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Star Wars Sickout
Brahmastra writes "The New York Post reports that it will cost employers $628,880,000 in lost productivity on the first two days of Star Wars Episode III - Return of the Sith . How many of you are planning to skip at least part of your workday on the first two days?"
...so I guess I'll pick up your slack AGAIN!
What self-respecting SW fan still has a JOB? They're all in line already. The loss will be negligible. There might even be a net increase in productivity.
No gods, no demons, and no masters. Secular Humanism!
It's going to be a fun day at the office Thursday :-)
I'm going to convince my kids to play hookey and they can come along too!
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
I learned my lesson with Episodes one and two.
There are two things at play here, how bad those two movies were, and the fact that I can no longer properly function on 3 hours of sleep in an a non-emergency work situation.
"We're so tough we're made of nerf!" --D&D Character Tagline
...what's that?
vk.
Well, that's because I work for myself. But I still wouldn't go the first days, lines too long and theater is too crowded. I'll be working like normal until a good weekend a few weeks after release and then...I'll be out of town and busy with SATs so maybe I'll just rent it, maybe.
-Tim Louden
People have to learn to live off of 3 hours of sleep. The movie start at midnight on Wednesday. It will be over at 2:30am. I'll be home be 3am. Asleep by 4am and wake up at 7am. Typical night for a programmer.
Somehow, I'm not a bit surprised. :)
Not only am I going to Star Wars next week, I'm planning on taking my staff as well. So I guess I'll be the one responsible for the loss of productivity in my own area. Oh well, c'est la vie.
Reminder: Apple owns 1/255th of the internet.
Kids at my school drove through red lights at twelve midnight to get tickets (they bought a whole row), and now they're scalping them at my school. They're so afraid that the tickets will be stolen, that they carry knives with them. The movie's sold out at the local theatre now, and I blame them.
Star Wars Episode III will also consume 38.75% of the total available Internet bandwidth once a 1337 CAM is torrented.
I know what you're thinking. Did I forward 65,535 packets or 65,536 packets?
but after Episode 1, that part of my childhood was killed deader than Boba Fett in a Sarlac's digestive tract...
I couldn't take any more pain-- So I skipped episode 2. I'll do the same with 3.
Remember though... safety in numbers .. get a large group together and you'll likely stave off any tight-assed managers from complaining.
Using the numbers on the article, each of the 4.8 million employed people who will see the movie will play hooky for the full day.
So, if I want to go to a 7pm showing, I'll be costing my company my time for the whole day?
Something smells a little fishy..
...that they got the title of the movie wrong?
It's a flawed analysis. They study implies that these people otherwise wouldn't have these days off. People who get vacation time tend to either take it when they can so as not to lose it, or they accrue it to cash in later. It's as much a part of compensation as actual pay. On the other hand, hourly employees who don't get vacation time are only costing themselves money, so there's no business loss. *Sigh*, more people who think they can model the world with incredibly flawed assumptions.
"Nature doesn't care how smart you are. You can still be wrong." - Richard Feynman
I'm just waiting for Lucas to stop murdering the memory of Star Wars.
That, and Serenity.
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
With the bad reviews from fans of the previous two movies they need to hype it up to make sure they're coming.
I just hope that the improvements in the second part of Episode 2 continue in this sequel.
bash$
My last exam was today, so that means I have exactly two weeks of freedom before I start my summer semester. And how perfect is that? A whole weekend to relax, and of course, go see SW:RotS.
(and please, please, don't suck.)
Sincerely, a huge original trilogy fan.
The fact is, you don't just magically get time off when a new movie comes out. Someone has to cover for you where you work, or your work doesn't get done. If your work doesn't get done, you get fired. How does this add up to billions in lost funds?
Do, do not, or delegate to someone else: there is no try.
reference to They Live
eat shiat and bark at the moon
If somebody takes PTO for the day they are out, the time and $$$ has already been accounted for.
If the person makes up for it by working harder or coming in over the weekend, then the lost time is recovered. Lost opportunity is another matter and harder to measure.
It isn't as simple as adding up all the hours and multiplying by the hourly wage, but then again, I don't think the target demographic of the NY Post is people with MBAs.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I needed it off to go to my Uncle Obi-Wan's funeral. He didn't catch it at first.
Join moola.com, play games to earn money.
I plan on being there at the 7 A.M. showing at the theater down the road.
But, seriously, it's pretty common for people to skip out or come in late to work when there is something they really want to do. A couple of my co-workers recently took a 3-hour lunch to go and play golf. They made up their work hours and got their assigned work done. I've found that most employers don't care if you take a few hours off every once in a while as long as you get your work completed.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Why, it wouldn't be a slashdot article if one didn't happen.
It would appear that /. has become nothing more than a news aggregator for news aggregators. Over the past week or so, I've read just about every /. article on Fark, NewsForge or TheReg a day or two before they hit /. ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
I'm not the ideal when it comes to responsibility, but c'mon. What the hell's the point in skipping work for a movie. It's not like some once in a lifetime concert that's only playing one night. This movie will be available on some form of media till long after you die!
That way if it sucks I don't have to face my co-workers with the fact that I left them hanging to go see a movie. In fact I don't expect to see it until it's been out for about two weeks.
Who will stick to their plans? I planned to go see HHGG the first day.. and I haven't even seen it yet. I probably won't for a week or three.
Judging by people I know and myself out of every 10 who plan to go first day only 2-3 will make it.
I like muppets.
all the gamers who don't go will get 20ms pings :D
That's a pathetic excuse. I'm just quitting.
I think I'm finally starting to appreciate the prequels. I think ROTS will reveal the things that seemed dumb in TPM and AOTC to have been part of a large web of deceit.
I thought it was stupid to have Anakin and Kenobi guard the princess in AOTC, but in light of ROTS it's clear that Padme is about as unsettling on Anakin as Palpatine is. When Anakin kills the village of sandpeople she doesn't take him to task, and actually goads him into disobeying the Jedi counsel in going to Geonosis.
Finally, it's the fact that she may die in ROTS that pushes Anakin over the edge, after having already lost his mother and blaming the Jedi for it. That girl almost doomed us all.
Now if only the acting could have been better. *sigh*
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
but if I can use it as an excuse to go fishing, than all I can say is yeeee harrrr
We get this gem?
On top of an airplane scaring preznit spooky-pants' friends?
Someone felt compelled to write this feature story to take up column inches because there isn't anything more important going on in the world?
Here's some news: people who don't have health insurance will be forced to pay eleventy zillion dollars for health care this year.
Oh, look! A white lady ran away from her wedding/drowned her kids/got murdered by her bored husband!
I sense a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of employers suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
and i have to goto Manhatten late next week. the queues will be irrational. i hope my client doesn't mind.
I drink to make you more interesting
That pretty much ended my paying to see Star Wars.
If they had girlfriends, they'd be pissed at them.
Is this anything like the RIAA giving estimated losses due to copyright infringement? If so, I think we all know it's a bit overstated.
Get a life...
Well on the other hand you could argue that Episode I, was a very Republican affair with all the union-busting jedis, evil tariffs and such.
John Carmack fan, browsing at +5 since 1999.
Yeah, right. This is the final installment in the series so it's not like this is going to be one of many "productivity hits" that businesses will have to suffer. You want to bitch about a productivity hit, why not bitch about the dumbasses who cannot follow IT department policy about opening insecure attachments and who do other things like that which open them up to worms? God only knows how much money businesses have lost to such willfully negligent behavior.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
The company I work for announced a couple of days ago a "Company Workshop" on 5/29, at the local megaplex. And... it is for the whole family. My company employs about 20, and *everyone* is going.
