Does longer hours mean more work done?

[SethDamien]

My boss has this peculiar idea that by extending our office hours would equal more work done.

 

Our normal working day is 10 hours already yet he's still "asking" for overtime!!!....especially during the weekends to compensate lost time as Christmas break is fast approaching.

 

All it ever does is make us tired and devoid us from having a social life and affects our overall well being...

 

i know where our boss is heading at.. i myself is in management and know the costs and implications, but is it being efficient? i highlighted efficient because it's the key word here.

 

Is there any way we can speed up production without overworking? Its an Architectural firm BTW. i like my work as it is, but if this keeps up, i swear im gonna quit.

[GemmaUK]

No.

 

The folk I know who work extended hours on a habitual basis actually spend much more time online or chatting.

 

I work alongside a woman who will have it believed that she works from 8am until 9pm each night.

She gets in just before the boss and then leaves when he is clear of the car park. Her hours at work are around 8.30am until 7pm.

If I stand at her side to ask a work question and she is talking I end up sitting down again because she will spend 10 minutes talking last nights TV.

She goes into town most days at lunchtime for an hour and a bit and then comes back and is online but will flick her screen while she takes an extra hour to eat her lunch.

She also goes online at 5.30pm but will maybe do a bit of work - half an hour or so until she leaves the office.

I've sat next to her for years now so have noticed. She is also one to say 'we haven't done xyz as we haven't had time....'

This is only one example - I have a few more going back over the years - including the finance director who spent his Friday morning doing and printing off his online shopping. The printer was right next to me! Lol!

 

In your line of work you are all up for health and RSI issues even at 10 hours per day.

 

Quitting sounds like a plan!

[MightyPen]

I'm guessing you bill clients hourly?

 

Some companies care less about efficiency than they do about billing clients larger amounts. For example, let's say Worker A could efficiently do a project in 2 hours @ $150 per hour and let's say he works an 8-hour day. Work A is happy and gets to go home at a reasonable time and the client pays for what they actually get.

 

Or...

 

Company makes Worker A stay longer. Worker A is less productive, goofs off more, etc., and so it takes her 3 hours to do the work she did in the above example in 2 hours. So she bills 3 hours to "account for" her time, and the company has now sent a bill for $450 as opposed to $300.

 

Of course if you don't bill hourly, I've just wasted your time (and mine!)

[carhill]

If productivity is being led well, there should be little room for capacity increases except by increasing the workforce. Those are metrics generally only known to the business owner or their controller and/or CEO.

 

IMO, it's inefficient to consistently work humans beyond their historical productivity matrix for any particular job task. Spurt work, perhaps, especially with team members who respond positively to such a matrix. Day after day, week after week? Inefficient. Usually people find ways to balance on the job or leave to find a more balanced job environment.

 

Most of my experience is in jobs which require physical and mental skills and have been, generally, dangerous. Definitely nothing like an architect engineering a building in an office, rather more like ironworkers erecting that building on-site. Different job matrix. IME, tired workers make mistakes and mistakes can kill people. None of us wants that. Sometimes bosses lose sight of such factors until getting bitten in the ass.

[preraph]

If you're in a position to and have credibility, you can sometimes make suggestions to increase efficiency. Amid much opposition, I set up a sort of retail recyling to cut back on the vast numbers of returns in the music wholesale industry. We began reshelving the top current sellers as well as the ones that more often came back, the steady catalog top sellers. This wasn't that hard to do and worked very well. The supervisor two people over me was livid at the time, thinking it would only cause more work, but it really didn't and saved us shipping costs. One store would be reordering this product from the warehouse while another was shipping back.

 

After I left that position I was working as a multi-label rep selling and managing a region, and I made a deal that put me number one in the nation by offering the government military buying hub my recycling plan in exchange for them stocking some early rap albums they didn't want to stock that were huge sellers elsewhere. (I also reminded them of the Constitution at the same time...)

 

But if you're in a position where you know you'd only be considered a troublemaker, which is SO often the case with people who can foresee problems coming, then I think the best strategy is wait until the first wave of other employees starting to complain about the situation and while the bosses are all in a twist about that, come in right away with the solution. That way you avoid being the perceived troublemaker and become the solution.

 

Working more hours should, in theory, mean more work, but we all know there's a limit. However, if it's something seasonal, like Christmas for anything manufactured or retail related, suck it up!

[edgygirl]

Typical of architectural firms. Slavery, low pay and inefficiency.

 

My accountant once said architects are the joke of the professional world -- for the long hours they work and the ridiculous low pay they get in comparison to other professionals that studied just as much.

 

Run while you can. I did. There are many other fields architects can work other than an architectural office.

[SethDamien]

I take it my best option is to quit?

 

I enjoy what i do. But its taking a toll on me. Im no longer living a balanced life. Im no longer happy with the hours i work versus the time i get to spend for myself.

 

Unfortunately, no other firm offers the same job with the same salary as the one i have now.

 

I work with one of the biggest firms here, more of a corporate setup and im the lead designer... if i move to other firms, which would be smaller than the one im in right now, most likely the designer would be the boss only... and i'd be stuck doing boring drafting work only.

 

My other option is to engage in private practice. But its risky and i still dont have the capital for such an endeavor.

[craw]

I read a lot of Inc.com, Forbes, other stuff like that. They've all stated QUIT YOUR JOB IF YOU'RE UNHAPPY.

 

I think this is 100% crap, reason being the job market is pretty ****. I don't know where you are in the States [?]. So I could be completely wrong.

 

Start looking at applying at other jobs - fix your portfolio up, your resume, get a blog going. whatever.

 

Also, see you want to turn one of your hobbies into a side business.

 

 

Read: Tim Ferriss - Four Hour Work Week for some ideas.

[preraph]

I would also just suggest that at interview, you point-blank ask them what the hours are. And if they say "and sometimes later," ask them how many hours a week it is, average. You have a right to know, and it will give you a little leverage when they try to change it.

 

Lots of people are afraid to ask questions in interview, but if you present yourself as someone with options and a savvy business person, most employers respect you for having some standards.

[jonsnuh]

Typical of architectural firms. Slavery, low pay and inefficiency.

 

My accountant once said architects are the joke of the professional world -- for the long hours they work and the ridiculous low pay they get in comparison to other professionals that studied just as much.

 

Run while you can. I did. There are many other fields architects can work other than an architectural office.

 

Working in the accounting/consulting field, I find this opinion surprising coming from an accountant.

 

We put in a ton of non-chargeable hours into the work we do, I've considered us as a joke. Maybe your accountant's found his/her work/life balance that many professionals in my field almost never achieve.

[GunslingerRoland]

If you're in mindless labor, sure more hours can produce more productivity (but can often increase injuries which is even more costly in the long run).

 

 

But in a knowledge field there are tons of studies out there showing that more hours reduce productivity.

 

 

Overtime happens sometimes in all fields, but a business model built around constant overtime is a really poor idea. Your paying people time and a half or double time and their productivity goes down fast.