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I can't believe how negative the article's comments are. Is everyone so addicted to work? I would understand if I could work at top performance 10-12 hours a d

I can't believe how negative the article's comments are. Is everyone so addicted to work? I would understand if I could work at top performance 10-12 hours a day, 5 days a week but that's just not possible for me. In the end driving developers to exhaustion is worse for everyone, with subpar code that'll probably require refactoring Monday morning.

Disruptive_Dave 12y ago
Yes, everyone is addicted to work. This is what we've been conditioned to know/believe/live. I'd also venture to say "fear" is the foundation upon which many managers/motivators operate, at least here in the U.S. Remote work has the same challenges; "if I can't see my employee at his desk, he's probably screwing off somewhere!". It's lazy, but it's what most know.
- fsloth 12y ago
  "Remote work has the same challenges; "if I can't see my employee at his desk, he's probably screwing off somewhere!" This should not be a problem in a sane software development shop because there should be a way to track a) code reviews done b) tickets implemented/code merged /etc. LOC/hour is a crappy metric for software development but averaging these over, say, six months should give some indication if someone is slacking off. Or just working in a different project than anyone else but task based variances ahould be accounted for. It does not give a "perfect metric" that could be used for perf evaluation but should be a sufficient safe guard against total slackers.
  - iopq 12y ago
    I've implemented 300 tickets. All of them typo fixes. You've only implemented 100 tickets like Bitcoin payment integration and the DB migration. I should get a raise.
    - fsloth 12y ago
      Could you please re-read my last sentence in the message you responded to :)
Igglyboo 12y ago
"If he gets to work 4 days then why can't I?"
- falcolas 12y ago
  Go for it! Just make sure that you meet the deadlines we've agreed upon, just like he did.
falcolas 12y ago
> Is everyone so addicted to work? I would say that everyone is addicted to the thought that attendance == effort. It's just such an easy measuring stick to use when comparing the relative worth of two people. <s> I mean, come on. That other lady might be "smart", but she leaves at 5, but I'm here until 6, so I deserve the raise, not her. </s>
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  >> "I would say that everyone is addicted to the thought that attendance == effort" This is very true. Personally I find that after a certain number of hours my ability to write good code and solve problems is significantly diminished. Although I would love Friday off personally I would find it more useful to finish at 3pm or 4pm instead of 6pm as that's when my productivity declines quickly. First of all that's a waste of my time in those final few hours as I'm getting much less done. But for the company I think if I had an extra few hours every evening I would be better rested and prepared for the next day and probably more productive in those first 6/7 productive hours.
engendered 12y ago
Is everyone so addicted to work? The overwhelming majority of people are in a situation where such a practice isn't possible. Jealousy is a very, very strong emotion, and leads to the crab mentality. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality You see it in any sort of "someone has a better situation than me" post.
swatow 12y ago
Based on what you wrote, I expected the comments to be along the lines of "who do these privileged man-children think they are, don't they realize what real work is?". But when I read them, I saw they were more along the lines of "this can't last". Which I agree with. 40 hour weeks (or more) are the norm across the entire industry. I've met some people in small companies who work less (or have a lot of vacation). I envy the lifestyle, but these positions are fairly niche and definitely not the norm. I would be very happy to do 75% of my current work for 75% of the pay. Unfortunately things don't scale like that for a number of reasons. E.g. a team of 8 people working at 75% will not be as effective as a team of 6 people working at 100%. Coordination is costly, and the fewer people can get a job done, the better.
maaku 12y ago
Selection bias.

Disruptive_Dave 12y ago

Yes, everyone is addicted to work. This is what we've been conditioned to know/believe/live. I'd also venture to say "fear" is the foundation upon which many managers/motivators operate, at least here in the U.S. Remote work has the same challenges; "if I can't see my employee at his desk, he's probably screwing off somewhere!". It's lazy, but it's what most know.

fsloth 12y ago
"Remote work has the same challenges; "if I can't see my employee at his desk, he's probably screwing off somewhere!" This should not be a problem in a sane software development shop because there should be a way to track a) code reviews done b) tickets implemented/code merged /etc. LOC/hour is a crappy metric for software development but averaging these over, say, six months should give some indication if someone is slacking off. Or just working in a different project than anyone else but task based variances ahould be accounted for. It does not give a "perfect metric" that could be used for perf evaluation but should be a sufficient safe guard against total slackers.
- iopq 12y ago
  I've implemented 300 tickets. All of them typo fixes. You've only implemented 100 tickets like Bitcoin payment integration and the DB migration. I should get a raise.
  - fsloth 12y ago
    Could you please re-read my last sentence in the message you responded to :)

Igglyboo 12y ago

"If he gets to work 4 days then why can't I?"

falcolas 12y ago
Go for it! Just make sure that you meet the deadlines we've agreed upon, just like he did.

falcolas 12y ago

> Is everyone so addicted to work? I would say that everyone is addicted to the thought that attendance == effort. It's just such an easy measuring stick to use when comparing the relative worth of two people. <s> I mean, come on. That other lady might be "smart", but she leaves at 5, but I'm here until 6, so I deserve the raise, not her. </s>

k-mcgrady 12y ago
>> "I would say that everyone is addicted to the thought that attendance == effort" This is very true. Personally I find that after a certain number of hours my ability to write good code and solve problems is significantly diminished. Although I would love Friday off personally I would find it more useful to finish at 3pm or 4pm instead of 6pm as that's when my productivity declines quickly. First of all that's a waste of my time in those final few hours as I'm getting much less done. But for the company I think if I had an extra few hours every evening I would be better rested and prepared for the next day and probably more productive in those first 6/7 productive hours.

engendered 12y ago

Is everyone so addicted to work? The overwhelming majority of people are in a situation where such a practice isn't possible. Jealousy is a very, very strong emotion, and leads to the crab mentality. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality You see it in any sort of "someone has a better situation than me" post.

swatow 12y ago

Based on what you wrote, I expected the comments to be along the lines of "who do these privileged man-children think they are, don't they realize what real work is?". But when I read them, I saw they were more along the lines of "this can't last". Which I agree with. 40 hour weeks (or more) are the norm across the entire industry. I've met some people in small companies who work less (or have a lot of vacation). I envy the lifestyle, but these positions are fairly niche and definitely not the norm. I would be very happy to do 75% of my current work for 75% of the pay. Unfortunately things don't scale like that for a number of reasons. E.g. a team of 8 people working at 75% will not be as effective as a team of 6 people working at 100%. Coordination is costly, and the fewer people can get a job done, the better.

maaku 12y ago

Selection bias.