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Subject:Re: 4/40 work week From:Barb Philbrick <caslonsvcs -at- IBM -dot- NET> Date:Tue, 4 Nov 1997 16:12:30 GMT
>Second, we are stupidly allowing ourselves to be sucked into working those
>60-hour weeks as routine in the mistaken belief that this somehow makes us
>more valuable to the company. It sure does. Any time I can get 20 free
>hours of work out of an employee it is called Money In The Bank. But I'll
>cut you off staff in a heartbeat if the workload drops off.
Well, it might look like money in the bank, but it's not, especially
long-term.
After about 3 weeks of 60 hours+ work weeks, productivity actually
drops to what it would be at about 30 hours per week. A variety of
factors play into this -- fatique that results in errors and poor
judgement, employees needing to take care of personal business on work
time, and so on.
Employees going through divorces and myriad other personal problems
that are exacerbated by ridiculous work schedules also don't increase
the company's bottom line.
At one company I worked at, employee turnover alone cost more than
they gained by pushing people to work extra hours.
>Is it loyalty to the employer, undying love for the project, or just plain
>fear of losing our jobs that keeps us working these idiotic schedules?
I think one of the biggest reasons (at least for me) was being coerced
into an unrealistic deadline and at some point promising that I would
meet it. Hey, I promised! I don't (and still) don't take breaking
promises lightly, but if someone is taking advantage of your better
nature, we should be able to let it go.
The companies that know how to push our buttons also play on our pride
-- so-and-so produced a manual in two weeks; the engineers will have
their stuff done by then so why can't you, and so on. Say all this
with a questioning look on your face. It's tough to tell people like
this they're full of crap when you know they're going to tell everyone
else you can't keep up with the rest of the gang and that you're the
one holding up shipment.
Well, that's my experience (and why I'm working as a contractor now!)
Barb
Barbara Philbrick, Caslon Services Inc.
Technical Writing
