[thechat] people who work weekends: a rant

Matt Warden mwarden at gmail.com
Sun Nov 2 11:49:47 CST 2008


On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 1:14 PM, Erika <ekm at seastorm.com> wrote:
> a. they've been slacking off for weeks, and now trying mightily to meet
> a deadline...

A pretty hefty assumption!

> b. they are stress-puppies who, despite the fact that everything is on
> schedule, fear fear fear that something will go wrong and the project,
> and company can ONLY be rescued by their working the weekend.  Again,
> they feel heroic and/or martyriffic for working the weekend.

I think it depends a lot on the gig. For example, if I need 2-3 hours
uninterrupted to get something done, that pretty much leaves nights or
the weekend. Obviously that has some to do with the office
environment, but also the position and probably the industry. A web
programmer in industry probably gets bothered less than a manager in
professional services.

> d. people who are operating from this state are generally 1/3 as
> productive as someone who works reasonable hours, gets reasonable rest,
> and has a life outside of work.  But the important thing is all the
> hours they are putting in, right?

You are right on this one. In Jan/Feb of this year I was pulling some
very long weeks and a couple unavoidable all nighters related to data
conversion activities prior to a production deployment (not an issue
of slacking -- an issue of maximum allowable window without affecting
users on the production system). Trying to work through a problem at
5am of an all nighter is noticeably difficult even with loads of Red
Bull.

> e. because on top of all this, they tend to put on a huge show, and do a
> holier than thou dance should you refuse to join them in the silliness.

Ok, now I get what your beef is. I agree that the show is annoying.
And, to be honest, being the recipient of such a show is just
insulting. If I can't realize that extra hours would have had to be
put in to get A, B, and C done, then either (a) I suck as a mgr or (b)
it shouldn't have taken that long to get done.

You need a blog. :)


-- 
Matt Warden
Cincinnati, OH, USA
http://mattwarden.com


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