Big shocker here...

[gratefuled]

It's claimed US workers waste up to two hours per day, not including the lunch hour. Does this come as a surprise?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/life_wor...OaswYOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-

Ed

 

[KB]

I saw that on the news last night. And I was surprised to see them say that employers expected it.

 

[azanon]

This must be for the private sector. In the government, that's way too low a figure

 

[nearly50]

Only two I would have thought at least 7.

 

[justin]

This must be for the private sector. In the government, that's way too low a figure

I think I saw a report a few years ago that said government employees usually waste around 4 hours per day on average. Anecdotally, I think the 4 hrs is accurate. The epitome of government worker laziness struck me when I heard from our paralegal, "Sorry, I can't type that up right now, my nails are still wet. Can I take care of that in the afternoon?" And I though I had been smelling fingernail polish...

 

[azanon]

I think I saw a report a few years ago that said government employees usually waste around 4 hours per day on average.  Anecdotally, I think the 4 hrs is accurate.  The epitome of government worker laziness struck me when I heard from our paralegal, "Sorry, I can't type that up right now, my nails are still wet.  Can I take care of that in the afternoon?"  And I though I had been smelling fingernail polish...

Only thing is be careful about putting the blame solely on the government worker being lazy.  Sometimes, the real problem lies elsewhere.   

In my mini-microcosm of government employment, the main reason for this is they simply over-hire relative to the amount of work that needs to be done.  Different departments get a certain amount of money budgetted to them, and if this money is not used, its taken away the next fiscal year.   So to avoid this, managerers sometimes simply hire more employees that arn't really needed.  This is not as evil as it sounds, because sometimes the amount of work an agency can have can vary from year to year, and if you lose bugetted money one year, but actually need it the next, its really hard to get money back that you willingly lost a previous year. The easier route is to just stay overstaffed for such occasions.

Its hard to point a finger at a government worker who's goofing off cause he/she only has 4 hrs of work to do, and he does see to it that work gets done.

 

[riskadverse]

I used to profess that Microsoft solitare was the cause
of more loss of productivity than any other single factor.
That was before the Internet was popular.

I'm always sceptical about any financial report that
cites "increased productivity" as a reason for anything.

 

[Sillysal]

Man, I think I'm over my quota...

 

[Nords]

Only two I would have thought at least 7.

The employees only waste two hours, but their bosses waste the other seven.

 

[sgeeeee]

This seems like a pretty bogus metric. Who cares how much time someone wastes? I'm not even sure how you recognize wasted time from not very productive time, from misguided effort, . . . I used to wish some of the people I worked with would spend more time trying not to contribute. Their contributions were usually counter productive. Productive effort is what counts. Some people can be more productive and helpful in a few minutes a day than others are when they put in hours of overtime.

 

[unclemick]

Taking a fairly big hand grenade, a no. 2 pencil, and my old engineering graph paper - back to the future:

1993 - now - had me and the SO continued to work maxing our 401k's and getting the 25% company match - 1.3 mil in 2006 plus maybe 15k more per year in pensions.

Not doing a lick or a stick(except temp in 95) since 1992 - 1.1 mil in 2005.

Hmmm - by 2006 maybe 14 yrs of work to get 15k/more per year in pension and depending on where the rollover ends up - in the noise level?

So what's productive?? - 14 yrs of ER doing nothing in particular or nose to the grindstone(had I been able) to 'be able to afford retirement.'

God bless the fickle finger of fate that got me layed off at 49 - otherwise I might be blindly slaving away.

Time is not replaced. And the end date is squishy.

Bon Temps Rolliere!

 

[grumpy]

Having been a fed employee for 32 years and a gov't contractor for two years before I retired, I can't really argue with the 4 hours a day figure for time wasted. However, I do take exception to the implication that this is due to laziness on the part of working level gov't employees. It was often the case that I could not proceed with my assigned work until someone else completed their related task. This is the essence of specialization and gov't excels at that. Job duties are very narrowly defined. Once I had done as much as could be done without the likelihood of having to redo alot once uncertainties were resolved by others, I looked around for any other useful tasks that could be accomplished. Once those were exhausted, I surfed the net or goofed off in some other unproductive way.

I agree with an earlier post that often the efforts of others to keep busy with "make work" resulted in more unproductive work having to be done by others.

I'm not so sure that the situation is any different in any large organization, public or private.

