Bill for that time you spent in the shower thinking about your clients case. That reads sarcastic, but in today’s workplace you really need to know the legal framework you’re working within or you’ll probably be fleeced or worse. How lawyers charge actually is instructive.

I am running out of fingers to count how many times i concluded/fixed a design or a problem while showering.

But can I write off my shower as a home office tax deduction?

Re: One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 hours a day

#82

Post by jjk166 »

tiahura wrote: post #74
darkerside wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lawyers don't live in anxiety of that. They accept that is part of work and find ways to bill for it.

Try billing 2000 hours a year in .1 increments. It’s not so much the bathroom breaks that lead to anxiety, it’s things like: kids’ soccer games, doctor’s appointments, and anniversaries.

You don't need to anticipate how long those things will take, you bill after the fact. Yeah if you don't keep good records of your schedule and just try to guess what you were doing at 2:39 last tuesday it might be stressful, but that's a problem with the record keeping, not the billing.

Re: One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 hours a day

#84

Post by jksmith »

jjk166 wrote: post #81
me_me_me wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am running out of fingers to count how many times i concluded/fixed a design or a problem while showering.

But can I write off my shower as a home office tax deduction?

I wrote a whole sqlite wrapper while in my hot tub carrel. I call that time "meditubbing." I read a story somewhere a thousand years ago about Gustave Flaubert's work habits. As I recall, at a dinner party: Woman: "Was your day fruitful?" Flaubert: "Yes, very." Woman: "How many words did you write?" Flaubert: "None."

Re: One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 hours a day

#85

Post by jksmith »

ianai wrote: post #38
lordnacho wrote: post #7

This isn't surprising, because devs have a tendency to focus on the hard bits of coding as being their work. Why not, right? It's probably the most satisfying too, so we forget the bits where we document, explain to colleagues, organize, etc. Don't forget that a lot of "not working" such as browsing a certain orange-and-beige website actually IS work as well: you wouldn't be updated on what's going on in the tech wor…

Yes, people should be more like lawyers. Bill for that time you spent in the shower thinking about your clients case. That reads sarcastic, but in today’s workplace you really need to know the legal framework you’re working within or you’ll probably be fleeced or worse. How lawyers charge actually is instructive.

A buddy of mine just leaned out that whole issue and just charges by the day.

Re: One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 hours a day

#86

Post by daebersold »

abledon wrote: post #63
daebersold wrote: post #24

1/3 of tech workers admit to working 3 to 4 hours, while 2/3 of tech workers admit to sucking at tech work. Leaving less than 10% who know what they're doing and working full days doing the real tech work. Just ask any company.

i work with a guy who claims like 15 hours of overtime per week... his total output is prbably like 0.1x what a normal developer does... constantly adds bugs, never squashes his commits (to show extra 'work' being done'...). typicial commits for 1 day of work: - add 3 docstring for 3 setter functions (max 10 lines each). (1 day) - fix a codesmell, ~15 character syntax change, whose 'fix' is given freely by the analys…

LOL That's awesome! I know these people too! And watch, he's IT Manager next year...

Re: One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 hours a day

#87

Post by snwcrsh »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #46

A lot of comments here are to the effect that the things they do when "not working" are actually work of some fashion. For me, I promise you that is not the case. I've always been a lazy motherfucker. I didn't get into automating things with technology because I liked to work, after all. Over the past 10 years I'd say I did honestly work a full work day when I was my most productive, but my median work day was probab…

Your entire post reads like I could have written it. Made a throwaway just to respond.

>As in, I spent the rest of it reading books in a terminal so it looked like I was doing work, or something similarly useless to my employer

What are some of your other favourite things like this? Some:

* Using rtv to browse reddit via CLI

* Browsing RSS feeds and news sites, eg with elinks.

* Learning a totally new programming language / tool / paradigm.

* Roguelikes, eg ATOM, Nethack

* Random IRC chat rooms (meh)

* And as you said, reading books

Re: One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 hours a day

#88

Post by abledon »

daebersold wrote: post #86
abledon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i work with a guy who claims like 15 hours of overtime per week... his total output is prbably like 0.1x what a normal developer does... constantly adds bugs, never squashes his commits (to show extra 'work' being done'...). typicial commits for 1 day of work: - add 3 docstring for 3 setter functions (max 10 lines each). (1 day) - fix a codesmell, ~15 character syntax change, whose 'fix' is given freely by the analys…

LOL That's awesome! I know these people too! And watch, he's IT Manager next year...

actually, yes he is applying to be a Software Team Manager LOL

Re: One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 hours a day

#89

Post by LockAndLol »

arcturus17 wrote: post #67
lordnacho wrote: post #7

This isn't surprising, because devs have a tendency to focus on the hard bits of coding as being their work. Why not, right? It's probably the most satisfying too, so we forget the bits where we document, explain to colleagues, organize, etc. Don't forget that a lot of "not working" such as browsing a certain orange-and-beige website actually IS work as well: you wouldn't be updated on what's going on in the tech wor…

> never do anything as satisfying as coding What a narrow world view. There are “schmoozers” who are completely satisfied and coders who dread their work lives... There are also schmoozers who create value beyond anything many single coders could ever dream of: by raising capital, creating multimillion sales, persuading and inspiring others, etc. And I say this as someone who switched from a management job to designi…

You're taking one single phrase out of context and getting bent out of shape.

Just assume the people you're writing to aren't all idiots. If you really think OP meant what you thought, ask them.

Re: One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 hours a day

#90

Post by arcturus17 »

LockAndLol wrote: post #89
arcturus17 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> never do anything as satisfying as coding What a narrow world view. There are “schmoozers” who are completely satisfied and coders who dread their work lives... There are also schmoozers who create value beyond anything many single coders could ever dream of: by raising capital, creating multimillion sales, persuading and inspiring others, etc. And I say this as someone who switched from a management job to designi…

You're taking one single phrase out of context and getting bent out of shape. Just assume the people you're writing to aren't all idiots. If you really think OP meant what you thought, ask them.

They completely - and I mean completely - changed the comment from what I read this morning.

The original quote or calling non-coders “schmoozers” (their words, not mine), are in fact, no longer there as far as I can see.

It wasn’t taken out of context, there was not that much nuance to the sentence I quoted.

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