How much do people actually work at work?
October 22, 2015 1:55 PM Subscribe
Most questions about work hours and productivity imply that it's normal to be focused on work the entire time you're at the office, with short breaks and maybe a lunch break. I've seen lots of advice suggesting that you may have ADHD or depression if you spend a lot of time, say, surfing the Internet while procrastinating. Is procrastinating really a pathology, and is 90-100% productivity really normal?
I have days when I spend nearly every minute focused on work, and days when I waste half the time I'm at work. I don't really sweat the unproductive days. I figure everybody has trouble focusing sometimes, or times when they're just not ready to tackle a tough project. I consider myself pretty productive based on the volume of work I get done, but honestly, on an average day I'm probably about 70% productive. I wonder if this is acceptable in a normal workplace, or if I've been getting away with being a slacker. Should I be striving to be more productive? Is everybody on the Internet exaggerating when they talk about how productive they are, or am I way below workplace norms?
I have days when I spend nearly every minute focused on work, and days when I waste half the time I'm at work. I don't really sweat the unproductive days. I figure everybody has trouble focusing sometimes, or times when they're just not ready to tackle a tough project. I consider myself pretty productive based on the volume of work I get done, but honestly, on an average day I'm probably about 70% productive. I wonder if this is acceptable in a normal workplace, or if I've been getting away with being a slacker. Should I be striving to be more productive? Is everybody on the Internet exaggerating when they talk about how productive they are, or am I way below workplace norms?
Best answer: I'm not sure 90-100% productivity is going to do anything but burn you right out. I have ADHD and I'm pretty good at my demanding job (not, like law firm or Amazon demanding but demanding) and I'd say I'm at about 70% on a particularly productive day. if I don't have that 30% of cooling-off while I work and just power through from 9 to 5, my output gets worse and no one needs that.
If you work somewhere that is results-oriented and not tracking-your-time oriented, you should aim to be productive enough to get the work done to the satisfaction of whoever it's for, on time and correct. That's it. The rest of the time is your reward for doing a good job efficiently.
posted by griphus at 2:09 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
If you work somewhere that is results-oriented and not tracking-your-time oriented, you should aim to be productive enough to get the work done to the satisfaction of whoever it's for, on time and correct. That's it. The rest of the time is your reward for doing a good job efficiently.
posted by griphus at 2:09 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
90-100% productivity really normal?
This depends on the job - but if you are talking about a typical office job that is not a call center, then my answer is No. 70 seems about right.
posted by soelo at 2:10 PM on October 22, 2015 [4 favorites]
This depends on the job - but if you are talking about a typical office job that is not a call center, then my answer is No. 70 seems about right.
posted by soelo at 2:10 PM on October 22, 2015 [4 favorites]
At my current job, I work constantly the entire time; procrastination isn't even option. I do, though, leave Chat and Ask open for those brief 30-second moments where I need to breath before continuing. It takes me all day to read two Askme's including comments. I would feel weird not working 100% of the time. My evening job is teaching music in various ways. Obviously that is 100% of the time, too, otherwise students would just be watching me do...other things. Then I go home and give my kids 100% the moment I walk into the door until they go to bed. Then I give my wife 100% until we go to bed. Then I do it over again, seven days a week. I feel weird and gross taking time to do nothing.
My old job, though, was 1% (one) productivity, max. It was the type of job where I sat around ready to go all day, and I had better be ready and at the top of my game giving 110% when I was needed, though. That was far more stressful for me than my job now, working 100% of the time. It's awful do be doing nothing but need to be ready all the time, even though you were never needed all that often.
posted by TinWhistle at 2:16 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
My old job, though, was 1% (one) productivity, max. It was the type of job where I sat around ready to go all day, and I had better be ready and at the top of my game giving 110% when I was needed, though. That was far more stressful for me than my job now, working 100% of the time. It's awful do be doing nothing but need to be ready all the time, even though you were never needed all that often.
posted by TinWhistle at 2:16 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've seen lots of advice suggesting that you may have ADHD or depression if you spend a lot of time, say, surfing the Internet while procrastinating. Is procrastinating really a pathology, and is 90-100% productivity really normal?
