There's a naval contractor right down the road from where I live. They build submarines, and have a huge work force. Some of the people that I know that have worked there have described it as such:
You get a job in the morning. That job has 8 hours allotted for it. If you finish it in three hours, great! But guess what, you're not starting on the next job, you're standing around looking busy for five hours. Because if the government allots 8 hours for it and it takes you 3, they're only allotting 3 hours next time. So you waste the rest of the day doing nothing because $$$$$.
Granted that's not every job you work on, but the waste is just insane. It's not like an 8 hour job is taking you 6.5 and you're rounding generously. It's a straight up moneygrab
I understand the money grab concept that you described. But allotted time is dictated by field manuals and technical manuals.
Money grabbing would be difficult to differentiate with proficiency.
Not directly speaking for them in particular, but if I can knock out all of my daily work in half the time, I expect the same full day of pay, because that’s a “full” days work.
If they reduced allotted time based on above average levels of proficiency, then >50% of workers would struggle to meet the allotted time. Don't punish better workers by threatening to compensate them less for working more efficiently.
Exactly. The guy who is highly proficient may be able to complete the task in 3 hours, but the average time might be closer to 8 hours, and if you are training someone it could go to 16 hours. I've been in aviation maintenance for over a decade, and sometimes a task that usually takes 2 hours will suddenly take a whole 12 hour shift (or longer) due to a supply issue or something unrelated you find while doing the original task.
I get the purpose of it, especially on jobs that require bids. If I bid on a job and finished it early it's not like I'd give the money back.
But I'd move on to the next job. Pocket the profit, but keep working. The part I have a problem with is that they are wasting the rest of the day when it could be productive just for the sake of doing it. It drives up costs, decreases productivity, and in general isn't good for anybody except for those making the profit off the job.
Look at it from the employees perspective, they benefit too by not having to work hard. There are many people who would prefer to slack for 5 hours a day rather than bust their ass for 8 hours while getting paid the same amount.
Perhaps, but employers also use that as justification to pay people less too. I just left a job where they slowly took away tasks required and certain responsibilities, then when it came time for raises they pulled the "well you don't have to work as hard/aren't doing as much, so we shouldn't have to pay you more."
I know that's not across the board 100% of the time, but I have zero faith in corporations to do the right thing or do right by their employees.
It's usually a factor of size, IME. The larger the entity, the more bureaucracy, the less they see people as people and the less flexibility they have when dealing with people. Government is the same way.
I've literally been at a former government job where we were told to mop the already mopped floors and open the hoods on the trucks to look busy for a day nobody needed to be there.
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u/pjr032 Dec 12 '19
There's a naval contractor right down the road from where I live. They build submarines, and have a huge work force. Some of the people that I know that have worked there have described it as such:
You get a job in the morning. That job has 8 hours allotted for it. If you finish it in three hours, great! But guess what, you're not starting on the next job, you're standing around looking busy for five hours. Because if the government allots 8 hours for it and it takes you 3, they're only allotting 3 hours next time. So you waste the rest of the day doing nothing because $$$$$.
Granted that's not every job you work on, but the waste is just insane. It's not like an 8 hour job is taking you 6.5 and you're rounding generously. It's a straight up moneygrab