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Subject:Re: Working long hours. From:Joyce Flaherty <flahertj -at- SMTPGW -dot- LIEBERT -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 29 Apr 1996 21:37:09 EST
Dick Harris writes:
<snip>
>Thinking back over my own career, I realized that the times I put in the
>most effort were when I thought they would make a difference. Isn't this
>the real key? <snip>
and David Ibbetson writes:
> In my experience a common reason for working long hours is "enjoyment".
<snip>
When I hired on as a programmer some ten years ago, I was told at
the onset, "Your project leader and other experienced staff establish
your project estimate. You can argue the estimate, and it may change.
However, once the project estimate is established, you meet it.
If you do not, you have three choices, 1-Work nights and week-ends
(salaried, no overtime), 2-Be satisfied with a below average
performance evaluation, or 3-Find another job." The estimates were
difficult to meet for new programmers. Part of your undocumented
evaluation, which I found out perhaps a year or so later, was your
ability to "burn the midnight oil." OTOH, if you consistently met
your estimates and did not work nights and week-ends, you earned
the label of plodder.
I worked for another company where you left every evening at 5:00
pm. If you absolutely had to complete a task by end of day, and
something legitimate and beyond your control got in the way of
your completing the task, then you didn't do it. If you cared
enough to stay after 5:00 pm to complete the necessary task, then
the management position was that you must be up to something
surreptitious. After all, nobody has that kind of dedication. I
think I read on the curmudgeon calendar a few years ago, "The
things you do that get you a promotion on one job, will get you
fired on another,"--something like that. How illusive and
relative the work habits of a good employee!
joyce flaherty
flahertj -at- smtpgw -dot- liebert -dot- com
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