Fringe benefit to working at an uber-geek company.
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Since I and some of my friends have tickets to a gold class 12:01 screening, I did the sensible thing and applied for annual leave for the 19th and 20th.
:)
Got it approved too, despite having the reason field saying "Recovering from Star Wars midnight session"
And if you're wondering "why gold class?", it's simply because we don't trust the movie to be any good. With gold class we'll at least have very comfy seats, snacks brought in to us, and no screaming kids in the cinema (we booked out the entire gold class cinema). So, even if the movie sucks (I hope it doesn't!), it won't be a terrible night.
How many of you are planning to skip at least part of your workday on the first two days?
:-\ ) that I will be unavailable that day (May 19th). My Son, my GF, my Mom and, myself have tickets (again, literally hanging on my fridge).
Well I already have my physical tickets hanging from my 'fridge. I also flat-out told my managers (yes plural...
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
Skip work?! Nah... work's PAYING for the entire engineering team to go watch the movie :)
well, isnt that awkward?
-EL
I was just reading the New York Post about this.
They are reporting that it will cost employers $628,880,000 in lost productivity on the first two days of Star Wars Episode III!
The findings are based on the assumption that attendance during the first two days will match that of the last "Star Wars" blockbuster, "Episode II -- Attack of the Clones," which attracted 9.4 million people in in 2002.
Challenger estimates that 4.8 million of those opening-day attendees are employed at least 35 hours per week. With those full-timers earning an average of $130.60 per day, the two-day cost in terms of lost wages and productivity would be a staggering $626,880,000, he said.
So, even estimating that their 4.8 million figure is right, they assume that all of these 4.8 million people will skip the entire day to watch a 2 hour movie? Not only do those attendance figures for episode 2 include midnight showings the previous night (I went the the 12:01 and was into work bright and early the next morning), but they don't even realize that probably *half* the showtimes are *after* work hours. I know a lot of people that are catching the Thursday or Friday evening of the show. Granted, there is a hit to production, but it's nowhere *near* the figure they speculate in the article.
-- Jinsaku
Off by $2,000,000.
Brahmastra, this has to stop now. Either copy-paste your quotes, or stop doing drugs.
I work in the movie business, and a whole bunch of us are planning on a "field research" trip, with the company's knowledge. And I get to deduct the cost of my ticket as a business-related expense.
-Tom Duff
Do. Or do not. There is no plan.
Something tells me more money is lost every day on employees using their time to post on forums and talk about nothing on IRC than what will be lost the first two days of a movie series that is highly overrated, hyped and most importantly, lost it's glory and all my interest after the first (or last, depending on view) three movies.
9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
Aren't Star Wars fans the pencil necks, wearing the fake pointy ears and working the McDonald's drive-thru? Somehow I think the world economy will survive their absense for a day or two...or forever.
Boba Fett didn't die in the sarlac's digestive tract. . . Or do you know that?
I honestly don't know!
Hey, you think your house is cool?
Natalie Portman, naked and petrified.
I've been lucky, I've worked at 3 different places when each movie has come out. Each employer has had scheduled outings for all employess to go see it on openining day!
My group at Amazon (while we're not busy coming up with things to patent) is taking a group trip to see it on Friday. I wasn't going to pay to go see it on my own, but now, the price is right.
Apparently someone here thinks that going to see it, overall, isn't a loss. Furthermore, they think paying for us to go see it isn't a loss.
Any programmers need a job? I need co-workers.
Along with an impotent Senate that pawned the hard desision off on the Judiciary.
__________ Leave me alone I'm compiling a RPG II program on my S/36...Thanks to metamucil I'm a Regular Meta Moderator
Probably most employees particularly Star Wars fans, are not a net contributor to their companies. Likely the big sickout will save these companies money rather than hurt them.
Who would pay $100 to see a movie when they can see it later in the day for $6.75? I suppose it's not as bad as quitting your job to camp out in front of the theater two months in advance.
The last two films sucked so much donkey dong they'll be lucky if I bother to add the new one to my netflix queue.
Mark me as a troll if you must, but after the last two anyone who still bothers to camp in line or blow off work to see a new one has a learning curve like Kansas.
So sometimes my company is cool, just to keep us from becoming too disgruntled.
... is giving full-time employees tickets to see it at a local AMC theater (DLP screen!) on purpose because managers know a lot of employees will see it (take time off). Of course, we return to work after the movie. It is called "team building". :)
Co-workers and I can't complain!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I won't bother seeing it in the theater. if I see it at all, it'll be on hbo, or something. He fucked his chance at my money by sucking ass on EP1 and EP2.
Yes, George doesn't owe me anything, but I don't owe him anything either.
How many of you are planning to skip at least part of your workday on the first two days?"
I know 4pm tickets are cheaper...but cmon!
Don't forget the Neomodian "Nute Gunray", named for Newt and Reagan...
Nope, no republican ties there!
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Their figures estimate that of all the people seeing Star Wars, approx. half of them are employed full-time. They also assume that those people will take both Thursday and Friday off work, just to see the movie...
I mean this is Star Wars and all, but how many people with full-time jobs have to take a 4-day weekend just to see a movie? Get real...
The New York Post has no redeeming qualities, and shouldn't even be considered news. More like "news for idiots, stuff that's overhyped"...
I consider the New York Post the journalistic equivelant of a good troll... Hey, wait a minute, damn it... now they've got me feeding the troll as well.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
Trillions of lost each year in productivity because employees take vacation time.. If they would only work 10 hours a day 365 days a year our productivity would be amazing...
yeah sure
If I somehow stumbled upon how to make $130 in a single day I wouldn't give it up to watch some silly movie.
And how much time/money can be attributed to email?
That number should be MUCH higher than that. And everyday also.
Except I'm not calling in sick. I'm taking a day off and I told my bosses why I wil be out of the office. They are both fannish to some extent so they understand...
Just my $0.02 worth.
My company has bought tickets for our entire staff to go on opening day. Does that count as lost productivity?
It'll cost me some productivity, but only because I'll be half awake the next day.
:)
Oh wait! Caffeine!
Nevermind.
Our company is actually handing out tickets next week to all the employees, and has reserved two theaters. This is for opening day. I love where I work. :)
I'd take anything Rupert Murdoch says with enough salt to ruin my taste buds.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
I sense a disturbance in the labor force. Its as if a million people all called in sick.
God spoke to me.
I asked my supervisor if I could take the day off to see the movie (he started to frown), but then I quickly asked if it was okay if I came in the following saturday to make up for it (he started to smile).
I get what I want, and he gets what he wants... which mostly because he knows that I can get a lot more done in a day when all of the non-programmers have been evacuated from the building.
for great justice, this sig has been moved
At the software startup I work for we are all going on opening day during business hours as a group. It's a 'team building' experience :)
.. and they have nothing to gain from happy workers skipping a couple of hours, that they'll probably make up again when they get in late?
:)
why doesnt this get factored in?
http://www.anologger.com/
Super stealthy blogger or PS2 design ripoff?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
No doubt those numbers are based on the assumption that these people have positive productivity while at work. I'm not buying that.
What keeps me going is my inertia.
So, when piracy finally makes the production of movies unfeasible, the economy will actually profit! How about that, MPAA?
To those taking the day off work, it seems to you this will be a "Gift of the Sith". Going to a movie beats going to work anyday (except for the loss of pay).
Hey... Call in sick. That's a good idea!
I feel sorry for business. Poor business.
