Newsmaker: American workers: Lazy or creative?

(continued from previous page)

that we're talking about time wasted at work at the same time Americans are talking about how overworked they are.

So certainly, people are wasting more time because they are spending more time at work, but also I believe that there is sort of a sociological change going on where there isn't a bright line between what work time is and what personal time is. It's sort of the combination of people expected to be "on call" nights and weekends for many jobs or be available for many jobs or just having to take work home.

They've got to answer the cell phone.
Coleman: Exactly, and then we have cell phones and BlackBerries and pagers and e-mail where people are expected to check their e-mail on weekends in many jobs. So work is invading our personal time and therefore it makes sense that personal activities are invading work time. Somehow technology is ahead of the corporate vision of what an appropriate workday is.

In other words, it's giving people tools or letting them do what they want to do?
Coleman: The workday is changing and the workday is not strictly a 9-to-5 window of opportunity where the employer has access to you and whatever it is you do. The employer is expecting access outside those hours for work purposes. And as a result of that, the things that you would be doing outside those work hours, things like paying your bills, sometimes find their way into the 9-to-5 window. So technology makes it possible for you to easily pay your bills at the office. And that Saturday afternoon emergency phone call gives you the rationalization or justification to do it--to say, "Well I'm working now, so I have a little bit of fuzzy time, a little bit of spare time on Monday so I can pay my bills."

In other words, it's just kind of quid pro quo almost in the mind.
Coleman: Right. And one of the reasons people gave for wasting time is they feel that they're not being paid appropriately for the work they're doing. And so it is sort of quid pro quo, in that an individual employee's ability to increase his or her pay is limited, but their ability to decrease the number of hours they actually work is not as limited.

Your quote in the press release was kind of interesting--about this idea of creative waste. If I'm getting you right, you're saying that this time of loafing, if you're doing it in a way that sparks new ideas for a company, it's actually a good thing for the company overall.
Coleman: Not all nonproductive time that an employee spends is a complete waste. Some of it is creative or constructive waste. By that I mean it's an opportunity for soft learning, if you will. Reading a newspaper, for example. That's clearly a nonproductive activity for most jobs. However, the education you gain, the things you learn (are useful), whether you're a reporter or a consultant or an accountant.

So I shouldn't feel bad about surfing The New York Times all the time.
Coleman: Well certainly, you shouldn't feel bad about surfing The New York Times or reading any news article that could be relevant to what you do and could generate a new story idea for you. That's an example of creative waste.

Is there any evidence that water cooler conversations are increasing in the absolute time people are spending on them or in their quality? Maybe the fact that people don't interact with colleagues as much makes those water cooler conversations more crucial.
Coleman: Bingo. I don't have any kind of study to prove this point, but human beings are clearly social animals. So much of at least office workers' time is spent sitting at a desk in front of a computer doing something. It's non-interactive, at least not a face-to-face human interaction. I think that people are somewhat starved for those kind of interactions and now seek them out more than 10 or 20 years ago when a lot of your work time was spent interacting directly with a person rather than e-mailing the person or instant messaging the person.

So, I think that the time at the water cooler or the chatting in the halls may actually be increasing because it's sort of a fundamental human need that has been replaced by technology. Or at least the time spent talking has been replaced by technology. And so we are finding new ways or new reasons, new excuses to talk to each other.  

More Newsmakers

[lingsun]

Sounds like a bunch of lazy people making excuses for themselves

If people are paid by the hour, they should just WORK when they're at work or the company should fire them! 2 hours a week goofing off sounds like a lot more than I've seen in the midwest. But employees surfing the web when they should be working is a problem mostly with people in their 20s where I work.

The Workplace is not the same

The new generation, the creative class, is not time oriented, we
don't operate on hourly schedules, I may be producing a film, do
you think I start at 9 and just stop at 5? Absolutely not! We, the
Creative Class, are Goal oriented, make the new assessment of an
employee whether or not they get the project done, give them
deadlines and let them work it out how they can, because we are all
different, so forgive me if I check my email at work but end up
working a 12 hour or more day, or work even more once I leave
the office.

I find it ironic

Hey Bill,

I see you posted your comment at 9am. I hope you had today off (holiday) or do you usually post comments during the workday?

[lingsun]

Sounds like a bunch of lazy people making excuses for themselves

If people are paid by the hour, they should just WORK when they're at work or the company should fire them! 2 hours a week goofing off sounds like a lot more than I've seen in the midwest. But employees surfing the web when they should be working is a problem mostly with people in their 20s where I work.

The Workplace is not the same

The new generation, the creative class, is not time oriented, we
don't operate on hourly schedules, I may be producing a film, do
you think I start at 9 and just stop at 5? Absolutely not! We, the
Creative Class, are Goal oriented, make the new assessment of an
employee whether or not they get the project done, give them
deadlines and let them work it out how they can, because we are all
different, so forgive me if I check my email at work but end up
working a 12 hour or more day, or work even more once I leave
the office.

