[thelist] Filling up timesheets - good or bad?

[Hendrik Mans]

Madhu,

> Our company requires that *everyone* fill in daily timesheets on our
> Intranet - right up to the departmental heads

*shudder*

The last company I worked for suddenly introduced the same policy. First I
didn't mind, then I realized it was not only annoying, but also not very
realistic. So I stopped filling them in. When I was "told" to continue
filling them in, I tried to sabotage that system by taking the time to list
*every stupid little thing*, including filling in the sheets itself. So my
timesheets looked like this:

10:23-10:34: worked on new article
10:34-10:35: wondered why the phone rang twice only
10:35-10:37: made two entries to the timesheet
10:37-10:37: decided to make coffee
10:37-10:42: made coffee
10:42-11:02: continued work on new article
etc

That got the message through. :-)

Personally, I think stuff like making employees fill out timesheet is the
worst a company can do. It's the kind of ideas people get from misguided
personell managers/trainers who believe that putting pressure on people
always makes them work better.

Also, don't believe these timesheets are actually used to keep track of what
people are doing. Managers/CEOs/etc know that it's a good way to make people
feel bad for slacking. Group dynamics and all. Bah.

Take care,
Hendrik