Yeah, well me either. And even if I did want to see it: calling in sick? Common children, you can't wait a few hours? Your passion has reached fanboy status.
I won't be watching it. I watched some of the original however many came out many years ago when I was young. But I have not seen any of the new ones. I will stick to my Star Trek.
Kernel Krunch - Part of a Complete OS
I'll skip work for a movie I know is good. As for this thing...I've been burned twice. I'll let all you guys go the first day. That way, I can find out on slashdot if it is any good, or is yet another Lucasonian fiasco. I can wait until the second weekend. If it's what I think it is, I can wait for the DVD.
Serenity...I'm skipping work for that.
The cake is a pie
I will not be attending this movie in theatres. I'll borrow the DVD from my nutball SW fans. This is my way of refusing to subsidize the formulaic, sequel-driven, lemming-like marketing plan of the studios, the obnoxious mega-marketing of every star wars-branded dingleberry on the planet, and the generally sorry state of bank-account-moviemaking.
I understand some people live in this dream star wars universe and have to see it. But I'd urge others to take the time they'd spend on this institutionalized marketing scheme and go see a small, independent movie.
If the Star Wars franchise were software, it would be another buggy version of Windows.
Download your official Star Wars Excuse Note to give to your employer / school / etc.
most of these will be sick days or personal days, which are already budgeted for - how will this be "lost productivity" if the person was going to eventually take a day off anyhow?
(granted, most companies probably bank on the idea that you'll never use up your vacation days because you're too fricking busy)
"Probably most employees, particularly Star Wars fans, are not a net contributor to their companies. Likely the big sickout will save these companies money rather than hurt them."
Programmers and VFX artists aren't contributers to their companies?
"Derp de derp."
Hi, I can only speak english, so maybe good for you to get a good translation, but sorry for my lack of Japanese. Excellent milking stuff you offer. The orgasm milk fountain effect is my favorite! I could watch that forever!
If you can somehow manage to get the Japanese Sky PerfecTV milking contest put on dvd for US distribution, you will make a fortune in the US in sales!
I have some other friendly suggestions and ideas which you could perhaps forward to some of the milking video producers?
1. Do your best to find women who have a REALLY explosive milk letdown, I mean milk spraying even with no one squeezing or touching her breasts. Wait until the woman's breasts get really full, so they are hard as rocks. You may have to pay her more for this, as it is painful when they are too full, but it makes for a real show when she sprays! Then get her to have an orgasm, or get her to masturbate to orgasm and see if she sprays like a fountain with no squeezing at all. This will sell well! The milk spraying at orgasm is quite common with women who have full boobs and are nursing.
With really big milky boobs, this is even more spectacular, as she will have a large milk capacity and be able to spray forever! My wife has done this when her boobs were full of milk, it is incredible and a huge turn-on!
2. You are aware of Oxytocin, surely, the hormone which initiates the milk spray in women. If you can get some oxytocin nose spray (in the US it is available only with a doctor's prescription), get a woman who is very full of milk to take a dose or two (safely, of course), and watch her spray milk across the room. That would sell great as well.
3. Maybe have them walk around the room nude a little while they are spraying, doing things, it would be fun.
4. This is important - when filming the milking videos, it would be best if shot in a room with all black walls (curtains, maybe) and very dark furnishings, with really strong lighting, so that when the milk sprays, it is very easy to see it. In some of the videos, it is hard to see the milk because the backgrounds are too lightly colored, or even white. Try out some different test milkings with various lighting and backgrounds to see what works best. There seems to be no shortage of women eager to milk for the camera! I wish I could be there to help!
I hope my suggestions have not offended you, and I wish you all the best, and thanks for providing such erotic entertainments!
The dumb theater in my town doesn't do any tickets before-hand. No internet ticket sales, no nothing. You have to buy them the morning of the show. So I'm getting in line Tuesday night so I can get tickets when the box office opens wednesday. Then I'll get right back in line for my seat. Tickets go on sale at 11am, so that's 13 hours just for a seat. Probably another 10-12 hours in line the night befor for tickets.
But as Tycho said, "no matter how painful, the circle must be complete." Though at least it wasn't as cold as camping out for tickets for LoTR. Sleeping on the sidewalk in Montana in December is Fscking cold.
"You never know when some crazed rodent with cold feet might be running loose in your pants."
-Calvin
These people who are taking their days off work, they would have taken a day off for something else. They happen to enjoy Star Wars. I am not planning on running to the theater to see it, but I take off time from work every year for baseball games.
The danger in these kinds of stories is politicians might start thinking "entertainment drains productivity". Lobby groups might decide workers need less overtime protection, to make up those losses.
If you ask me, money is the least most valuable thing on earth. I'd rather take a hike through a park, or ride a bike.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
Pffft. They're assuming that any of us were productive to begin with. Judging by the sheer volume of posts on Slashdot these days, productivity is a pipe dream.
I think that firewalling Slashdot would wipe out any financial losses caused by geeks taking time off to see Episode III.
Then again, we're taking a work sponsored outing to see the movie. heh.
My employers decided that it would be smarter to rent out a theater on premiere day for a showing at 4 PM rather than have people skip out. No lines or sleeping in tents for me. It also helps that my company is a hedge fund founded by a bunch of engineering nerds. They want to go as much as we do. It's a win-win situation. Boost morale, prevent "sick" leaves, and satisfy your inner nerd. The company is run by smart people I tell you :-).
EvilCON - Made Famous by
Hi. Am I the only Slashdot reader and geek* that has never seen a single Star Wars movie, doesn't understand the big deal, and is likely to never see one (mainly because the hype turns me off so much)? And I'm 30, so it's not as if I'm too young or too old.
Just, you know, wondering.
---
* That could be on shaky ground, since (a) I was into Macs pre-OS X, (b) I have a girlfriend, (c) I'm kind of around my proper weight/height ratio.
--- Why yes, I am the webmaster of Microsuck.com
These guys are really good at producing pulled-from-an-uncomfortable-place figures for how much money will be lost because of a weekday event. If you're willing to go through Salon's hoops, you can read King Kaufman ridicule their creative accounting of this years NCAA mens basketball tournament.
This sig intentionally left blank.
Oh my god!
You responded to me!
That makes me feel wanted and loved. Maybe i shouldnt kill myself afterall.
My boss doesn't appreciate slacking or skipping out of work to see movies. Therefore, I will probably see it at midnight or the next day after a doctors appointment. Either way, I'm not missing work for this...
The movie will not change in seven days and you will not have to deal the the kids.
Sigs are for suckas.
Another stupid post
I thought we were talking about the holier than thou admins who bring their light sabres to work and spend all day reading slashdot.
Star Wars Sickout
I haven't felt this bad since we saw that Ronald Reagan movie.
What about companies that pay for their employees to screen the movie? My dad was working for 3Com when Episode 1 came out and the division he was working for in Utah rented out a theater for all the employees to go see it at no cost to them. They reasoned it was cheaper than having people take off full days to go see it. In fact the division he works in now (at a different company) had a "meeting" at a movie theater that happened to be showing Alien vs. Predator. Then a little while later they had another one involving I, Robot. The person in charge of that division likes movies apparently.
This space for rent...
Of course my wife and I will take Thursday off to recover from the midnight showing, but we will both do it with legitimate means. She only works 3 days a week and will arrange her schedule accordingly and I will take earned vacation. So this isn't costing my employer anything. I hope they take that into account in the study...
Come play Moral Decay!
Truth, it is...
