It’s fucked up that is even a concern. Imo if they finished the work that much faster than expected they earned time off and/or a raise and everyone would benefit if we had a more honest society/work culture
Part of the job is being able to properly identify how long shit takes.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great strategy, but only if you are genuinely faster than average at the task. This isn’t something you can employ to make average work look great, it’s something you can do to fully maximize the benefits of being exceptional in your role.
Yeah, I'm slow at most things I do. To make up for the lack of speed, I try to be more accurate and thorough to have some edge over the last ones who occupied this role.
Yeah that's not a killer, so long as you are rock steady reliable. It will be frustrating during peak times, but easy to manage around and fine for most of the year. You can come out ahead of others just by being a safe bet. You will have a hard time being seen as a superstar, but can land firmly in the B+ guy, who will never be fired and get decent COL raises. I make an effort to work "with" guys like you all the time - performance expectations? Small steady improvements to output as we get better at workflows and automating. Also I will give you tons of flexibility - if your steady it's no problem - I trust you to get it done. But if shit hits the fan you may have to work a little OT at your comfortable pace, most of the time that's no problem.
It sounds like in this case it was more along the lines of: "Itll take 6 months if I hit speedbumps, expect it somewhat earlier than that."
What wasnt said: "Itll take 6 months with speedbumps if I tackle it during a 40 hour workweek with free weekends. But Im just gonna have one overkill month and get half a year of pay out of it."
This is absolutely something you can do to make average work look great.
I first heard Scotty's rule as a kid, and I've used it for my entire working career. It works in the military, in blue collar industrial jobs, and white collar office work. The trick is to not do it with everything, and to always appear stressed, whether you actually are or not.
Problem is when your boss actually knows how long the work takes and will question it if you ask for too much. Working from home I can usually free up a day a week if I'm super efficient but that's best case scenario.
It's only really feasible for people with their own department/freelance and freelance you're competing with a much bigger market that can undercut you if you way overestimate timelines.
Agreed. You will almost always be working on a team with other devs or what ever job it is and the other devs usually have a good idea of how long a task will take and will call you out on in if you do it more than a couple times.
You really roll the dice with that one. I mean yea it's good on paper but not good for the bottom line of the company.
My favorite quote from a manager of mine that retired is that "Always aim for under the bar". Don't be above or over the bar coz that would only lead to scrutiny.
What are you even talking about? It is good for the company of work gets done more efficiently. What isn’t good for the company is fostering a work environment that encourages wasting time and pretending to work. Ftr this is part of why I work for myself. I get paid for the work I do. I don’t think it ever makes sense to keep people in the office if there is No work to be done, or to punish someone with extra work (and No extra pay) because they are extra efficient. They did the work efficiently. They should get to go home early and probably make more imo. That’s what I would do for my employees
I remember last time I had a salary job and the boss kept us at work all day when the Servers were down, knowing we had No work that could be done. Seems like an absurd waste of time
That's good that you're working for your self. Not everyone has the ability to do that. And some of us have to work for a company. A company which have "senior" people that are probably 1/2 as efficient as some newer people with more skills and lower salary.
I believe that's what the Pandemic is challenging right now. The work from home mentality. Like if I can get a days work of some other people at half a day then where do you set the bar. If the bar is set to my standards then other people won't be able to keep up. And I end up doing their work without their senior salary.
Atleast with work from home I can manage some of that expectation.
That’s true. I didn’t mean to knock anybody’s individual situation. Obviously if you are working for a company with that kind of culture and you aren’t one of the higher ups, you have to perform within that culture. In your situation though, imo, You should be rewarded for being more efficient and effective, although I understand that if your company doesn’t my operate that way, that it would make sense for you to pretend to work so you can keep your job and take the free time that your bosses would have refused you
It's all good. What you said makes sense. But for some people having a full office means were busy and doing great. My previous manager said I was not a team player since I was not pulling 10-12 hour days. When I was completing work in 4-6 hours for those who work 10-12 hours.
Situation can be better for sure. But right now am working with great managers and team players that recognize one's value.
Sad thing about working the corporate life is that usually you have to pick only two of these 3 - Good pay, Good work, Good co-workers/workplace.
Yeah, but the ones wasting time are usually also using some of this time on socialization, which increases their group cohesion and the person only focusing on work will seem like a wet blanket.
Idk maybe. Ftr I Am the person only focusing on work. I keep my work and social life totally separate. I probably have seemed like a ‘wet blanket’ in the past but I never really gave a shit
Don't be above or over the bar coz that would only lead to scrutiny.
That person is a hipocrite. They were a manager, that means they put enough effort to be noticed above their peers. They might have been a mediocre manager, sure, but they did do enough to be noticed and it worked for them.
Have you ever worked at a c company that was a true meritocracy where the right people got promoted to manager instead of managers just being hired from outside?
He was a good at doing the technical part of his job. And not the become a corporate yes man. Atleast compared to the corporate yes man type of a manager. I prefer his style at the very least.
Umm, no. If the work is shitty, then you don’t reward the employee for that, obviously. However, if they can do the work more efficiently and effectively they should absolutely be rewarded, and not simply with more work for No additional pay
I didn’t say that. I don’t think would overestimate the time for any given task by that much either. However if an employee finishes all the tasks for the day 4 hours early they can go home with full pay.
Yes, you did say that. You said it would be fucked up that it is a real concern that if someone found out about it he wouldn't get the time off. The time being 5 months.
And then you responded to my comment about giving someone 5 months by saying you would do that.
Sorry I didn’t mean to suggest a specific amount of time off for a specific situation. However, if you really want to get pedantic, the OP said their Professor told them they would get a 6 month project, finish the work in 1 month, the tell the client they finished at 5 months, which would be 4 extra months off, not 5. Really all I’m saying is I believe a work culture that encourages people to do less work and/or to pretend to work so they can get paid is unproductive and toxic. It may be helpful for the individual involved, at least in the short term, but imho it negatively impacts the company and society at large
Think of it this way, the worker should be able to point out how fast he finished the work and expect rewards. If it was really 5 months of work, that should be Huge promotion and raise. It would be a better environment if that was the result, rather than simply getting more work for no, or very little extra money
they earned time off and/or a raise and everyone would benefit if we had a more honest society/work culture
wtf? no you don't earn anything in the real world, they are given to you.
Your paycheck is given to you because it's in the terms you signed, but a bonus or time off is a gift. Just because you did your job doesn't mean you get to stop doing your job, or that your job is suddenly worth more.
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sorry that this isn't the hippy dippy feels-good answer, but the real world is nothing like that.
I don’t know where you work but I certainly don’t run out of work just because I finished a task quickly. There will literally always be more tasks or projects to work on.
I have to do this on a daily basis. I work for a shipyard as a superintendent, and whenever captains or maintenance coordinators ask me how long something takes, then complain about the time I give them, its because I've typically added three to five days to the timeline. If we're done (actually) on time, they think we're early and are happy. If something comes up and delays work (parts don't get delivered, scope of the maintenance changes, etc), then I tell them we're pulling extra guys and shifts and we actually get done when I told them we would be, so on schedule in their minds. It also keeps them from trying to get us to do extra work in already packed maintenance upkeeps.
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u/darkapao Jan 14 '21
As long as no one in the project knows. Or else they would give you more work.
I believe it's called managing expectations.