It's not necessarily a pathology, and it's not necessarily true that people who tend towards procrastination also tend towards depression/ADD. That said, my most unproductive days at work are the ones where a) I try to get started on something and, even if I'm not in a blue mood or upset about any one thing, the hollow, deflating voice of depression pipes up and I go "Ugh, I just can't deal with this right now." Then I spend the rest of the day doing nothing and feeling vaguely bad about it, but Ugh, just can't get started. Too much effort. Or, I'm having a day where I'm particularly distracted, and the internet keeps sucking me away from work.
So I'd say that there can definitely be a correlation between depression/ADD and internet procrastination at work, but that doesn't mean that internet procrastination at work is caused by undiagnosed depression or ADD. Sometimes we just need to fuck around on the internet instead of working, you know?
posted by mudpuppie at 2:19 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's not necessarily a pathology, and it's not necessarily true that people who tend towards procrastination also tend towards depression/ADD. That said, my most unproductive days at work are the ones where a) I try to get started on something and, even if I'm not in a blue mood or upset about any one thing, the hollow, deflating voice of depression pipes up and I go "Ugh, I just can't deal with this right now." Then I spend the rest of the day doing nothing and feeling vaguely bad about it, but Ugh, just can't get started. Too much effort. Or, I'm having a day where I'm particularly distracted, and the internet keeps sucking me away from work.
So I'd say that there can definitely be a correlation between depression/ADD and internet procrastination at work, but that doesn't mean that internet procrastination at work is caused by undiagnosed depression or ADD. Sometimes we just need to fuck around on the internet instead of working, you know?
posted by mudpuppie at 2:19 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
On an average day, I'm about 30% productive. This means that as a deadline approaches, or if there's a firedrill for some other reason, I might have a week of being 90% productive. My same-title colleagues may be working marginally more, but no one I've spoken to works more than ~60% of the day. This is the same for my friends in other white-collar jobs, other than some in investment banking and some in biglaw (though, for the latter, it's more like a month of 10-hr days followed by a month of nothing).
posted by melissasaurus at 2:22 PM on October 22, 2015 [12 favorites]
posted by melissasaurus at 2:22 PM on October 22, 2015 [12 favorites]
Steve Pavlina has cited that the "average" office worker actually works about 90 minutes per day on average. I'm not sure where he got that stat from, though. But when you think of the amount of people who have depression, treated or otherwise, plus younger workers coming in hungover after happy hours the previous evening and then look at all the stagnant time around holidays and summer, even in fairly demanding corporate roles, this number doesn't seem too far off.
posted by the foreground at 2:24 PM on October 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by the foreground at 2:24 PM on October 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
I try to break my workday (I freelance and telecommute from home) into 90 min chunks of focus/flow. If I can get four of those in a day, that's a big day. Three is more common. The rest of the billing day is email, meetings, to-do list maintenance, Metafilter, etc.
posted by notyou at 2:35 PM on October 22, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by notyou at 2:35 PM on October 22, 2015 [4 favorites]
Best answer: I spent over a decade as an in-house white-collar professional; I'd say 70% productive was about as high as it got for anyone in that environment (although people constantly complained about being busy). I switched to consulting several months ago, and I'd say I'm at 90 - 95% productive now, and it's grueling. The difference is absolutely staggering. If you wanna be happy long-term, for most people, being a 70% tortoise is better than being a 90% hare.
posted by julthumbscrew at 2:37 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by julthumbscrew at 2:37 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Most people are pretty inefficient with regard to their working time, but I suspect that a lot of it is being halfway engaged for most of the time, rather than totally engaged for a small part of the time. Blatant newspaper-reading is less common than getting sort of distracted frequently during the course of a task.
There's an entire industry devoted to trying to make workers more productive, but most of the things that work require intensive effort on the part of management and annoy the crap out of workers. Weirdly, you can get huge temporary increases in efficiency by giving a survey to the workers and then making a totally arbitrary change in working conditions (like the color temperature of overhead lighting.)
The literature in this area is fascinating. Also, it's really funny what crap the IO guys got up to before human experimentation got all restricted by ethical considerations.
posted by SMPA at 2:38 PM on October 22, 2015
There's an entire industry devoted to trying to make workers more productive, but most of the things that work require intensive effort on the part of management and annoy the crap out of workers. Weirdly, you can get huge temporary increases in efficiency by giving a survey to the workers and then making a totally arbitrary change in working conditions (like the color temperature of overhead lighting.)