The flaw in reasoning is obvious: There will not be much, if any, lost revenue, because any clients/customers you will be at the movie too! Duh....
because I'm normally just browsing the web at work anyways, so the net loss in productivity will be $0
"But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong" - Dennis Miller
My manager would probably be ok with me skipping out to see Star Wars.
So, I'm considering playing golf that day and blaming my absence on Star Wars.
I'm a student. Thankfully, ROTS (no pun intended) premieres smack dab in the middle of my finals week. Lots of free time for movie-going.
Informatus Technologicus
Come on.
BTW, even if you single, childless folk are really as productive as you say, if everyone chose your "super productive" lifestyle, it would only last 30-40 years till everyone was too old to work... and no young 'uns to replace you.
That is called Europe.
And if you think the Muslim immigrants, that will be a majority in 30-40, years will vote to support the welfare state and pension of the old, white, Christians/atheists that treated the Muslim immigrants as second class citizens, you are nuts. Europe has a nice socialist utopia, but they can only sustain it for 1 generation.
I would also argue that this drastic decline in birthrates in Europe is due to their nihilist belief system that makes cultural suicide preferable to children.
Have fun skipping work, lameos!
My boss is taking the entire office to see Star Wars. He is footing the bill. And here is the most amazing part. He hates Star Wars. However, he knows everyone in the office is yakking about it, so, he decided to take everyone in the office to see it.
:)
That's why he is a great guy to work for.
(shameless plug now):
SEO Guy
Just because he is taking us to Star Wars.
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
[...] will cost employers $628,880,000 in lost productivity[...]
The thing that makes this prediction credible is the presence of 5 significant figures. If it had said $630M, then I would assume they were just pulling it out of their asses. BTW, did you know that 85.327% of all numbers reported in newspapers are completely made up?
I'll be in my office sleeping.
100% of the tech department where i work is coing down with the flu opening day.(so what if there are onlt two techs on staff where i work)
I'm currently unemployed, so I will have no problem going opening day (at a reasonable hour)
I say you've hit the nail on the head, sir! And furthermore, I'd like to add that no citizen of this great galaxy should be without pancakes. In these trying times of candied beet eating wombats and walruses and whatnot, we need to aid our fellow marshmallows in their quest to reclaim their rightful home on the sun. And Windows is the most stable and secure operating system ever created. Is it time for my medicine again, nurse?
My wife is sick now, so I wonder if I will "really" be sick next Thursday.
So if any company believes that the number is accurate, the solution is obvious: arrange a free screening for all your employees outside of normal working hours.
Oh wait ... let's just check who paid for this "study" first?
I think that this study vastly overestimated the effect, second that they ignore that any time away from the office isn't necessarily a total waste to the office, someone can cover for this short period of time and the employee can make up the time off. There's a burst of economic activity associated with this movie spending that benefits ultimately the businesses that are supposedly taking a hit. Finally, it may be that leisure activities like watching movies makes people more productive in the long run.
What self respecting person works on a Saturday, it opens on a Saturday. IM looking at the gd ticket preorder i got. lol
The poster needs shot in the foot
Honestly some people have to get their priorities straight. It's just a movie. They aren't going to take it away if you don't see it during the first 24 hours of release.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to be sick at least 2 days _after_ I see it.
We're all going together and I'm buying the tix and popcorn. They are going to go anyway.. this avoids the guilt, turns it into a 'perk', improves morale and turns the loss of productivity into a tax deductible expense (possibly).. plus when we're standing in line we'll be intermixing Star Wars Talk with work talk.... To warm up, I'm showing Ep's 1,2,4-6 in the conference room next week (We're going in 'original order' 4-6,1,2...)
I recommend more businesses do this. But please not at the early afternoon show of the 19th at the Shoreline Cinemas... mmkay?
Good feminists get abortions? The world would be a better place if their mother's had.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Except people like me, of course, who wouldn't see star wars if my company paid me to take the day off and watch it.
(Almost) everyone you hate from episodes 1 and 2 will die in this one! You've heard the reviews. BLOOD BATH.
These kinds of statistics annoy the hell out of me, brought to you by the same folks who count the billions lost every nanosecond by people stealing music on P2P services and the insurmountable costs brought about by the latest Outlook worm. The simple truth is that there isn't a supercomputer in the world that can accurately predict what the costs and benefits are from these each of these events. Does the RIAA take into account how much free advertising is dished out when people sample music for free? No. Can anyone say how much is actually saved when an annoying but otherwise non-desctructive worm infects millions of computers exposing vulnerabilities that two weeks later would have been used to exploit billions in identity theft? No. Same goes for Star Wars. How many people will be going to the movies with work people? Will this be team bonding perhaps? Your company just saved $2000 per person by sending them to the movies instead of corporate teamwork bootcamp.
For the record, I am not going to ditch work to see the Episode 3. Do you think the statisticians will factor in how much I am costing my employer by standing around the office bitching that I am working instead of having fun?
I'll be calling in for revenge of the sith...
I KEEEEEEEED :)
If the first two weren't so god f**king aweful I would have maybe been a bit excited. I'll probably just wait a week or two to go see it. Hayden Christensen couldn't act and George Lucas couldn't write/direct/produce their way out of a nut sack.
I'm not seeing it till 7:45, but I figure I'll skip some work just on principle.
This figure is completely made up by people without a fucking clue. Not even worth worrying about it.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Or if yours had.
I'm working at a movie theater showing SW3:ROTS you insensitive clod!
"Some fight for law. Some fight for justice. What will you fight for? One day, you will see."
I wonder what kind of dollar amount slashdot accures in reduced productivity? Seriously, how many people read /. daily if not excessively. Hmm it boggles the mind could make this figure look like chump change.
If you pay your taxes you support terrorism!
Bet you my lightsaber's bigger than yours...
Reviewers have claimed that RotS will cost Star Wars fans approximately 628,880,000 lost childhood memories.
"It will result in increased spending on movie tickets and refreshments, increased foreign and domestic tourism, and increased business in shops near the theaters,"
What's the justification for an increase in tourism?
$628,880,000 exactly? Clearly these experts have somehow obtained data from an orifice more commonly associated with waste elimination, and produced an authoritative result for national publication. Didn't any of these people learn about significant digits??
"Next week, a doctor with a flashlight will show us where sales projections come from..." - Dogbert
Perfectly Normal Industries
The president of my company has decided that the release of Star Wars an event worthy of a company outing. They are taking most of the company out for an afternoon showing on the 19th.
Its pretty cool really...
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
According to my sources, it cost $674,340,000 to write this story and the time spent reading it will make 874,841,851,138 people wonder where their five minutes went. This will result in 345,849 slashdotters demanding to know how many more of these numerically unverifiable stories we'll have to put up with. (the answer is 324,081,806,410)
Forced by E3, Revenge of the Sith and some Europe soccer finals. :)
It would just fill some gap, when people start working enthusiastically after watching the positively reviewed sequel to the decade lasted episodes.
Use 4 hours to go watch it, maybe people can catch up, think of something interesting in the job etc, when they come back to their jobs next day.
Some positive thinking...
Since I'm going to be in Shanghai next week I will just pick up a copy of the DVD as it's probably been out for a few weeks now..lol. I saw Shrek2 for sale there at least a month BEFORE the movie even opened in the U.S. It cost about $1.25 and was not some crap screen grab, rather it was just as good as any legal DVD. I was stunned and couldn't figure out how the heck they got a perfect copy before anything was released! I mean, after the DVD is out sure... but before the movie even hit the screens? Sheesh! I saw something on CNN about it later but I remember it was available a month or more before CNN was claiming it had been seen on the streets. Someone has some serious connections and/or deeeep pockets.
