[thelist] Filling up timesheets - good or bad?

[Erika Meyer]

>sometimes they want you to keep an up-to-the-minute activity log.
sometimes it's time to look for another job.

>The result was that most of us
>were scared to go to the kitchen or otherwise look like they're not working
>on warp 10 ALL THE TIME.
I absolutely hate this.  It is totally counter productive.  Ooh, employee 
burnout.  Paranoia.  Oh, that will really help productivity.  NOT.

>How many tips do I owe everyone? :)
The important question is, did you properly log the time you spent writing 
these posts?

I don't think it's offtopic.  We have to work, don't we.  We have to manage 
projects, don't we.  We have to find a way to communicate to non-technical 
managers the extent and complexity of our work.

The SF Chronicle has a weekly Sunday section called "Career" that is 
fantastic.  I might subscribe to the Sunday Chron (up here in Oregon) just 
for that.  I have learned a lot from those columns... one thing I learned 
from that, and from life, is that productivity cannot be balls to the wall 
100% all the time...  The best ideas probably happen in the space between 
planned activities. (time sheets may well be a plot to keep you 'in the box.')

Also, trying to fit people (like webdesigners, who have to do so many 
different kinds of work) into rigid charts, molds, trying to make them work 
the way you think they should work, trying to make people organize the way 
you think they should... is likely to be counter-productive and maybe breed 
resentment.

<tip>
Intelligent people don't like to be treated like machines.
</tip>

Erika