I see where your coming from. By real world, I wasn't specifically referring to the OP's specific situation(Your are correct, we know little or nothing of the situation.). I was more so pushing back on the hypothetical concept of having 2 employees that have the exact same abilities and the exact same output. That doesn't exist in reality. There's always something different between the 2...whether it be personality, attitude, or lack of personal hygiene etc. If the output is similar in scale, I'm firing the stinky dude in the corner or the jackass that always annoys everyone else. Personally, I think the solution....real world and hypothetical is this: Either that or whoever brings donuts in every day.
People bring up quality of life issues that could be had through work, but then its looked upon as trying to be be "lazy" and taking away from work. People realize they need to work to live. Its just about a happy balance that benefits everyone. I like 4x10s or 4x9s +1x4. Going in half day on a Friday wouldnt be that big an inconvenience. I do think working from home can be lead to some complacency and lack of productivity (sorry, just do). And working from home presents challenges to advancement oppurtunities. How can you brown-nose from home? US is the 2nd leading country behind Japan in average hours worked. Which means America feels it needs to work harder and more than everyone else to remain on top. I do think we can work smarter. The point is to be happy
One of my BIGGEST problems with working for others was the requirement of certain hours being there. I understand if it is an establishment that requires certain interaction with other institutions or people who operate similar hours - banks, courts, food or retail businesses. But, if I CAN do my work from anywhere and I get what is required (or more) done in 8 hours, why do I have to work 40 hours in an office? It's a waste of time and space for both of us. I worked at a job years ago. I could generally finish my work in about 15-20 hours each week, yet I was required to be in the office 40+ hours a week. Most of the time, I played video games or talked on the phone. There was literally NOTHING else for me to do. It was a complete waste of time for everyone. Stupid.
One thing I love about my job and my industry is the flexibility of my schedule. Since I work and go to school full time it can get very hectic, but they're willing to work with me. Working with taxes, the way they see it, as long as everything is completed and sent out by the deadline everything is good. If I want to come in from 5am to 2pm then that's fine, if I want to come in from 11am to 8pm that's ok too, as long as the work is completed on time. With school thrown in, I do try to work it around my work schedule, but when you only have a few classes remaining your options dwindle, so you are pretty much forced to work your work schedule around your school schedule, and they're great about that. I tell them what hours I have class and the hours I'll be working that semester and they never seem to have a problem. They also give us half days every Friday. Usually I work 7-4 and everyone else is 8:30-5:30 and on Friday everyone gets out at 3, so technically I'm putting in an extra 1.5 hours each work. I don't mind it at all though, it's a great company and I appreciate all they do to work with me, so I don't mind a little extra time each week (especially those weeks I literally have nothing to do because I've already completed everything for the upcoming deadline). Oh, they're also Jewish, so we have Rash Hashan (sp?) and Yom Kippur off too Pugs
I'm in the same field and have the same flexible schedule. I'm starting to take classes next fall to sit for the CPA. If you're in Houston, do you have any recommendations for schools? I don't want to to be a full-time student, but then again I don't want to be wasting 5 years to finish up the remaining 30 hours. So I'm thinking I'll start off taking 2 classes each term (it's hard with tax season because I'm working 80-90 hours each week) for a year and a half and then just take a full semester off to go back to school and finish up the remaining 15 hours. I'm still not sure how this is going to work.
I worked for a company out of Belgium (but located in Houston) and we were given 20 days of vacation, 8 sick days and 4 personal holidays each year. You didn't have to use them all but they sure as hell pressured you to. Around September of last year they started asking me when I was going to use my time. It felt weird having that much vacation to use (I still had 20+ days left) so I ended working 3.5 day work weeks for several months. It was awesome!
We work because other people are doing the agrarian work on our behalf. Without food, there is no work.
My work doesn't really care how long you're at work, managers are usually in meeting and you schedule meetings your self. They are very flexible around when you come and go, work from home, etc. But the flip side is as a salaried worker, with projects and deadlines, a 50 hour week is the norm with a 60 - 90 hour week here and there. But the pay aint bad (amongst my "peers" ofcourse) and I think I'd enjoy it more than some other jobs I'd qualify for.
It’s amazing how often you hear this kind of thing. It makes you wonder just how much time is being wasted in corporations all around the country. Like I eluded to earlier in this thread, I’ve been at my current position in this company for just under 2 years now and I could literally count on 1 hand how many days I’ve come to work and actually worked non-stop from the start of the day to the end. Most of the time, I’m trying to stretch 1 or 2 hours of work into 8 hours. Today, it’s going to be more like 30 minutes of work. If I was allowed, I could literally come to work 1 day a week and get all my work done and still be ahead of schedule, no less. The hardest thing about my job is dealing with the boredom. Seriously. If you don’t believe me, just check my post count…
I've had very similar situations in my last 2 jobs. What I've always seen is that procrastination has always been a major issue with co workers. I always tend to make sure I get my work finished first, while a lot of the people I've worked with tend to let thier mind wander and not get everything done. So by the end of the day, when I'm bored out of my mind, the co workers are scrambling to finish the same type of work.