That's odd, I thought the sickness usually set in -after- they saw the movie...
I drink, I use drugs, and I stay up late. And I also work long fucking hours that married people can't work because they're trying not to get divorced, or cause they have kids and sports games, or whatever lame bullshit excuses they give.
Great, you gotta feed your kids. Society is set up to suck your dicks all the fucking time, though; from preferred parking at supermarkets (we have "family parking" around here), to paternity leave, to the little breaks that child bearing people get. Us singles just have to work.
Fuck you.
Well, here's how. Star Wars IV taught good values. Star Wars VI taught that good can triumph over evil and that people are stronger when they do not give into hate. Star Wars' moral values are so close to Tibetan Buddhism that one wonders whether the correspondence is a mere coincidence.
"Right again, you are. Together defeat China, we will. At hand is the day of liberation for Tibet!" exclaims Yoda.
nt
that all depends. If the company is a software company then yes Programmers are contributers, but if the programs work on apps for IT then no they do not contribute anything ,except for making things work. in fact IT is always considered as non contributers , and spend lots of money for the company (new systems, software licensing, etc). In fact most of the VPs at the company I work for think we have too many people working in IT, and if they saw our job they might understand a little something.
Let me just say that I have yet to see Episode II. It was about a year and half after Episode I came out that I bothered to see it. The only reason I did was because a couple coworkers and myself happened to be bored at work and skipped out; we had to find something to do or go back to work. I figure it will be sometime in late 2008 before I see Episode III. Let me know if I miss anything....
But, using up accrued vacation or sick time should actually help earnings.
The movie will be shown for more than one fucking day!
The world won't end if you don't see it for a week, a month, or even a year after it opens.
Good God, people! Get a life!
and "making things work" isn't a contribution? how much money do they make when stuff isn't working?
We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.
I have noticed the same thing that you have, (married generally more productive than single,) but when I look at age instead of marital status, I notice the older folks are generally married, and the younger folks are less likely to be married.
If I look at it as an age issue rather than a marital status issue, I get a better correlation, (older more productive at a given job than younger,) with young married folks being the least productive. Young singles tend to have the greatest deviation (occasionally the most productive, but also occasionally the least productive,) but on average rate better than young married folks.
The above observations are just my personal experience, and others may have a broader database to analyze.
Why does it always come back to the costs to business? When did they become more important to people? How about the costs to individuals caused by businesses (e.g. days cut from life-span due to job-related stress)? There's more to life than big business.
i don't really understand why people get so obsessed with movies. yeah i want to see it, but i don't want to fight the crowds, the packed theaters, and the lines. i can wait a week or two. Money..... crowds....money....crowds... i'll take money.
to arrive to work one hour early and to stay late!!!
But I'll certainly rent the video when it comes out. Love that Jar Jar.
It's actually good for productivity and hiring.
I generally take my team to 3-4 1st runs a year. People interviewing bring up that they've heard I do that, so I know it's considered a decent perk.
It's always during office hours so that they can see the movie and then take off for the rest of the day...
How much is Slashdot costing the Universe every second in lost 'productivity'? When I am typing this stuff, I am not moving the lever that moves the arm that picks up the bumper and bolts it onto the back of the car.
I am willing to bet it is WAY more that that stupid movie...
A most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a bit.
I would estimate that I'm only "productive" 2-3 days every week.
:-)
The rest of the time I spend answering others questions and helping to solve problems caused by poor architecture choices. (not my choices, of course!)
So.... what the hell difference would a few hours of fun make? No more than a 2-3 hour "lunch break"
Cheers,
- hawkeye
"...The smart and lazy ones I make my commanders." - Erwin Rommel
I'm off. w00t. Going to be attending the 12:00 showing and then going to school the next morning. Good thing I work in a coffee shop -- Expresso!
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
... the movie could be 2.5 hours of G. Lucus' hairy butt and fanboy's will still flock to see it.
The mistakes of a clever man are equal to the mistakes of a thousand fools.
He bought tickets for the entire IT team, and it is an official company outing.
I am so sick of seeing these reports of estimated corporate losses due to something or another. Star Wars will cost employers six hundred million? Those poor employers, having to deal with outside phenomena ruining their all-important productivity. They often talk about how many kajillion dollars chatting online or surfing the web costs employers annually, or people selfishly getting influenza or SARS.
Why stop there? Just think about how much money it's costing employers when people take a half hour for lunch every day, or all that lost work when they have to go to the bathroom. Then there's the financial burden companies have to deal with because employees waste time talking to each other. Jesus, what about that time they spend at home, sleeping? It's a terrible blight upon the face or corporate America.
I think the solution is obvious. All we need to do is get rid of all paid time off, any breaks, carefully monitor all computer access, drug them up with amphetamines, and implant a device that electrically shocks them any time they say something unnecessary or deviate from their appointed tasks in any way. Only then will we stop hemorrhaging money like this.
[insert witty quote here]
I find it funny and sad the a bunch of geeks who all think they are smarter than your average non-geek are to stupid to NOT see the train wreck that Episode 3 is guaranteed to be :-(
I wouldn't worry too much if I'm called a non "contributer". I guess that might mean someone making things "contrived"? Who knows...
...from the fucked up Department of Made-up Statistics-pulled-straight-out-of-my-Ass
Where's my free iPod!? Until then, I'll settle for a kiss...
Hate to tell you this, Gigle was my last "excuse" to skip work. Ok, so it was the hangover Sunday.....Monday....what's today?
http://xs4.xs.to/pics/04481/p556222.gif
and if we were truly drones (or in a socialist society) then this so called "lost productivity" would matter. But we aren't, we go to work to provide for the enjoyment and needs of OUR lives NOT the collective.
Or religious holidays. Or the first "beach day" of summer. Or when Lynard Skynard/Rolling Stones comes to town and all the baby boomers try to squeeze into blue jeans they bought 25 years ago. Or hang-over day after cinco de mayo. Or April 20th.
Oh wait, the double standard.
Picking on geeks is easy. Picking on religion, the boomers who run business, and minorities isn't. Its like the New York Post is high school all over again.
It's okay. Most of the IT staff at the company I work for think there are too many managers and executives.
This space intentionally left blank.
My employer is not only footing the bill for me to see it, they're also renting out the theatre for that morning to see it. Though to be fair it's just my department, ~40 people. It was voted on for the department fun event for this quarter by us. So you could technically say my department will be some of the first in the country to see it.
Ha Ha, Neener Neener
I'm planning to see a midnight showing. Now if I can get to work in the morning is a different story. Oh, wait a minute, I don't have a job. But why am I seeing a midnight showing? I know! I didn't use the fork!
I didn't know that it cost parents $628,880,000 in allowance for all those kids to wash the dishes and pick up after the dog for two days!!!
I'm also 22, and work twice as many hours a week...
Call me when you're done working 80 hour weeks for 3 years and we'll talk
I think most of us have been there, including Motherfucker. If you're not careful, you're going to burn out before you're 30. These are your prime years. Use them wisely.
And don't fool yourself, working 80 hours a week is NOT twice as productive as working 40 hours a week. Not even close.
Look when you're older and have kids, you have a good idea of what's important. Get the shit done in 8 hours. Go home and spend time doing the stuff that really matters. Anything else is probably a waste of your life.