The literature in this area is fascinating. Also, it's really funny what crap the IO guys got up to before human experimentation got all restricted by ethical considerations.
posted by SMPA at 2:38 PM on October 22, 2015
I have some days where I haven't accomplished anything meaningful at all. And it's sad because it's not like I played hooky and went skiing, but I just dicked around and did other stuff on the internet. (Like what I am literally doing right now.) Sometimes I worry I will get caught in having full days where I don't accomplish anything, but the fact is I always deliver on what is asked of me and I haven't had anyone complaining about my productivity or turnaround time yet. I figure I set a pretty good standard for myself by always pacing myself no matter what. Like if I had pushed myself to turn everything around instantly, those times when I was distracted and slow would be really noticeable and potentially problematic. But now I've created a nice cushion for myself because I learned that it's important to really under promise so you can over deliver.
I think 70 percent sounds pretty high. When I glance around my office, people are on Facebook and YouTube a lot of the time. I once knew a guy who was like 100 percent productive, I don't know how he did it. I bet the average is like 50 percent productive. But maybe that says more about my approach. Who knows. As long as you are doing your job and meeting deadlines and goals, it doesn't matter what you do, in my opinion.
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:42 PM on October 22, 2015 [9 favorites]
I think 70 percent sounds pretty high. When I glance around my office, people are on Facebook and YouTube a lot of the time. I once knew a guy who was like 100 percent productive, I don't know how he did it. I bet the average is like 50 percent productive. But maybe that says more about my approach. Who knows. As long as you are doing your job and meeting deadlines and goals, it doesn't matter what you do, in my opinion.
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:42 PM on October 22, 2015 [9 favorites]
It's very hard for me to estimate, because my workload ebbs and flows a lot. I also have to switch tasks/projects many, many, many times per day, and am interrupted many times per day. Because of this, I often use a little bit of web browsing to clear my brain between tasks and interruptions. I'm getting less flexible at multi-tasking as I get older, and I've found reading an AskMe or two helps me get some mental space to go back to doing everything at once.
I also think a lot of people *think* they're working when they're actually just socializing. I had an assistant like that who recently quit - every single afternoon, he wanted to hang out for, like, an hour and talk about work cases. Except it wasn't necessary talk - it was just fulfilling his need for social contact. Drove me nuts. So glad to have my afternoons back to myself.
posted by Squeak Attack at 2:43 PM on October 22, 2015 [6 favorites]
I also think a lot of people *think* they're working when they're actually just socializing. I had an assistant like that who recently quit - every single afternoon, he wanted to hang out for, like, an hour and talk about work cases. Except it wasn't necessary talk - it was just fulfilling his need for social contact. Drove me nuts. So glad to have my afternoons back to myself.
posted by Squeak Attack at 2:43 PM on October 22, 2015 [6 favorites]
Best answer: For a different perspective, a Latvian social networking company used a productivity-tracking app to find that their most-productive employees tended to work for 52 minutes followed by a 17-minute break, on average. That implies spending around 75% of their time working.
Obviously there are tons of caveats, but it's an interesting datapoint.
posted by griseus at 2:44 PM on October 22, 2015 [5 favorites]
Obviously there are tons of caveats, but it's an interesting datapoint.
posted by griseus at 2:44 PM on October 22, 2015 [5 favorites]
it very much depends on what i am doing. if i am actively writing new code, it can be 95% active time, flying by in a moment. but if i am trying to understand or fix a system, it can be down to even just 10 or 15% useful time.
as i've got older, i've learnt to not care about the low figure for fixing / understanding complex systems. i think (am pretty sure) i am (very) good at it. and part of being good at it seems to be letting my subconscious work on it. and that just takes time. years ago i would have run round doing things i knew made no sense. now i just wait for it to make sense.
posted by andrewcooke at 2:55 PM on October 22, 2015 [7 favorites]
as i've got older, i've learnt to not care about the low figure for fixing / understanding complex systems. i think (am pretty sure) i am (very) good at it. and part of being good at it seems to be letting my subconscious work on it. and that just takes time. years ago i would have run round doing things i knew made no sense. now i just wait for it to make sense.
posted by andrewcooke at 2:55 PM on October 22, 2015 [7 favorites]
Best answer: I actually track my work using RescueTime. They assign percentages to tasks, where a given app/website you're actively using can be either 100%, 75%, 50% or 0% productive. RescueTime does not track meetings, but those are generally two to three hours per week for me. It really just tracks the time you're productive while sitting at your desk. I suppose this artificially suppresses my numbers, but not as much as it would for some people.
