Office work: Is working slowly more tiring than working fast?

Planet_Switzerland

Obviously manual work is differently as it's physically demanding so doing that quickly is tiring. But sitting at a desk and working quickly, I don't see how it can be tiring.

Savvy_Sue

I'd say working slowly is tiring because it's just plain boring ... 

General_Grant

"Many years ago" you were younger and could have had more energy for the task in hand than the other people doing that work.  They may have had other responsibilities away from work which drained them.

Perhaps you are now older and have those draining activities.

[Deleted User]

I guess working fast is fine until a mistake is made. ☹️
Personally I don't work in an office now loaded with people or target driven, it's just me, the manager until maternity leave and director - and having to wait for the app to sync between us, so we can only go as fast as the boss's invention!  😜 I'm hoping I can handle being on my own come the summer as I have to morph into my manager. (eeek)

[Deleted User]

Planet_Switzerland said:

In my career jobs though I've not had the luxury of being able to work quickly. In fact we say a project will take as many hours as we can get away with saying so we can bill accordingly. It can mean being allocated on a 2 week project that in reality could be done in 2 days. 

Don't you feel guilty for doing this?

Tigsteroonie

*removed, unable to delete* 

TELLIT01

It depends on how you define 'fast'.  Faster than some other people or faster than the job can be done accurately.  You will always get the skiver who wants to do as little as possible, but most people get into a rhythm over time if the job is of a repetitive nature.  Some will have a faster rhythm than others, so I would say work at the pace you are comfortable with.

When I worked at DWP we originally had a daily target which was supposed to be the number of claims which could be processed accurately in a day.  Over time that number increased by about 50% so the only way to hit the target was to worry less about accuracy.  In fact my team leader actually said that the only thing we were measured on was the number of claims processed, not accuracy.  Error correction was done by another team and therefore not our problem.  Is it any wonder DWP is in such a mess?

marlot

I hated being bored at work.  Would much rather be busy.
I met a woman who refused promotions, and stayed on the factory floor doing a mundane/repetitive job.  It turned out that she was a well-regarded author.  She spent the day planning the next chapter of her book; would go home and dictate it onto machine, and her mum would type it up the next day.

TyreLever

Planet_Switzerland said:

amazonian17 said:

Planet_Switzerland said:

In my career jobs though I've not had the luxury of being able to work quickly. In fact we say a project will take as many hours as we can get away with saying so we can bill accordingly. It can mean being allocated on a 2 week project that in reality could be done in 2 days. 

Don't you feel guilty for doing this?

No, I got over that years ago. It's how the business makes money, without that I wouldn't have a job. Besides, a lot more is billed for my time than I make in my salary.

Wow! Words can't quite cover it and this is an internet forum so this is about the best I can do.

suki1964

Look. I can work faster then the machines we have to make our work faster

Does that make me better then the next person who could possibly take twice as long as me to complete an order - nope

We all have our strengths and weeknesses , just work at a speed that suits you and stop worrying about what others do

Sharon87

I'm a quick worker. I work faster than a lot of colleagues in the past. I think it's partly because I use a lot keyboard shortcuts as I find it easier than using the mouse, so using keyboard shortcuts and having a naturally fast typing speed helps me work faster, and just as accurate as I would be if I didn't use the keyboard shortcuts.

I used to transcribe a lot and as a freelancer I would type really fast in the first couple of days of a new job, but would tire my hand out quickly, so then I slowed down.