The other guy has more experience, and figured out how to get the job done in a shorter amount of time.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
What an absolute load of crap. This "lost productivity" number is about as real as the RIAA's estimates of lost sales due to piracy. They even admit that they're making a guess based on an estimate, i.e. pulling numbers out of their ass. The main assumption among them is that you can somehow say this time away from work would have been productive had they stayed at work. When calculating "lost time" you have to first calculate what you had to lose in the first place. 99% of people spend at least half their day reading email, posting to slashdot, daydreaming about Natalie Portman + hot grits, or any one of the standard types of shirking, slacking, or goldbricking. Time = T * .5 then. Of the time spent doing work, 25% of it is spent covering up your previous mistakes, fixing the mistakes that can't be covered up, or shifting blame for mistakes that can't be covered up or fixed. Time = T * .5 * .25 then. The remaining work being done is generally fifty percent bureaucratic nonsense, redundant/doomed projects, or make-work foolishness designed to make your boss look good to his boss. Time = T * .5 * .25 * .5 then. Of the small remaining amount of "productivity", fully 85% of it is being done in departments with names like "marketing", "human resources", or "accounting". These people don't actually produce anything. In fact, they're a millstone around the others' necks. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt and just call them simply "unproductive", rather than "anti-productive". Time = T * .5 * .25 * .5 * .25 = .009375 then. That's right. For every hundred lightsaber fetishizing nerds who skipped work standing in line that first day, less than one of them actually counts as lost productivity.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
That doesn't cost anything. What are you talking about? People are cheap!
who cares
the only permanence in existence, is the impermanence of existence.
This is really great news so lets hope someone with WBEL enthusiasm steps up to build a respectable community site.
"How many of you are planning to skip at least part of your workday on the first two days?"
What, are you friggin' ten years old? Go see it on your own goddamn time, monkey.
Humm...I should try that...na SW3
At least this is going to be better than the first two. They were so bad that I had to take the *next* day off sick just to recover.
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
To refresh:
Right-Wing Profit Mongering Conspiracies are perpetuated by:
- Gun companies
- Tobacco Companies
- Insurance Companies
- Medical Associations
- Farming Lobby
- Energy Companies
- Timber Companies
Left-Wing Profit Mongering Conspiracies are perpetuated by:
- Gun Litigation Trial Lawyers
- Tobacco Litigation Trial Lawyers
- Medical Litigation Trial Lawyers (x2)
- Labor Unions
- Ok, so, environmentalists don't profit monger, so I guess they're up two here...
And in this case, Hollywood and Media Companies, so back to even.
This is clearly left-wing profit mongering, even if Fox is in the business of pandering to rednecks.
paintball
My 1000 employee silicon valley company is taking the whole crew to opening day. They reserved a theatre and two showings in the afternoon. I guess the bubble still exists for some of the luck few.
On being productive in futhering society, those kids are gonna pay your security benefits!
Anyway: SMOKERS!
Lost productivity, maybe less so in the US now, I am not sure, but at one German office they got away with MURDER!!!
That is right, the cold blooded, Mr Smoker, in the hall, with the marlboro, type murder.
"I'm going home to sleep with my wife!"
(Gotta LOVE Clue)
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
...that 95% of the geeks calling in sick are in the tech industry. I guess it will be a while more before the tech economy comes back.
Quarterly team building off-site events. We decided months ago that our team building event this quarter was going to be Revenge of the Sith + a pizza buffet on the 19th.
I sense a disturbance in the work force, although a million geeks all called in sick, then suddly turned off there mobiles.
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
Yeah, they scrambled up the last three letters.
This is very true. However, I think that the whole idea of costs to business is bullshit for another reason - we are entitled to take days off. Granted, we are talking about people using sick days to go see the movies - but we are entitled to sick days as well.
A better system for days off is - in my company anyway, Paid Time Off. Basically, let's say you are entitled to 2 weeks vacation and 5 sick days per year, that's a total of 15 days. So they just give us 15 days off, paid, for any reason or purpose.
If you get sick very often, it cuts into your vacation days. If you are healthy, you are not penalized with having fewer days off than your unhealthier coworkers. So if I choose to go see Star Wars and take a day off, it's not costing businesses anything - because those are days we are entitled to.
Quite frankly, sick days are unfair - businesses give them under the pretenses of wanting to give employees the time, but then when they do, say it's costing the business.
Veritas, across the street from Google in Mountain View, California, is simply renting out a theater for its employees to attend a showing at 10:00 AM opening day.
I'm on a road shaped like a figure eight; I'm going nowhere but I'm guaranteed to be late.
you called?
Dorks who risk their job for some lousy film deserve to be fired. See it at the weekend for fucks sake.
Some businesses lose some money because people are doing what makes them happy, and not working. What a shame. Next..
in about two months when there are maybe 10 people in the audience. It's a lot nicer to watch a movie when there is barely anyone there.
If I had a big screen, I probably would wait until it came out on DVD. Then again looking at how long it too for Ep 4,5, and 6 to come out....
Unless your job directly brings in money from a client you are considered a non contributor.
Sad I know.
Is the film better because you camped two weeks to go to the premiere ? Is the film worse the Saturday after ?
" Challenger estimates that 4.8 million of those opening-day attendees are employed at least 35 hours per week. With those full-timers earning an average of $130.60 per day, the two-day cost in terms of lost wages and productivity would be a staggering $626,880,000, he said."
How much of this is from people taking the holidays they are entitled to?
What next? "Going to church on Sundays loses Business $3,289,044,353,967 per week!" ?
Every second that a person is not working his ass off for an employer is "lost productivity" ? ? ?
b3 4phr41d 0f my 4bov3-4v3r4g3 c0mpu73r kn0wI3dg3!
MadDwarf
Did anybody evaluate how much money /. reading cost to employers every 2 days?... ;-)
I'm /considering/ going, as it'll be as cinematic event, but the other 5 were all rubbish and progressively worse the further you go. Actually, to be fair, I'm basing my opinion of #5, /Clones/, on hearsay - I couldn't be bothered to go see it nor rent it.
So, maybe, if I can find a really cheap ticket. But the trailer makes it look very poor indeed - just another bit of mindless children's-story telling, driven mainly by flashy special effects.
Liam P. ~ "Intelligence is a lethal mutation." (me)
In law school, there is the famous case of 4 guys who were adrift at sea and nearing death from starvation. 3 had wives and families, one was young and just starting his career. The 3 older men decided they'd kill the younger as the younger had the least to lose and they'd eat him. That's what they did. They were rescued the next day.
So this reasoning has been used for worse consequences than your situation
BTW, the 3 were convicted but later released with time served. Apparently, public opinion was that the 3 were reasonable in what they did, as they didn't know they'd be rescued.
( ) The entire poll is missing!
seriously would have made a good poll from this
I really wonder how many schools even will bother to be open on that day....
My hacked site
My employer is sponsoring a viewing of the movie on Friday by renting out a theatre for just the company employees. Can't get any easier than that. You're even allowed to bring in your own food as long as it is not something sold at the concession stands, comes in a glass container, or is alcoholic. Pretty nice I would say.
ZERO ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ONE! Just brushing up for my next big invention: Ethernet over Voice (EoV)
nuff said
Just before bed so I'll post this quickly.
Whenever I see articles such as this it reminds of one comissioned by The Evening Standard a while back. It was analysing the amount of time saved and money earnt by big business due to employees working unpaid overtime. I don't do it so much, but I know alot of people who do. I can't recall the exact figures, but it was equivalent to the amount lost each time employees go sick blah blah.
The way I see it, corporate big business gains a hell of alot more from our little wage slavery agreement in return than we, the cogs in the machine do.
Quit your bitching you corporate fat-cats. Haven't you got a yacht that needs refuelling?
Fair's fair, for every study like this, a reverse one should be published in return.