Grumpy

 

[unclemick]

That's Affirm

Did a lot of standing around during major tests - along with a lot of other 'specialists' - some of whom - with fingers crossed - you really, really, really did NOT want to see working.

Major return to flight - Shuttle launch coming up soon - hope there are plenty of contractor/govt people standing around with absolutely nothing to do. Immediate launch team excepted of course.

 

[deserat]

I look at it as I can be more productive in 2-4 hours a day compared to some of my colleagues who would take 8-10 hours. But then again, I'm exempt - 2 hours or 12 hours, gotta do what it takes to finish the job. It's to my benefit if I'm more productive.

Bridget

 

[Mr._johngalt]

This seems like a pretty bogus metric.  Who cares how much time someone wastes?   I'm not even sure how you recognize wasted time from not very productive time, from misguided effort, . . .    I used to wish some of the people I worked with would spend more time trying not to contribute.  Their contributions were usually counter productive.  Productive effort is what counts.  Some people can be more productive and helpful in a few minutes a day than others are when they put in hours of overtime.   

I once had an employer accuse me of "doggin' it".  I was.  I opined that me working
at 50% was way better than any others they could find working at 100%.
Not sure if they bought that.  I was serious though.

JG

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Taking a fairly big hand grenade, a no. 2 pencil, and my old engineering graph paper - back to the future:

1993 - now - had me and the SO continued to work maxing our 401k's and getting the 25% company match - 1.3 mil in 2006 plus maybe 15k more per year in pensions.

Not doing a lick or a stick(except temp in 95) since 1992 - 1.1 mil in 2005.

Hmmm - by 2006 maybe 14 yrs of work to get 15k/more per year in pension and depending on where the rollover ends up - in the noise level?

So what's productive?? - 14 yrs of ER doing nothing in particular or nose to the grindstone(had I been able) to 'be able to afford retirement.'

God bless the fickle finger of fate that got me layed off at 49 - otherwise I might be blindly slaving away.

Time is not replaced. And the end date is squishy.

Bon Temps Rolliere!

Doubt you would be "blindly slaving away".

si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait!

JG

 

[kayelem]

Told boss yesterday that I would probably be leaving "soon". Didn't want to shock him when it happened as I like and respect him. Told him that I was tired of working so hard...his suggestion was to cut back to forty hour weeks (typical for him, my peers is ~60). Said he get more out of me in forty hours than he would in a replacement at 60.

Nice to hear, but I don't think it will do the trick.

My only regret is leaving options on the table, but once I cash them I need to work a minimum of 6 more months and I don't think I can hold up that long

 

[VoyT]

It was often the case that I could not proceed with my assigned work until someone else completed their related task. 
I'm not so sure that the situation is any different in any large organization, public or private.

     Grumpy

Actually Grumpy, from my perspective, it's not, Most of the "free time" at my private-sector job is waiting for someone else to get on the stick (a few hires in critical places would help that along, but no one wants to spend the money, except to hire more managers ) On the other hand it gives me time to, ahem, catch up with the folks here.

 

[VoyT]

Major return to flight - Shuttle launch coming up soon - hope there are plenty of contractor/govt people standing around with absolutely nothing to do. Immediate launch team excepted of course.

Maybe one of them fixed the shuttle window??

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — With the countdown for Discovery in its final hours, NASA was dealt an embarrassing setback Tuesday when a window cover fell off the shuttle and damaged thermal tiles near the tail. But the space agency quickly fixed the problem and said it was still on track for launch Wednesday.

 

[unclemick]

Yep - you got it right.

 

[daystar]

I would guess that I waste about an hour a day. I see others in my Federal workplace waste about an hour or two each day. There are a few that seem to waste about half their day and a few that work quite a few extra unpaid hours. My hour of waste is usually through having personal conversations with people, and I may space out for about 10-20 minutes during the day. I do very little web-browsing outside of my 15 minute breaks.


Most of the people in my office are overworked/overstressed. We seem to have a never ending pile of work to do. The real problem with the work is that we don't try to find ways to get it done more efficiently. I find myself spending about 50% of my time doing clerical duties and assistant duties that can be accomplished by a GS-5 or GS-7. The other half, I actually get to do my real GS-11 duties. It pains me to think that they are paying me $24 an hour to organize paperwork, make copies, type things into a spreadsheet, type codes into the computer, and other non-specialist duties.  Unfourtunately, we don't have any money in our budget to hire clerical people so we have to do those duties ourselves.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

I would guess that I waste about an hour a day. I see others in my Federal workplace waste about an hour or two each day. There are a few that seem to waste about half their day and a few that work quite a few extra unpaid hours. My hour of waste is usually through having personal conversations with people, and I may space out for about 10-20 minutes during the day. I do very little web-browsing outside of my 15 minute breaks.


