The futility of overtime

[andrewducker]

There comes a point with almost anything i'm working on where it's just pointless carrying on with it. Where it all blurs together and becomes meaningless and I can't actually hold the whole picture together in my head any more. I hit that point at 4:45 yesterday afternoon, where the test plan I was writing ground to a halt because I couldn't grasp the flowchart any more (despite the fact that I'd written it).

I don't tend to work overtime if I can possibly avoid it because 95% of the time there's no point. If overtime meant I could work until 4pm, wander off and do something else for an hour and then come back to work 5-8 then it might be productive, but me sitting at my desk from 1pm to 7pm means I get exactly the same amount of work done (roughly 1-4, depending on how my concentration is) and then sitting at my desk for the next few hours getting more and more frustrated and failing to get anything done.

I'm actually fairly sure that most of my work happens subconsciously, when i'm doing other things. I'll grind to a halt on a project, go and do something else for 15 minutes, come back and the answer to my problem will be sitting waiting for me. Sadly, there's no way to explain to management that not only ca I not really explain how I come up with answers, I don't really know most of the time myself (sure, I can explain the logical reason why my answers are right, but that doesn't mean I came up with them using a conscious, logical process in the first place). If you're not sitting staring at a monitor, pressing the occasional key, then apparently you're not being productive, an ideology which (for me) doesn't fit the facts even slightly.

It's exasperating and infuriating to have to deal with people for whom it is true, but there's not a lot I can do about that, short of continue to work my way up until can find a niche where I'm judged on my productivity and not on how hard I can look like I'm working. Fortunately I rarely have to deal with that kind of thing in my current job, the attitudes there being generally quite enlightened.

Comments

[nickys.livejournal.com]

I'm sure this issue is discussed at length in "The Dilbert Principle".

There are also a few more academically credible studies of "Presenteeism" where people are under pressure to attend for longer hours, even though, as we all know, you don't get more work done that way.

[andrewducker]

Absolutely, I agree.

Which isn't to say that some days I can't work from 7am to 9pm and get loads done. It's been known to happen. But it's unusual for that to be at all productive.

[allorin.livejournal.com]

7am? Surely you jest, sir.

[darkoshi]

yeah, after a certain amount of weariness sets in, my brain stops working... things take longer to get done, and what does get done.... doesn't look so good the next day. and if i'm being pressured to stay late, sometimes it can get me into an angry mood... not a good mentality for producing quality work.

[andrewducker]

One summer I worked for my Dad in the local hospital. I went in with him and came back with him, and he used to leave the house at 7 and come back at 6 (mostly). If something needed doing early or late then being at work 7am-7pm wasn't unheard of.

[kpollock.livejournal.com]

I'm just the same. I always thought it was becasue I'm a morning person. If I want to get extra stuff done, I come in earlier (as I will be doign next week). This bothers me not at all, it;s how I survued the 10-hr per day job, by coming in for 07:30. I almost physically cannot stay later than 17:30.

I have found that explaining that this is how it is, combined with saving the brain dead boring stuff (admin or report layout or the like) that doesn't really need thought for afternoons helps a lot. You can also arrange straightforward bits of coding etc for the afternoon.

You can't just say "my brain doesn't work in the afternoons" without coming up with some sort of plan that makes it seem not so bad. I know, I tried :-)