When people were sick? ;)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Star wars day = national hack day!
... hacking all ur box3n!
.. damned excited by a "movie"!
While you're all "away" and taking sickies...
I'll be at home
That you forgot to tighten up..
Because ur all so
Not to forget St. Whedon day ;-)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
You must be a Meta-Nerd. Maybe you should pirate the DVD? Would that be satisfying enough? Because you just know you'll be left out in the cold when everyone else on the planet sees it.
Except China. They'll see War of Planets: Retribution of Evil!
Please stop stalking me, bro.
"those of us who are single, particularly long term single"
*cough*GAY*cough*
Hell I quit my job on the 18th =) BEAT THAT
I think, perhaps, some people are taking this article a might bit too seriously.
Why do we measure things with money?
Because there's no direct conversion to Libraries of Congress for this metric.
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
If they are just skipping work without vacation time, don't they lose the pay? Doesn't the company get to keep the money then, therefore not losing any money at all?
I'm just wondering where they are getting this information.
What if you participate in 'contributory copyright infringement' at work? Can you call yourself a contributor then? :-)
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. --Mark Twain
After you've finished watching the latest Star Wars abomination and realize that not only did you pay for it, but you could have spent the time sleeping or maybe recreating that crazy nail scene in Blade Runner on your own hand just for fun, you're bound to feel sick, so it makes perfect sense to take sick leave.
--- What?
I bought my tickets for a time after work. Why does one need to take off work just to see it. I don't know about most slashdotters...but my vacation and sick time are combined. So taking off a day to see ST:ROTS seems a bit expensive since that's paid leave I would be burning.
until it's on TV.
01/20/09
Why can't people just watch it after work? The movie's not going anywhere. It's ridiculous to skip work just cause you want to see a movie...grow up.
that day is a normal day for me. I am not into SW III. I will watch it a week or more later when the fanfare is hopefully over. I don't want to go watch it sitting on the first row and then leave with a horrible neck pain. So I will wait days
As per subject.
Now you don't need to take a day off! It's good for us casual workers who don't get sick leave.
Quite frankly, sick days are unfair - businesses give them under the pretenses of wanting to give employees the time, but then when they do, say it's costing the business.
I disagree with this one (I am a small business owner). When someone is sick, you don't WANT them around the office because they are contagious. So I fully encourage people to stay home when they are ill. I think it costs my business less overall, than having them come in, getting more people sick.
Also, it's fairly easy to see when someone is repeatedly lying about being sick. You either notice firsthand, or you hear about it from other employees. So that's not a big concern for me.
Whatever. Our brainiac bosses scheduled the IT picnic for that day. Talk about double jeopardy.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
Is the sickout for the day that Star Wars premiers, or for the day AFTER everyone has already seen it?
Wait a second - how is Star Wars any different for a sickout than the first two days of the NCAA tournament in March - especially this year when the first day of the tournament fell on St. Patty's Day?
I'm full out calling in sick, so count me in as one of those people. :P
It's a 'planned' sick day though, in that I already told my bosses I'd be out
cleverly disguised as a responsible adult ||
I'll see it when I'm strapped to a chair, with my eyelids screwed open, getting cured of my ultra-violent tendencies.
I drank what? -- Socrates
I figure I'll walk in to work that day, sit down at my desk, and start cursing wildly and spazzing out. After about 15 minutes of that, I think my employer will probably ask me what's up. I'll explain to him that I'm already stressed out beyond comprehension because the IT department refuses to give me another harddrive, and that I am experiencing a Tourrette's Syndrome attack and need to go home.
It takes just a moment and an action to destroy. It takes some time and thought to create.
I wonder how much "productivity" we lose due to Christmas.
Anyone else remember the Halo 2 Flu back in November? This is much like that. Hell, my teacher (Sci-Fi/Satire....of course he's a SW fan) is taking off for a personal day, as well as a bunch of others, but he's the one that's made the front page of the paper for Episodes I and II because he was dressed up as Darth. What a huge loser he is... it almost makes me feel sorry for him, but he's the role model for nerd, geeks, and dorks everywhere: he's married with two kids and he has a job....hmmm. You might not believe it but it's true!! LOL. Right, so all of us..ermm...."cooler" nerds that took off a few days because of the contagious and uncurable Halo 2 Flu are going to know how it feels to *gasp* work while the other people are busy making shrines and devoting all of their time to their obsessions. Oh, what a sad, sad, sad world. ///
Is a Junior in HS, and a girl, so I should have no right to speak, let alone skip for the Halo 2 Flu, but I did...lol
In India, we have no starwars and we get fired if we skip work!
What will your ROI obsssed execs think about leaving work to see your nerd show?
How do you compete with us, white man?
Yes, it's absurd-- and FUN. It's more fun to pretend it's a big event than really watching the movie itself.
Is there something wrong with that?
Me, I'm saving my skip-work-for-a-movie day for King Kong. But that's me. I'm kinda lonely in my absurdist pretensions; if I joined the Star Wars crowd I'd at least have a lot of company.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
I really dislike this PTO thing. It's a very very heavy handed way of dealing with people who abuse sick leave. We often can't help being ill. If I've saved for two years to go on a dream holiday, I don't want to lose it because I was sick for two weeks three months beforehand. I work to live, not live to work. If I owned my own business, I might have a different attitude, but I don't.
BTW, don't you think that 15 days a year is pathetically small? I was on that for a while last year until it got increased to 20 days. In the UK I hear it is standard for new employees to have something like 22 days holiday in their first year. I know somebody who has worked for the NHS for 10 days, and she gets 33 days a year. It's no wonder so many people here in N. America are stressed out or dull to talk to compared with Europeans.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I know I couldn't work for a week after seeing Jar Jar Binks step in poo in the Phantom Menace.
Syntax error: loose != lose, affect != effect, then!=than
Economic cost of Episode III: $628,880,000
Average price of movie ticket: $8.50
Skipping work to see a stupid movie: priceless
Seriously, though, this is EXACTLY LIKE the stupid headline on some stupid IT industry rag that said something idiotic like, "Slow modems cost the US $1.3B Annually!"
I wish *my* job was sitting around pulling numbers out of my ass, instead of accomplishing *real* work.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
I scheduled a personal day back in April of 2004 when they announced the release date (yeah, that's right, a full 13 months ago). I know it's a geeky thing to do, but at the university where I work I knew there would be competition for time off and I didn't want to miss my chance.
Stupid bean counts. Humans cannot apply themselves one hundred percent of a typical work week. Affording staff members necessary breaks at reasonable intervals improves productivity. Yes, this means you accountant types should buy us all tickets and re-think clipping those nose hairs.
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You can always go to your Charlie Chaplin smarty pants moving pictures show after you've finished patching Mr. Dibble's tire!
For a website that supposed to be frequented by nerds, I can't believe you got the name of the film wrong! It's "Revenge of the Sith".
What claptrap. Many companies in the states have merged vacation/sick time, so it doesn't make one damn bit of difference why the person is not at work.
Second, even if they weren't merged, TFA assumes people will put it down as sick time?? WTF??
Third, and most importantly, it is actually a BENEFIT that people take time off. Vacation time is held on the books as a liability and when people use it you get to remove it. So, the balance of profit/loss tilts ever so slightly to the profit side.
Please mod story to -1 (Troll).
Well, in a completely unexpected blast from the Dot-com past, the company I work for (now part of a multi-national) IS letting us take the afternoon off and paying for it! I almost had a heart attack when they dropped the movie ticket on my desk. I promptly walked into my managers office and stated "Now THIS is what I call improving fucking company moral! Hot Damn!".
