Enough is enough! Chuck 'em out

lynzpower

I did too! Had to presume this is a dervish sockie as lets face it theres not many others who would call him "esteemed"

vivatifosi

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Theres actually someone I work with who has this thing about working non stop for the hours they are contracted to work. Even if there is no work, they won't sit back for a while like the rest of us would, oh no.

The worst thing we ever found her doing was litterally spending about an hour painstakingly removing little bits of selotape from the wall from over the years and then moving on to massaging a cork board as she said there were too many holes in one area of the board.

So while everyone else is having a natter as theres just nothing going on (but could be in half an hour, who knows!) shes stuck in the office, clock watching, massaging a cork board

Tell you what though, she walks in through the door bang on time, and leaves, also, bang on time. And she will leave even if shes in the middle of something pretty urgent. 4.27pm and thats it for her, then she will wait till 4.30 and leave the building right on time, no matter what is going on.

The woman you describe sounds like some relatives of mine with autistic spectrum disorder. Their world doesn't really have shades of grey, therefore if you are contracted to work so many hours, that is what you get, my rels feel duty bound to fill the additional hours with something. Similarly they won't be someone who wants to get together for a chat around the water cooler. Equally, come 4.30 they would finish work because that's what their contract states.

StevieJ

I also used to work with a workaholic, made me feel ill watching her They had to get two people to replace her :rolleyes:

mizzbiz

In my experience, the ones that seem to work the hardest, long hours, overtime etc, are the ones who can't do their job and take double the amount of time of a competent person to do it. And the ones who continuously stay after work do it for the overtime money.

In my job before last, for a well known multinational company, once half five had passed and most of the office workers had gone, a certain subset of the workforce would stick on the kettle, break out the biccies and gather round for their ritual overtime gossip. Not a stroke of work was ever done, and the only reason I knew about it was because, due to my position, I occasionally had to stay late to run checks after systems were shut down. These people were earning a lot already so their overtime payments were massive.

handful

julieq wrote: »

Worse still, there are many highly paid individuals who spend hours of each day posting ill informed nonsense as fact onto "Internet Forums" instead of creating quotes for ball bearing deliveries in Stoke or whatever it is they are supposed to be doing.

Well I'm at work on a Good Friday and that's probably why I'm posting as I don't have time to post when I'm not at work.;)

Anyway, must dash. Got an important quote to get ready for some ball bearings.

Lotus-eater

sockpuppets wrote: »

Another one outed. Sometimes it's just too easy.

Took your time.....:p

penguine

My first job out of college was as a data entry operator for a collections agency in California (they sent out form letters to people chasing up payment on their debts). I worked swing shift (4.30pm to 1am) keying in people's addresses and the amount they owed. The computer system was set up to keep track of exactly how many keystrokes we entered per hour so they knew how fast we were working and how much time we weren't actually entering data. Every month they would print out our stats and then our manager will sit down with us to discuss our performance.

For every 2000 keystrokes you went up per hour you got a pay raise, until you got to the limit that is which I think was 22,000 keystrokes per hour. I have always been a fast typist so I exceeded 22,000 keystrokes within a few months and my manager told me I should try to slow down, because they'd spoken to the head of the department and even though I'd gone over 24,000 I wasn't going to get another pay rise. But I couldn't slow down, because I'd just get bored and struggle to stay awake.

I listened to the radio and books on tape on a walkman while I was working and whenever I heard something interesting, I'd quickly lock my keyboard and write a note. Before long it started turning up on my reports that I was spending too much time with my keyboard locked (this happened if you went to the toilet too often too!). Luckily my manager wasn't an automoton, he told me he wasn't going to take any disciplinary action against me because I was still producing more keystrokes overall than anyone else in the department.

A few years after I left this job I heard about some companies introducing a kind of monitoring chip into employee's name badges. It would keep track of the amount of time they spent away from their desks (including how often they went to the toilet and how long they spent in there) so that they could identify underproductive employees.

This was in the early 1990s so during the last recession. Maybe it's human nature for people get obsessed with their co-workers' productivity when they worry that their own job is threatened.

penguine

mizzbiz wrote: »

In my job before last, for a well known multinational company, once half five had passed and most of the office workers had gone, a certain subset of the workforce would stick on the kettle, break out the biccies and gather round for their ritual overtime gossip.

My OH told me how when his employer first introduced flexi working, a certain group in the office started turning up every day really early to drink tea and gossip. That way they could build up their flexi hours and take a day off.

pipkin71

vivatifosi wrote: »

Must just be me, I read julieq's post as irony.

Me too --

penguine

vivatifosi wrote: »

Must just be me, I read julieq's post as irony.

Me too, but it's also an interesting topic for discussion.