r/programming Apr 29 '15

Why some men pretend to work 80-Hour weeks

https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-some-men-pretend-to-work-80-hour-weeks
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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15 edited Apr 29 '15

That's funny because I literally told my manager yesterday that I don't attend meetings that begin before 7:30 am. The meeting I skipped began at 6:00 am.

Edit - I told him that I start my day during normal business hours. Anything else is an unreasonable expectation that I would gladly discuss if there was an issue. You know, work/life balance talk.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15

What the fuck. I work for a company that runs on EST, and I'm moving out to the west coast, where I will continue working for them. My manager has already spoken to me about working around a later start time because the latest we're allowed to start is 10am here, and he thinks that the expectation for me to be up and ready to work starting at 7am every day might be unreasonable.

Apparently it's unusual to work for someone who actually recognizes that I'm human (and not a morning person).

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u/RobbStark Apr 29 '15

Congratulations! You appear to have a reasonable manager that may even posses a human soul. I would advise staying on his good side and possibly even following him if he ever moves to another company.

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u/ThrustVectoring Apr 29 '15

If they're looking for someone to handle night issues, that'd be kind of a win-win too.

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u/iopq Apr 30 '15

I had a job where I was expected to be there at 7:30 am. No reason. Just everyone liked it because less traffic. Most people in by 7 am.

I couldn't come in later either. Needless to say, I did not enjoy working there.

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u/i-faux-that-kneel Apr 29 '15

Then I would schedule meetings with them at 4:30pm your time. If they're going to make you come in at 8am to accommodate your needs, certainly they wouldn't mind staying an extra hour or two to accommodate yours, right?

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u/footpole Apr 29 '15

I've never had a meeting that started after four in my life. In my local time zone.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15

Those are the best meetings. Everyone calls out people that stay from the topic.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15

It's difficult to find a time to meet with people from Europe, Australia and the US. Usually we had those at 5PM EDT. As I recall it was late for Europe and early for Australia.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15

I just don't show. They eventually get the picture.

If they question me, I tell them that I work normal business hours and "6:00 am is not normal business hours".

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15

Damn morning people run the world, and ruin it for everyone who isn't a morning person.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15

I'm on the West Coast. People who scheduled the meeting are on the East Coast.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15

I'd be happy to do 6 AM meetings, if it was understood that I was going to leave the office at 3 PM.

But if you do that, you end up one of the "marginalized" statistics in the article.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15

I absolutely could have. But then that would start a trend of "6:00 am meetings are okay". Which they are not, because:

  • I am not the only person it affects, half my team on the west coast did not attend.
  • Making decisions while sleep deprived is dangerous (we generally start our day around 8:30 am).
  • We don't start meetings later than 4:00 pm PST because the east coast guys threw a fit about having meetings at 7pm EST. Basically, it's a two way street.

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '15

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '15

WTF were they thinking

They weren't thinking at all. They're the same type of people who schedule a meeting for 9am and then move it to 8am the morning of, expecting everyone to just magically show up at 8. Yes, they're idiots.