I tend to work in chunks - weeks where I'm ultra productive and others where I'm practically useless. Like you, I think I should work harder. My work is tricky because it requires a lot of Internet research on things that I would do anyway, so the work/screwing around line is blurry.
Without getting into the weeds on their calculation, I've tracked about 1,000 hours, and almost exactly 2/3 have been productive or neutral (YouTube is neutral, for example) and 1/3 have been distracting. That's kind of embarrassing, and I'd really like to cut that distracting time from 1/3 to 1/4. The product is free, but has a premium edition as well.
Mefi is absolutely in the distracting category!
posted by cnc at 2:56 PM on October 22, 2015 [6 favorites]
I tend to work in chunks - weeks where I'm ultra productive and others where I'm practically useless. Like you, I think I should work harder. My work is tricky because it requires a lot of Internet research on things that I would do anyway, so the work/screwing around line is blurry.
Without getting into the weeds on their calculation, I've tracked about 1,000 hours, and almost exactly 2/3 have been productive or neutral (YouTube is neutral, for example) and 1/3 have been distracting. That's kind of embarrassing, and I'd really like to cut that distracting time from 1/3 to 1/4. The product is free, but has a premium edition as well.
Mefi is absolutely in the distracting category!
posted by cnc at 2:56 PM on October 22, 2015 [6 favorites]
Best answer: I work in a tech job at a demanding company and I would estimate that I'm MAYBE productive 60% of the time I'm in the office, if that. But it really depends on how you measure productivity:
-My 8-hour work day includes a 30-60 minute lunch break that I usually spend with coworkers because we get free meals at work. We often talk about work but also sports and other crap
-Some days I am in meetings from 9am-5pm nonstop. While this may sound like 100% productivity because I am attending all of them for 8 hours straight, I would guess my brain is actively listening/participating only about 50% of the time, with the most intense participation occurring in meetings at the beginning of the day and very little during the meetings that occur towards the end of the day because I'm just freaking TIRED of listening to people yammer at that point
-My company hosts a lot of "tech talks" and other events that are peripherally related to our work and we are all encouraged to attend. Does that count as work if I go and actively listen and don't take my laptop or phone?
-My company as an internal social networking product (think Facebook but for your employees only) and I spend a lot of time on there. It's probably an even split between participating in actual serious conversations about projects (which ONLY happen on this platform), checking out posts about upcoming social events, and talking shit about the slobs in the office
-I slowly pick away at things like email and documents I need to write for 30 minute chunks here and there, including while I'm in bed at the end of the night. A LOT of emailing and communication happens during my "off" hours at home.
I would NOT be able to handle going to work and being productive for 8 hours in a row. I probably do have ADD tendencies though.
posted by joan_holloway at 3:02 PM on October 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
-My 8-hour work day includes a 30-60 minute lunch break that I usually spend with coworkers because we get free meals at work. We often talk about work but also sports and other crap
-Some days I am in meetings from 9am-5pm nonstop. While this may sound like 100% productivity because I am attending all of them for 8 hours straight, I would guess my brain is actively listening/participating only about 50% of the time, with the most intense participation occurring in meetings at the beginning of the day and very little during the meetings that occur towards the end of the day because I'm just freaking TIRED of listening to people yammer at that point
-My company hosts a lot of "tech talks" and other events that are peripherally related to our work and we are all encouraged to attend. Does that count as work if I go and actively listen and don't take my laptop or phone?
-My company as an internal social networking product (think Facebook but for your employees only) and I spend a lot of time on there. It's probably an even split between participating in actual serious conversations about projects (which ONLY happen on this platform), checking out posts about upcoming social events, and talking shit about the slobs in the office
-I slowly pick away at things like email and documents I need to write for 30 minute chunks here and there, including while I'm in bed at the end of the night. A LOT of emailing and communication happens during my "off" hours at home.
