I have been working in the computer industry for close to ten years. For about half of that time I have been a Engineering Project Manager. For about the last 2 I have specialized in streamlining the productivity of Engineering teams. Indeed many of the teams I have intially examined do indeed put in 60 hour weeks, but what they do through about 30 of those hours could hardly be called work. One of the 1st tricks that I almost always do is to get the teammembers to leave the building when they aren't being productive. Because the important thing isn't how long your in the building, it's how well you meet your ship dates and project schedules. I find that about half of their 12 hour days they spend dreading the work ahead, browsing the web, and playing games. Now granted I have actually been on teams that have to work 60 hours per week to ship a project, but thats almost always a bad schedule. Yet another very correctable problem. Once the programmers know when they are working (which is much more than being in the building), and are indeed encouraged to leave the building to relax during their down time, I find they are much more productive even with a 35 hour work week. Usually shipping project much quicker than similiar teams who sit in their offices 12 hours per day but work only 4. So even though many of the people complain of work without compensation we should reevaluate how we work, and how we draw our schedules at least thats my experience. In Rebutal to the flames denying my experience I simply respond, "Find a job that doesn't treat you so lousy then."
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I have been working in the computer industry for close to ten years. For about half of that time I have been a Engineering Project Manager. For about the last 2 I have specialized in streamlining the productivity of Engineering teams. Indeed many of the teams I have intially examined do indeed put in 60 hour weeks, but what they do through about 30 of those hours could hardly be called work. One of the 1st tricks that I almost always do is to get the teammembers to leave the building when they aren't being productive. Because the important thing isn't how long your in the building, it's how well you meet your ship dates and project schedules. I find that about half of their 12 hour days they spend dreading the work ahead, browsing the web, and playing games. Now granted I have actually been on teams that have to work 60 hours per week to ship a project, but thats almost always a bad schedule. Yet another very correctable problem. Once the programmers know when they are working (which is much more than being in the building), and are indeed encouraged to leave the building to relax during their down time, I find they are much more productive even with a 35 hour work week. Usually shipping project much quicker than similiar teams who sit in their offices 12 hours per day but work only 4. So even though many of the people complain of work without compensation we should reevaluate how we work, and how we draw our schedules at least thats my experience. In Rebutal to the flames denying my experience I simply respond, "Find a job that doesn't treat you so lousy then."