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Re: [ProgSoc] I'm going into progsoc tonight.



On 3/16/06, Robert Howard <rhoward@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, Mar 16, 2006 at 06:58:58PM +1100, Andrew Halliday wrote:
> On 3/16/06, Robert Howard <rhoward@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 16, 2006 at 04:51:19PM +1100, Marcus Schappi wrote:
> > > I'm going into progsoc tonight.
> >
> > Hopefully I will as well, if I can get out of work before 10pm. :(
> >
> > - Rob
>
> That's surprisingly easy. Look for the nearest EXIT sign (white writing on a
> green background), follow any arrows and walk out the door come 5pm-6pm.
> Even on a salary you're being paid for a certain number of hours. There'll
> always be more work to do, but unless you're cleaning up after a major
> screw-up on your part you should be able to walk out the door. Well that was
> always my policy, my managers never argued cos I was always taller than
> them, and it's hard to tell someone off who looks down on you patronisingly.
> That, and it shows good time management skills. Work to live, don't live to
> work.
>

Thanks for the reply. I'd sure love to be the boss of such a wonderfully arrogant git like you. There can be times where putting more than the bare minimum effort in is warranted.


Doing your job per the specification is not putting in the bare minimum. Working is a contract. You work, they pay. Staying back regularly can imply any of the following to management:
-The worker is willing to effectively work for free or for less (which is bad for you)
-The worker can't manage its time effectively at work and thus has to stay back to make up for it.

When I was working professionally most of my work was project based with about 1/3 my time going into maintenance. I was required to plan my activities proportionally to the size and priority of tasks in my work allocation. Like many professionals I was required to write proposals and project timelines, justifications,etc on what I should be working on at each time interval, and then had to account for it with the usual timesheets and reports. I never stayed back unless there was a problem which needed to be fixed that couldn't wait til the next morning -that was my responsibility, my KPI's. When required I even pulled several 36hr shifts for jobs which required minimal downtime. However, I also made sure I got two days of leave in lieu.

My point Robert, is not to attack you or give you a hard time, but to say that you're selling yourself short, and by extension, the rest of us in the industry, because then your employer expects all its employees to work crazy hours. Australian IT sector workers put in crazy overtime because of this. And it sucks.

Old ref: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/05/1033538810318.html

-Andi.