BTW, I have 2 1/2 kids, am under 30 (barely), and work 40 hours a week as a DBA (+ oncall 24/7). If you're single (or not) and working more than 40, don't whine. If your job requires that you work more that 40, either suck it up or get a new job. Salary is Salary, anyone who tells you differently is trying to exploit you.
One bad thing about working in the States is the amount of holiday you get. In the UK for example, it is fairly standard to get 23 paid days off per year along with 10 paid 'bank' holidays. And if you are sick, you get paid. (Up to some limit, which is about 3 months...) Having said that, we tend to work extremely long hours.
We'll also ignore the fact that that working class at that time will be paying for your social security cheques, benefits, etc, etc. Keep in mind your paying for your parents now (or in the future) whether you see it or not.
What it comes down to, is if people are foolish enough to let a other people walk all over them they get what they deserve. What your complaining about is called 'life', maybe you should get one. Also, you have some serious mental issues.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
do people actually see star wars as a reason to bunk off work? i can just see them now.. rabid-mouthed counting down the hours until its released, searching the net hour after hour for any and all info they can get on the up&coming movie.. popcorn, coke, and starwars t-shirt laid out ready.. whatever will they do once the movie comes out and nothing more is to come? start watching star trek enterprise?
then again, i'll bunk off work for a wank & a bag of weed, so i guess star wars is justifiable in some way.
They still have the advantage in networking and social building. Taking that break and hanging with the smokers is (if you pick your smokers well) good for your career.
It's also good for your social life. You can meet folks at OTHER companies out there on the ledge where you (I mean they) smoke.
And in most states, you're owed breaks. (If your employer gets sued it may force you to actually take 'em. You'll be surprised how much mandatory "stop what you're doing and waste some time" time there is.)
Seriously, I have a couple of friends who have two small children and have a fabulous lifestyle on a single 45k salary. They just realized that they don't need all of the toys - but they have a nice house in an inexpensive part of town and everything that they really need. They're doing well enough, even, that the sole breadwinner is voluntarily leaving his job to go back to school to pursue a career that he's more interested in than his current position.
It's all about quality of life - and you don't need to be making much money at all to have that.
nuke the moon
I don't have a job you insensitive CLOD!
Bypass Compulsory Web Registration -- http://bugmenot.com/
Is it a loss of productivity or "absenteeism" if you actually planned with your manager to take that day off?
Lane Myer: I have great fear of tools. I once made a birdhouse in woodshop and the fair housing committee condemned it.
Challenger estimates that 4.8 million of those opening-day attendees are employed at least 35 hours per week. With those full-timers earning an average of $130.60 per day, the two-day cost in terms of lost wages and productivity would be a staggering $626,880,000, he said.
Math is not this guy's strong suit...
while 4800000 x 130.60 is indeed 626880000... for his silly prediction, that's only one day. His real prediction number from his "figures" as actually double that, as it's two days.. so he really means that he thinks it'll cost companies $1.2B. Course, he probably saw that, said "meep! That's too high! People will actually check my math if I tell them a number that high!".
Of course, he probably assumes that the 4.8 million people will skip *both* Thursday and Friday to watch the two hour movie.
-- Jinsaku
We derive some sort of tasteless superiority from "hating" things.
Our hate has made us powerful?;)
One bad thing about working in the States is the amount of holiday you get.
Huh? In the US there are only 10 federal holidays (Well 11 if New Years Day is on a weekday), and some companies don't even give you time off for a some like Memorial Day. So not every "US holiday" you see on the calendar is a day off of work for US employees. There maybe companies that give their workers St. Patrick's Day or Mother's Day off (never heard of the last one), but is by no means a common occurance.
You want to hear something crazy? I worked for a company which had 2000 people and 70 VPs.
That doesn't even include middle-management. Of course we weren't profitable. Do you think
they ended up laying off the VPs or people who really do work?
How did you guess?
Now, several years later, they're still not profitable. The CEO gets a million a year and so do the rest of them with
fancy titles. Have they figured out how to make that company profitable yet? How did you guess?
Two jobs ago, I was build manager for a company I won't mention.
Well, one morning, the build broke. They had it working by the late morning so I ran ant, make an RPM, etc., and had a new build for them.
By the early afternoon, they decided they'd add some other features. So, I had to make another build. Right at 4:20, the build failed. I sent an email to the team that the build
failed at 4:20 and what was everyone doing at 4:20? Only one person got the joke.
What a bunch of geeks.
I escpecially sympathise with this line.
I used to work in a local bar with about 6-8 bar staff during evenings. Just like you described, once an hour the smokers (about 2/3 of staff) would go out the back and have their chat ....oh and a smoke, leaving me and the few others who hope to live past 70 alone on the bar covering for them. After a while I started to go and join them for the extra 10 minutes break per hour, sometimes I would hold a cigerette to look the part and the boss never cared.
When the boss found out I didn't actually smoke he demanded I stay behind the bar while the others went off and smoked.
A couple of months later I quit to go to uni but have always been really annoyed at the way smokers get an extra break every hour or two just because they smoke.
Why is it just smokers? At the time I had an equally unhealthy addiction to Counter-strike, would I have been allowed to go out the back to play Counter-Strike on a laptop for a few minutes once an hour?
Perhaps they've outsourced the DVD printing to china? So maybe someone in a DVD factory leaked the print?
That logic is a little backwards.
If you have x sick days a year, and x vacation days a year, the company has already accounted for these days in your salary.
They haven't lost shit, those days were already assigned. If you don't take them, they gain a little, but it's not the other way around.
I think you meant "Wayning," as in, "All this talk of a sickout is gonna make me hurl!"
Yep their non contributors but they can use seniority as an excuse to axe their employees first.
Damn! I used their instead of they're
so tired.. so tired
but not because of Star Wars... it lucked out I needed thsoe days of for something else... hellooooo midnight showing!
I'm addicted to sugar; except 3 times a day doesn't see all that much really. Try 6 or 7 times a day, small sugared bits a coworker leaves out for everyone to nip at, the skinny little bitch.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
>>People in the western world (or anywhere in the world) spend less time working than they ever have before.
Bullshit! They work less than they have since the beginning of the industrial revolution. There is little documentation one way or the other prior to that, but in general people living in hunter/gatherer societies don't 'work' per se, they hang out all day doing things we do for leisure (such as hunting, and gathering things from the garden).
BTW, people in the USA work more hours now than they have in a long time due to corporate management of our democracy. French people have 5 weeks of paid vacation per year, and retire at 80% of their former pay. Saving for retirement? they don't. No need to.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
You're forgetting one of the fundamental things about money: it flows. While the total amount of money in our economy might be finite, that finite amount of money changes hands quite a bit. For each of these various headlines, the issue isn't that this money was actually lost, it's that the money didn't travel through the related industry (or whatever); meaning that these instances of "lost productivity" were effectively blockages in the activity of our economy.
Also, remember that most of these types of things are going to be statements of aggregate "losses"; one worker having to take a day to resolve his or her gastro-intestinal issues (or to go see the latest...well, whatever) might not seem like much, but add it up over every instance of it happening over every industry in which it happens, and you get these huge figures.
One of the key issues pertinent to this discussion was that Coleridge didn't see any valid reason to choose the cabin boy for sacrifice over the other parties in the boat: Wikipedia article
Our hate has made us powerful?;)
no, it's made us sheep.
me and the rest of the dev team from work get thursday afternoon off so we can go see the movie... ...and the company is even paying for our tickets and popcorn.