I would NOT be able to handle going to work and being productive for 8 hours in a row. I probably do have ADD tendencies though.
posted by joan_holloway at 3:02 PM on October 22, 2015 [3 favorites]
In my white collar office career, I'd say around 60% productive is good. The rest is a mix of admin, office chat, internet, non-productive meetings, etc.
posted by yesbut at 3:08 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by yesbut at 3:08 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I mostly work for myself, so I don't have to show up to anywhere (except meetings), and thus percentages don't make a lot of sense for me. I average around 4 hours of seriously focused work per day, plus another hour or two where I'm maybe watching TV in the background and half working. I occasionally have days of 8-10 hours of approximately 100% productivity, but they are brutal, and no way could I sustain that long term.
posted by ktkt at 3:09 PM on October 22, 2015
posted by ktkt at 3:09 PM on October 22, 2015
Per RescueTime, I consistently average over 70% productivity, at times approaching 80%. Some of that is a quirk of coding (I classify edifying things like reading Proust or teaching myself to code as "productive", even though my boss would disagree), but in general, I don't think it's far off. 5/8-2/3 productive seems about right.
Per my company's published stats, I'm consistently the second or third most productive person in my department of ten people, which would seem to indicate that 60-65% is above average.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:10 PM on October 22, 2015
Per my company's published stats, I'm consistently the second or third most productive person in my department of ten people, which would seem to indicate that 60-65% is above average.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:10 PM on October 22, 2015
Best answer: Check out this poll from Gallup about employee engagement: http://www.gallup.com/poll/181289/majority-employees-not-engaged-despite-gains-2014.aspx If anything it suggested that a high degree of productivity is abnormal. I mean, think about that 17% who are actively disengaged from their jobs. I suspect very few of them are getting fired...
Should I strive to be more be more productive?
Only if you think it would make you happier/you are unhappy. I definitely have days were I feel like a glutton because of how much time I spent surfing around on the web. But then again, I also have days where I feel like a shell of a person because it's been go-go-go from the moment I got to work. And then there are the sweet spot days. It all balances out.
posted by CMcG at 4:24 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Should I strive to be more be more productive?
Only if you think it would make you happier/you are unhappy. I definitely have days were I feel like a glutton because of how much time I spent surfing around on the web. But then again, I also have days where I feel like a shell of a person because it's been go-go-go from the moment I got to work. And then there are the sweet spot days. It all balances out.
posted by CMcG at 4:24 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
I have to think a lot of this depends at least as much on the job as it does on the person doing it, and how that person feels about their job and their work environment.
posted by wondermouse at 4:45 PM on October 22, 2015
posted by wondermouse at 4:45 PM on October 22, 2015
It depends on whether you measure productivity in output (number of transactions for example) or outcomes (impact of your work). I spend ALOT of time on building relationships (I'm in a new role, so even more) both within my team, in the partnerships I am a part of, and my larger community because I can get better outcomes when I later approach those same people for an "ask" if I have made many emotional deposits before I make a withdrawal on their energy/productivity/time. I also have credibility then that I will not waste their time but instead use what they give me in a positive way that is a win-win for both of us.
I also find I need to "spin my wheels" a bit when visioning what I need to do next in the big picture of my workplace which means some smaller tasks may get neglected.
posted by saucysault at 4:51 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
I also find I need to "spin my wheels" a bit when visioning what I need to do next in the big picture of my workplace which means some smaller tasks may get neglected.
posted by saucysault at 4:51 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I work a desk job in a hospital, and I would say I'm at least 95% productive. I don't surf the web at work except on my lunch break (when I have time to take one). My office mates and I chat over lunch, or sometimes for 15-20 minutes total throughout the course of the day. In fact, I average about 42-43 hours at work per week while being paid for 40, so my productivity's probably even higher than my original estimate.
When I was a bedside nurse in a hospital, I was working 100% or more. It was rare for any of us to get our legally mandated meal breaks, and it was common for nurses to go many hours without even a much-needed bathroom break. The only time we really stopped to chat was when there was a line for the machine that holds the medications, and there was literally nothing else we could be doing without losing our place in line. So, maybe 2 minutes tops, once or twice in a shift.
I used to work as a software developer in various office environments, and I doubt I was ever more than 75% productive except for occasional weeks a few times a year when a deadline was approaching. In the small (less than 20 employees) company I worked at last before becoming a nurse, I would be shocked if anybody was working even 50% of the time.