I find it ironic

Hey Bill,

I see you posted your comment at 9am. I hope you had today off (holiday) or do you usually post comments during the workday?

This is already well documented ...

... by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister in Peopleware. (ISBN 0-932633-43-9) Slack (ISBN 0-7679-0768-x) by DeMarco also covers this topic and says that employers should actively try to build more slack time into their knowledge worker's days.

[Sam Papelbon]

how about changing it to a 9-4

at least for goal-oriented workplaces. of course the hourly wages would be adjusted to compensate. but if employees are wasting time anyway while still maintaining the same level of productivity, why not just give them the hour to be spent out of the office.

probably isn't much, but i wonder how much a company could save having their lights/computers/etc off an extra hour each day.

or perhaps take the hour off the start of the day to have well-rested employees.

This is already well documented ...

... by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister in Peopleware. (ISBN 0-932633-43-9) Slack (ISBN 0-7679-0768-x) by DeMarco also covers this topic and says that employers should actively try to build more slack time into their knowledge worker's days.

[Sam Papelbon]

how about changing it to a 9-4

at least for goal-oriented workplaces. of course the hourly wages would be adjusted to compensate. but if employees are wasting time anyway while still maintaining the same level of productivity, why not just give them the hour to be spent out of the office.

probably isn't much, but i wonder how much a company could save having their lights/computers/etc off an extra hour each day.

or perhaps take the hour off the start of the day to have well-rested employees.

[Christopher Hall]

Oh, the irony

I'm reading this at work!

[aabcdefghij987654321]

not ironic, actually

thats not really ironic. its true.

[thedreaming]

so am I

In the morning, there isn't alot of work to do and they even know it, but they won't cut my hours, so I come in and surf the net until work is available. Sometimes, it's very busy and I just work and that's just fine with me. When I do surf, I'm always nervous about it because when it comes right down to it, I rather be working or at least be creative but with restrictive systems like the one we use, I can't even do that. It's either work or surf. There's just so many times I can read the news, weather and email. I can't do much of anything else.

[Christopher Hall]

Oh, the irony

I'm reading this at work!

[aabcdefghij987654321]

not ironic, actually

thats not really ironic. its true.

[thedreaming]

so am I

In the morning, there isn't alot of work to do and they even know it, but they won't cut my hours, so I come in and surf the net until work is available. Sometimes, it's very busy and I just work and that's just fine with me. When I do surf, I'm always nervous about it because when it comes right down to it, I rather be working or at least be creative but with restrictive systems like the one we use, I can't even do that. It's either work or surf. There's just so many times I can read the news, weather and email. I can't do much of anything else.

[Bob Brinkman]

Do they take in to account reactive positions?

My job is fixing things, occationaly I have projects to work on as well but if there isn' anything going wrong I am at my desk waiting for something to happen. Hense I have plenty of time to goof off.

[Bob Brinkman]

Do they take in to account reactive positions?

My job is fixing things, occationaly I have projects to work on as well but if there isn' anything going wrong I am at my desk waiting for something to happen. Hense I have plenty of time to goof off.

Resonable Expectations

Work hard or work smart, in the end all that matters is that an employee meets or exceeds expectations. How they achieve the result is largely irrelevant from my point of view.

[ehoberge]

taking money for hours not worked

if one can work hard and achieve his objective in less time perhaps it's time to clock out or ask for more work.

It's crappy and outright theft to give the impression one is working when he is not and to not be forthright about workload and take money for hours one hasn't actually worked.

on the other hand, if you are on the up and up and your employer doesn't mind it, then all is fair.

Resonable Expectations

Work hard or work smart, in the end all that matters is that an employee meets or exceeds expectations. How they achieve the result is largely irrelevant from my point of view.

[ehoberge]

taking money for hours not worked

if one can work hard and achieve his objective in less time perhaps it's time to clock out or ask for more work.

It's crappy and outright theft to give the impression one is working when he is not and to not be forthright about workload and take money for hours one hasn't actually worked.

on the other hand, if you are on the up and up and your employer doesn't mind it, then all is fair.

Two hour slackers???

Hmmmmm, guess I am missing the point in the question of why the surveyed workers seemed to be slacking the 2 plus hours a day. Could this group represent disgruntled workers that have had to take pay cuts, benefit reductions along with having the term multi-tasking & cross training used as a way of having employees do jobs that were normally done by 3 people? Loyalty has been lost between the employees and employers which produces lack of pride in ones job. Also the top to bottom model of how are the executives spending their workday?leaving early for a quick 18 holes on the green? My advices to employers? lead by example, talk is cheap.

Two hour slackers???

