29. "How Long Is Your Work Hour?"
- Bianca Blanch
- Sep 18, 2020
- 4 min read
How do you measure productivity? The time you spend on the seat, or by the amount of work you get done? I believe the latter is a better measure, but have been burned by manager's who think the former. How do you navigate this issue?
My Experience of The Length of The Work Hour
In my career, I have had multiple manager's who felt the only way to measure your worth as an employee is for you to work 7.5 hours a day. Showing up at 9 am, and leaving at 5 pm. It seemed the actual work you got done in that time was a bonus, as long as you could show some progress that was all that counted.
Experience #1
Early on in my career, my manager told us all to work 9 am to 5 pm. There was definitely no option of working from home. I asked if I could work 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, to avoid the traffic, and this was approved, begrudgingly. My manager would occasionally walk around the building at 8:30 am to make sure I was in my office on time. I would be questioned if I was late to make sure I knew it was a privilege to start at 8:30 am.
Experience #2
I had another job with a manager who adhered to the same philosophy. Everyone in the group had to work from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. When I joined the group, the rules had relaxed a bit, we didn't need to text if we were going to be 5 minutes late.
To reinforce this point, in a team meeting the manager told everyone that if we did not work for 1 minute of which we were paid, we were stealing. This was in a health setting so they likened it to stealing from sick patients.
These two experiences really reinforced the anxiety I still carry to this day, how productive am I? Am I taking too long to complete this task? Is my job in jeopardy? Ironically, all this extra anxiety likely causes me to take longer to do the task.
Experience #3
Another manager I had did not monitor our work hours, instead just looked at the work we produced. This manager did not care what hours we worked, as long as we did the hours and the work was done. This was a refreshing approach.
This idea was reinforced during my PhD. As a PhD student, you do many, many more hours than the recommended full-time load. In this time, I quickly saw the hours didn't matter, the productivity did. Some days I would achieve nothing in 2 days despite working over 14 hours, other times everything would just align and I would get a whole bunch of sh*t done in hours, rather than days.
This approach was reinforced during my time in start-ups where the only measure is how much high quality work you get done, as quickly as possible.
Today, this is my work philosophy to get things done to a high quality and not worry so much about how long it takes. The most important thing is the quality of the work, as if you get it done quickly at a low quality, you will just need to fix it up later and use more time and resources. But I still have moments where I get anxious about leaving a bit early, or coming into work late, where I worry if I will get into trouble from my manager.
What's Your Experience of the Length of the Work Hour?
I don't really have any lessons this week. This is a personal choice, and may be the artefact of the workplace and work culture you have been trained in or worked.
So what is your experience of how long your work day should be? We are humans, so it is physically impossible to work every minute of which you are paid, e.g. bathroom breaks, getting a drink, snacking etc. Also, I find I am more productive if I take a break and chat with a colleague to break up complicated tasks.
I recently looked into how lawyers, with their infamous billable hours regime, charge for an hour. In a billable hour, for every hour that you work you get 6 minutes of personal time. This means, in a 7 hour work day, you get 42 minutes of personal time. I think if manager's want more productive staff who do not get burnt out or stressed, they should adopt and encourage this approach.
How long is your work day? Are there strict rules around time? Are you treated as a trusted or untrustworthy employee? Let me know your experience by leaving a comment below or emailing me at AuthenticResearchExperiences@gmail.com
BB
Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash
I will write a new post every Friday about another aspect of the research world. Please email me to subscribe to my blog. AuthenticResearchExperiences@gmail.com
I am also an avid reader of start-up stories, or research a passionate person has embarked upon any topic. Click here if you want some new book recommendations.
Comments