I have really mixed feelings about having to work at or near 100% now that I'm in healthcare.
I love my nursing job, whereas I never felt particularly inspired by software development. My work days fly by now, compared to the days that used to drag on even with MeFi and the entire internet to keep me entertained. In this job I never go home with that yucky feeling of having accomplished nothing all day. And I never feel guilty or worry about getting caught slacking off, because I never do it.
All that said, the constant frantic pace wears on me. I don't have the option to take it easy. The reason I work so hard through the ENTIRE day as a nurse is that I have actual patients depending on me to get a certain number of things done every day. If I slacked off in my current job, somebody wouldn't get a timely appointment to see their oncologist. Somebody wouldn't get their question answered about their chemotherapy side effects. Somebody's records wouldn't be available in our clinic in time for their surgeon to make useful recommendations at their appointment. Actual people are depending on me to work hard, every minute of every day.
I think hospital administrators know that people who work in healthcare are dedicated to their patients, and I think that leads healthcare organizations to take advantage of their workers. We will skip lunch when our patients need us. We will stay 2 hours late because our patients need us. We do it because it's the right thing to do for our patients. The managers making the decisions about how many staff we can have on hand, they just see that somehow things work out, so they don't add staff. Budgets are tight in healthcare, and they're only getting tighter.
For now my anger at being used like this is outweighed by how much I enjoy my work, but it's not hard to imagine a future where the scales shift. Burnout is common among nurses, but I think we stave it off for a lot longer than many other professions just because so many nurses feel so passionate about and committed to their work.
posted by vytae at 5:37 PM on October 22, 2015 [15 favorites]
When I was a bedside nurse in a hospital, I was working 100% or more. It was rare for any of us to get our legally mandated meal breaks, and it was common for nurses to go many hours without even a much-needed bathroom break. The only time we really stopped to chat was when there was a line for the machine that holds the medications, and there was literally nothing else we could be doing without losing our place in line. So, maybe 2 minutes tops, once or twice in a shift.
I used to work as a software developer in various office environments, and I doubt I was ever more than 75% productive except for occasional weeks a few times a year when a deadline was approaching. In the small (less than 20 employees) company I worked at last before becoming a nurse, I would be shocked if anybody was working even 50% of the time.
I have really mixed feelings about having to work at or near 100% now that I'm in healthcare.
I love my nursing job, whereas I never felt particularly inspired by software development. My work days fly by now, compared to the days that used to drag on even with MeFi and the entire internet to keep me entertained. In this job I never go home with that yucky feeling of having accomplished nothing all day. And I never feel guilty or worry about getting caught slacking off, because I never do it.
All that said, the constant frantic pace wears on me. I don't have the option to take it easy. The reason I work so hard through the ENTIRE day as a nurse is that I have actual patients depending on me to get a certain number of things done every day. If I slacked off in my current job, somebody wouldn't get a timely appointment to see their oncologist. Somebody wouldn't get their question answered about their chemotherapy side effects. Somebody's records wouldn't be available in our clinic in time for their surgeon to make useful recommendations at their appointment. Actual people are depending on me to work hard, every minute of every day.
I think hospital administrators know that people who work in healthcare are dedicated to their patients, and I think that leads healthcare organizations to take advantage of their workers. We will skip lunch when our patients need us. We will stay 2 hours late because our patients need us. We do it because it's the right thing to do for our patients. The managers making the decisions about how many staff we can have on hand, they just see that somehow things work out, so they don't add staff. Budgets are tight in healthcare, and they're only getting tighter.
For now my anger at being used like this is outweighed by how much I enjoy my work, but it's not hard to imagine a future where the scales shift. Burnout is common among nurses, but I think we stave it off for a lot longer than many other professions just because so many nurses feel so passionate about and committed to their work.
posted by vytae at 5:37 PM on October 22, 2015 [15 favorites]
I spend a lot of time in not-strictly-necessary wandering around just looking at what's going on with no agenda, catching up with my same-level counterparts in the organization, and what-if-ing crazy ideas with people (and listening to theirs.) I guess it depends on the job; that probably wouldn't thrill me in my technicians if they did the same thing to the same extent. It sure does make everything run smoother though. People often compliment me on my vast "network of spies" and how I seem to always know everything and always have just the right resource to put in the right place when nobody else saw it coming, and how I seem to get help almost effortlessly when I need it. Mostly that's just me wandering around and keeping in touch with others. I don't think I'd be nearly as effective if I tried to sit at my computer and "work" all eight hours, even with email. I can't really get a position paper or something done without opening it, jotting down a few skeleton sentences, then closing it and not thinking about it. A few hours later, I'll know just what I want to write. Staring at the page doesn't work no matter how long I do it.