Hmmmmm, guess I am missing the point in the question of why the surveyed workers seemed to be slacking the 2 plus hours a day. Could this group represent disgruntled workers that have had to take pay cuts, benefit reductions along with having the term multi-tasking & cross training used as a way of having employees do jobs that were normally done by 3 people? Loyalty has been lost between the employees and employers which produces lack of pride in ones job. Also the top to bottom model of how are the executives spending their workday?leaving early for a quick 18 holes on the green? My advices to employers? lead by example, talk is cheap.

Thanks for noticing...

As computers have made me more productive, compressing 8-12 hours into 4-6 hours of effort, I require - No I have earned the opportunity to relax and be compensated for my efforts that exceed my typewriting predecessors!

Slackers should be fired, producers should be compensated even in trivial ways like using the work PC for personal biz, however Morons that abuse their LAN - Internet privileges should be managed and corrected sternly, possibly even fired for putting their businesses at risk.

XXOO

Dan the Man ? CISA, CISSP

Thanks for noticing...

As computers have made me more productive, compressing 8-12 hours into 4-6 hours of effort, I require - No I have earned the opportunity to relax and be compensated for my efforts that exceed my typewriting predecessors!

Slackers should be fired, producers should be compensated even in trivial ways like using the work PC for personal biz, however Morons that abuse their LAN - Internet privileges should be managed and corrected sternly, possibly even fired for putting their businesses at risk.

XXOO

Dan the Man ? CISA, CISSP

[ehoberge]

cell phones and the internet and visiting

after taking a break to work at home and raise children, I went back to work. I was shocked. I would calculate our best employees spend hours on their cell phone while performing their work, coming in late, leaving early, visiting--there was a time when an associate would never be caught dead being idle and now I see them--one in particular who shoots the breeze with the staff for an hour plus at a time. They take food breaks as often as they need to and if they eat at their desks they don't count that as a lunch break. People here have claimed over time on days I have calculated two hours in breaks alone. I have clocked the woman sitting next to me as being on the office phone all day long with personal calls and the one sitting next to her on her cell phone for two to three hours collectively during the day. And they are considered hard workers.

There isn't enough work for me to actually be here. I moved from a high volume firm to a practice which has one or two huge cases at a time. But if I had the work load, I wouldn't be on the internet now. I never take personal calls, I get my coffee, I answer his phone (the lady next to me told me her boss answers his own phone and does his own filing--he comes in on Sundays because no one can really ask her to do anything)

oh well

[ehoberge]

cell phones and the internet and visiting

after taking a break to work at home and raise children, I went back to work. I was shocked. I would calculate our best employees spend hours on their cell phone while performing their work, coming in late, leaving early, visiting--there was a time when an associate would never be caught dead being idle and now I see them--one in particular who shoots the breeze with the staff for an hour plus at a time. They take food breaks as often as they need to and if they eat at their desks they don't count that as a lunch break. People here have claimed over time on days I have calculated two hours in breaks alone. I have clocked the woman sitting next to me as being on the office phone all day long with personal calls and the one sitting next to her on her cell phone for two to three hours collectively during the day. And they are considered hard workers.

There isn't enough work for me to actually be here. I moved from a high volume firm to a practice which has one or two huge cases at a time. But if I had the work load, I wouldn't be on the internet now. I never take personal calls, I get my coffee, I answer his phone (the lady next to me told me her boss answers his own phone and does his own filing--he comes in on Sundays because no one can really ask her to do anything)

oh well

[johnsonlite]

I am an Industrial Engineering with over 17 years in manufacturing. This article misses some fundamental modern business concepts.

1.The article is obviously surveying non value add employees if they are at a desk job. In other words, he is not survey real workers. Workers are people who are on the assembly lines, fix transmissions, nail boards, or flip hamburgers. These people spend practically zero time on computers. There a few desk value add people such as programmers, order takers, or graphic designers.

2. Supply and demand. It is poor business to simply want workers working all the time. They need to be working efficiently producing a sell-able product or service. Just producing efficiently is not enough. Producing a bunched of cars that won't sell is why the US auto industry is drowning today. Producing product that is not needed or not desired is a management fault.

3. Efficiency. As an Industrial Engineer, I can tell you a work station that has 70% efficiency is considered good. Many US auto makers have processes that are designed with less than 50% efficiency. Toyota pushes for 70%. Most Americans do not understand the detail and discipline that goes into this thinking. My experience in old thinking manufacturing in the US is that the work is forced and pushed on the worker, instead of thinking out the work station design so the worker will work efficiently . This concept goes beyond the work station and out into connecting processes and suppliers. Further, I would not say the Japanese worker is a strong worker; how ever I would say that they tend to work in a well designed work area and work smart.

4. Fatigue. An 8 hour shift has about 7 hours of available work time. At 70%, a person has about 5 hours of solid work.. Go to the gym and walk on a tread mill for 5 strait hours.


I did not waste time at work to write this. I am unemployed. All the plants that I worked for are now in Mexico. The auto company I worked for no longer pays me so now I can not afford a new truck. mmm.
And they wonder why sells are down.