Most of the people in my office are overworked/overstressed. We seem to have a never ending pile of work to do. The real problem with the work is that we don't try to find ways to get it done more efficiently. I find myself spending about 50% of my time doing clerical duties and assistant duties that can be accomplished by a GS-5 or GS-7. The other half, I actually get to do my real GS-11 duties. It pains me to think that they are paying me $24 an hour to organize paperwork, make copies, type things into a spreadsheet, type codes into the computer, and other non-specialist duties.  Unfourtunately, we don't have any money in our budget to hire clerical people so we have to do those duties ourselves.

Just take the money.

JG

 

[Caroline]

From Grumpy:

Having been a fed employee for 32 years and a gov't contractor for two years before I retired, I can't really argue with the 4 hours a day figure for time wasted.  However, I do take exception to the implication that this is due to laziness on the part of working level gov't employees.
... 

I'm not so sure that the situation is any different in any large organization, public or private.

Malcolm Baldridge once asked a room full of top executives:  "How many of you have deadwood on your staff?"  Almost every hand went up.  Baldridge then followed with the query:  "So ... did you hire them that way ... or did you KILL THEM OFF YOURSELF??"

You are exactly right, Grumpy.  It's not the person, it's the system, and a management mindset that focuses on "work prevention" and "success prevention" policies vs getting the real job done.

I spent two years in a top business school learning to do something at which I excel -- strategic marketing.  I now spend 85% of my time in Megacorp slogging my way through the massive bureaucracy -- filing reports to justify one-hour conference calls with paying clients or to request permission to spend $3.85 on gas to attend an in-person meeting.

This type of pain would suck the initiative out of the hardest-working person in the world. 

Caroline

 

[Mr._johngalt]

From Grumpy:

Malcolm Baldridge once asked a room full of top executives:  "How many of you have deadwood on your staff?"  Almost every hand went up.  Baldridge then followed with the query:  "So ... did you hire them that way ... or did you KILL THEM OFF YOURSELF??"

You are exactly right, Grumpy.  It's not the person, it's the system, and a management mindset that focuses on "work prevention" and "success prevention" policies vs getting the real job done.

I spent two years in a top business school learning to do something at which I excel -- strategic marketing.  I now spend 85% of my time in Megacorp slogging my way through the massive bureaucracy -- filing reports to justify one-hour conference calls with paying clients or to request permission to spend $3.85 on gas to attend an in-person meeting.

This type of pain would suck the initiative out of the hardest-working person in the world. 

Caroline

You got that right!

JG

 

[Michael Moore]

Most of the people in my office are overworked/overstressed. We seem to have a never ending pile of work to do. The real problem with the work is that we don't try to find ways to get it done more efficiently. I find myself spending about 50% of my time doing clerical duties and assistant duties that can be accomplished by a GS-5 or GS-7. The other half, I actually get to do my real GS-11 duties. It pains me to think that they are paying me $24 an hour to organize paperwork, make copies, type things into a spreadsheet, type codes into the computer, and other non-specialist duties.  Unfourtunately, we don't have any money in our budget to hire clerical people so we have to do those duties ourselves.

Yes, with the advent of the PC the "professional" staff was empowered to do all their own typing and other clerical functions, letting them get rid of all the deadwood clerical staff. What a savings!  :

Some jobs also tend to be "feast or famine".  If you've got a set amount of work and you tend to work more quickly than others, you can easily end up with either more free time during the day or a lot of down time at the end of the work cycle.  There isn't always an opportunity to do some sort of proactive work in the downtime.  The work is generally going to be scheduled based on the "average" worker as the rate determining factor.  It also doesn't always get adjusted as small efficiencies are developed by the workers.

I do systems stuff (for the next 5 weeks).  If the LAN is functioning fine and no one has a question about an application I've got exactly nothing else to do.  If there's a problem I may be busier than the proverbial one-armed paper hanger.

Other people have jobs that include a lot of work that may have them staring off into space trying to figure out what to do/write/analyze.  This may look unproductive, but it is the real work being accomplished.

cheers,
Michael