The funny thing is, though I'm a hard-core introvert away from work, I can't NOT do what I do at work. It feels wrong and stifling and gets me down. It drives MBTI seminar leaders crazy when I mention that.
posted by ctmf at 5:52 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
The funny thing is, though I'm a hard-core introvert away from work, I can't NOT do what I do at work. It feels wrong and stifling and gets me down. It drives MBTI seminar leaders crazy when I mention that.
posted by ctmf at 5:52 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
I can do about 5-6 hours of work in an eight hour day, so max about 75% productive. On a bad day that goes down to 4 hours, so I range between 50% and 75% productive.
I have adhd or anxiety or something so I literally leave when I can't work any longer, but I see coworkers who are typically able to sit for 10 hour days. Whether it's a productive 10 hours or not I can't say.
posted by charlielxxv at 5:59 PM on October 22, 2015
I have adhd or anxiety or something so I literally leave when I can't work any longer, but I see coworkers who are typically able to sit for 10 hour days. Whether it's a productive 10 hours or not I can't say.
posted by charlielxxv at 5:59 PM on October 22, 2015
I always felt I was quite slack, I would probably average about 50% actual focus on work at work, but hey I was delivering. Some days it would be literally zero, respond to a few emails. Some days it would be quite high, with genuine need for overtime work, but most days I cruised through on about 50% I guess, two hours in the morning, two hours in the afternoon. Then I managed a team, and it was staggering how little some people seemed to produce in a given amount of time. I had no idea what they were doing, but it sure wasn't much. And there were others, workaholics, who produced far too much work that was often essentially irrelevant to the task I needed doing.
Meanwhile, my wife, corporate lawyer, gives on average over 100%. She may switch off in meetings, but she's on call late nights and weekends.
posted by wilful at 6:11 PM on October 22, 2015
Meanwhile, my wife, corporate lawyer, gives on average over 100%. She may switch off in meetings, but she's on call late nights and weekends.
posted by wilful at 6:11 PM on October 22, 2015
I love this question as I wonder about it constantly. When I started using RescueTime I was around 65% productive. Now I'm consistently in the 80s. This last month I was 84% productive when I was at work. I have a very demanding job without a lot of time for breaks (although no one is watching me).
I also use the Focus Time plug in on RescueTime pretty regularly. It blocks access to unproductive stuff. And I try to go on walks instead of internetting during breaks but I'm not always successful. The siren song of AskMe is strong...
posted by sockermom at 6:47 PM on October 22, 2015
I also use the Focus Time plug in on RescueTime pretty regularly. It blocks access to unproductive stuff. And I try to go on walks instead of internetting during breaks but I'm not always successful. The siren song of AskMe is strong...
posted by sockermom at 6:47 PM on October 22, 2015
I'm always amazed at how little people work. It's also born out by statistics -- most social media use and online shopping takes place during the 9 - 5 and less on weekends.
I must be an outlier. I'm in NYC, fast-paced industry. I don't do long hours like Wall Street, but I am "on" 80% - 100% of the time at work. Sometimes I check my personal email, but I don't respond to anything. I never shop or go on Facebook or even networks that are work relevant -- I figure it's my responsibility to network after hours. If I "waste time" it'll be chatting with someone on my team, which is something I have to do as a manager to build good relationships anyway.
So no, it's not impossible to spend most of your time engaged at work. How boring your job is probably plays a big part; likewise if you have a very mentally taxing job like law, programming, accounting - those jobs require work to be chunked up with rest periods in between. You can almost always find lightweight productive tasks to fill the gaps though.
posted by hyperion at 7:03 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
I must be an outlier. I'm in NYC, fast-paced industry. I don't do long hours like Wall Street, but I am "on" 80% - 100% of the time at work. Sometimes I check my personal email, but I don't respond to anything. I never shop or go on Facebook or even networks that are work relevant -- I figure it's my responsibility to network after hours. If I "waste time" it'll be chatting with someone on my team, which is something I have to do as a manager to build good relationships anyway.
