[thechat] people who work weekends: a rant

[Roger Austin]

Erika started it, then:
Luther, Ron wrote:
> Martin also noted:
>>> Possibly, although I think gameplaying is often rarer than feared.
> 
> Really?  Damn!  Must be nice to work with adults!  My experience is 
different.  I've seen gameplaying in every company I've ever worked
for.  The worst, though, was in Akron.  Anyone working late or coming
in over the weekend had to sign in and out at the guard's desk.  Every
Monday morning the CEO would stop at the guard's desk and look through
the log to see who came in over the weekend and how long they were
there.  And everybody in the company knew he did that.  So we had
people who would come in every Saturday and write out their bills,
use the phone, surf the web, read a book ... anything to kill a few
hours and get noticed by the CEO.

  It all depends on the organization, but the CEOs are probably not
stupid (well, maybe some of them.) The only issue is if you lose a
tie with that person in promotion or salary. Most managers know who
their productive people are already. (I really don't know how you
measure developer/designer productivity though.)

  All the techniques for game playing can be effective tools in the
corporate world. One problem is that it really is for nothing since
a management change can put you right back where you started except
with pissed off co-workers. You just hope you can outlive them.