May 24, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Death March
May 24, 2010 at 10:45 pm
Great article. This is the perfect resource to kick back on being required to work all of those hours. This would mean more time available to complete some of those other projects.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
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May 24, 2010 at 11:33 pm
Yeah, this isn't a problem as a contractor. Quite the opposite; you are always trying to get MORE hours 🙂
James Stover, McDBA
May 25, 2010 at 1:03 am
Formal flexi time is a great system. Clock in and out but all extra time over 7.5 hours a day is added to your flexi "bank" and we can take up to 15 hours (2 days) off per 4 week period which deducts from the flexi bank. You just have to be within the bank limits at period end which are -1.5 days to +2.5 days. This encourages you to take the excess banked time (or you lose it) and enables flexibility when the repair man comes or the car needs fixing.
Beyond the flexi system there is overtime (before 7am or after 7pm) which is strictly controlled and paid or time in lieu. Staff are encouraged to have a life though weekend overtime for network maintenance is common.
May 25, 2010 at 3:49 am
I agree completely with this. I have seen people make themselves stessed and miserable, trying to work long hours because they think they should.
Henry Ford made his team work 7 days a week when creating his Model T car, and he said afterwards that this definitely slowed down progress and he would never do it again.
May 25, 2010 at 4:01 am
Very timely, Steve. When you are doing the job you love it is hard sometimes to pull yourself away. The enemy is the "I just need ten more minutes to get this to a point where I can walk away" which quickly turns into an hour... or two... or three.
May 25, 2010 at 5:27 am
Agree, normally in Pakistan all IT pros work 57 hours a week. Official timings are 9 to 6 Or 10 to 7, and almost 75% people work more than that because of work pressure and to be on timeline.
in my 10 years of work experience (with several different companies), i noticed that people just busy into work not taking any break except for the lunch (which gets 20 to 30 minutes), and they rush to get back to work as soon as possible.
I take 5 to 6 breaks (of 5 minutes) after each 1.5 to 2 hours for strolling and smoke, in which i straight my self up, clear my mind off from all the pressure, just to be focus for the thing which i'm gonna do later.
That habit (which I think it’s a habit now.) always helped in so many ways. No matter how much pressure there is, that thing helped me to calm down and be more productive and helped me to take good decisions towards my work.
and I agree with steve's comment <Push back on those long hours. Tell your boss that you need to get away from work to be productive. I think he'll understand>. My bosses never complained me nor did they mention this habit of mine against office rules.
My philosophy is always been. "Work to live" Not "live to work".
And I always prefer and admire these companies who have "only 9 to 5 work" policy, and they take it very religiously.
I have worked more than 24 to 48 hours straight, and I survived because of my habit of mine. ? Even though I felt as the time goes by, the productivity goes down. And its true!
Regards,
Mazhar Karimi
Senior Software Engineer
Softech WorldWide
vidizmo.com
May 25, 2010 at 7:35 am
Work smarter, not harder, I say. At one of the places I worked they outsourced most of their web development to India and paid those people next to nothing and worked them literally around the clock, until half of them got seriously ill and the other half quit. Management could have cared less. When questioned about this one senior level manager said "Well, that's ok. Those Indians are a dime a dozen anyway." That's the mentality with a lot of managers in this business. They inherently feel that IT people are expendable. Sad but true. 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
May 25, 2010 at 8:21 am
Several years of Microsoft studies show that after three weeks of overtime you work longer hours but will not get done more.
May 25, 2010 at 8:46 am
The article format is off on my browser, the majority of the rows got truncated.
May 25, 2010 at 8:55 am
icata (5/25/2010)
The article format is off on my browser, the majority of the rows got truncated.
Try the print version. What is your resolution and browser?
May 25, 2010 at 9:32 am
Great Editorial. Early in my career I worked 90+ hour weeks for 6 month straight. The company I worked for was struggling, we were short staffed and we had a major project that I was a key person on. I wore many hats. Part of the reason for the long hours was unstable hardware so there were times I'd work more that 24 hours straight catch a few hours of sleep then get back to work.
I was in my late 20's and thought I was immortal but at the end of that 6 month stretch I paid a visit to the emergency room because my heart was doing weird thing. My doctor demanded I cut back my hours and I began to work 75 to 80 hours a week.
Over time I've learned to work smarter not harder. Each job I've had since then the hours have decreased. I've also learned to take breaks. I've also learned that you need time to think and time to be creative. I'm in my 40's now and a 45 hour week is now rare. I seem to get as much accomplished and my work quality is higher.
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May 25, 2010 at 10:02 am
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May 25, 2010 at 10:09 am
P Jones (5/25/2010)
Formal flexi time is a great system. Clock in and out but all extra time over 7.5 hours a day is added to your flexi "bank" and we can take up to 15 hours (2 days) off per 4 week period which deducts from the flexi bank. You just have to be within the bank limits at period end which are -1.5 days to +2.5 days. This encourages you to take the excess banked time (or you lose it) and enables flexibility when the repair man comes or the car needs fixing.Beyond the flexi system there is overtime (before 7am or after 7pm) which is strictly controlled and paid or time in lieu. Staff are encouraged to have a life though weekend overtime for network maintenance is common.
That sounds like an excellent system. It would be nice to see in more places.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
May 25, 2010 at 1:10 pm
My story sounds like Trey Staker's: early in my career I work a lot, both because the project 'needed' it, and because I felt I was in a learning curve and the company deserved a 'bit more' of my time.
I'm down to 40 to 45 hours per week now - competent in my abilities (at least they think so), and quite honestly, the more I worked the more was added to the stack. I'll still, when necessary, provide a burst of time/effort, but day-by-day: I give a reasonable effort for a reasonable amount of time. I've been at the same place over 10 years and no heart attacks yet!
Cheers,
Mark
Just a cog in the wheel.
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