So no, it's not impossible to spend most of your time engaged at work. How boring your job is probably plays a big part; likewise if you have a very mentally taxing job like law, programming, accounting - those jobs require work to be chunked up with rest periods in between. You can almost always find lightweight productive tasks to fill the gaps though.
posted by hyperion at 7:03 PM on October 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I work in a job where we track billable time, and our goal is 68%. I've been told by managers in related positions that 68% is unusually high. Granted, the idea is that the rest of our time is spent in work-related admin-type stuff, but I think 50%-60% productivity is probably about right for me -- however, I also tend to work very fast when I am working, and I've been praised for my productivity in every job I've held, including one where I determined that I really only had to do work on Thursdays. And generally only half the day on Thursdays. And I consistently got merit-based raises there. So I tend to think it's more important to pay attention to how much work you're doing than to how long that work is taking you, which means that people who need a long time to complete a project should probably be working more of their day than people who don't. Which may be a product of my public school education, where I got to read novels if I finished my spelling test early.
(And I'm the least ADHD-ish person I know. Procrastination is still a thing. I had the thought a few days ago, when I literally had nothing work-related to do, that procrastinating by surfing the internet was way more fun than killing time by surfing the internet.)
posted by jaguar at 8:17 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
(And I'm the least ADHD-ish person I know. Procrastination is still a thing. I had the thought a few days ago, when I literally had nothing work-related to do, that procrastinating by surfing the internet was way more fun than killing time by surfing the internet.)
posted by jaguar at 8:17 PM on October 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm a scientist/project manager at a dietary supplement company, and I'm with Hyperion -- I work basically all of the time I'm at my desk, and read AskMe, etc., only if I'm searching for an answer to a work question. I also work a not inconsiderable amount of the time I'm at home. That said, I slack in two ways: I go out for a smoke every hour and a half or two hours -- and some days I'm not feeling it, so I just go home. (That amounts to a half-day about once a month.)
My boss agrees with me that, as I am a "high-performer" who routinely puts in more than 40 hours a week, I should be able to come and go as I please. It's a pretty sweet deal.
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 7:44 AM on October 23, 2015
My boss agrees with me that, as I am a "high-performer" who routinely puts in more than 40 hours a week, I should be able to come and go as I please. It's a pretty sweet deal.
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 7:44 AM on October 23, 2015
I would say I would spend 85-90% of my paid work hours doing something my employer is paying me to do. The other 10-15% is tea breaks, toilet breaks, non-work related chit chat. I don't count lunchtime as part of my work hours.
So I'm working 85-90% of the time, but not all of that time is productive. Sure, I'm not surfing the net or messaging friends, but I do sometimes just stare blankly at the screen or read the same sentence 3 times. It's not procrastination, just a lack of concentration sometimes (for me anyway). I also have meetings which can be unproductive in that no actual discernible progress is made towards the project goal, but it's employer mandated and therefore work. I feel the same way about admin and professional development. But if you're talking about productivity as measured in terms of direct project outcomes, my guesstimate is 50-60% productivity.
posted by pianissimo at 7:56 AM on October 23, 2015
So I'm working 85-90% of the time, but not all of that time is productive. Sure, I'm not surfing the net or messaging friends, but I do sometimes just stare blankly at the screen or read the same sentence 3 times. It's not procrastination, just a lack of concentration sometimes (for me anyway). I also have meetings which can be unproductive in that no actual discernible progress is made towards the project goal, but it's employer mandated and therefore work. I feel the same way about admin and professional development. But if you're talking about productivity as measured in terms of direct project outcomes, my guesstimate is 50-60% productivity.
posted by pianissimo at 7:56 AM on October 23, 2015
I work in IT and i know a bunch of software devs. The general consensus between everyone i've talked to seems to be that you have like, 30% days and you have 90% days. Sometimes you get a bunch of the former in a row, sometimes you get several of the latter in a row. This wasn't some slacking off laziness thing 9/10 times either, it was just "Ok, well i've pushed Y project along to Z point, and i can't do anything on it until i hear back from/get this important component of it from X, now what?" and i'd move on to the next thing, hit the same sort of wall, move on to the next thing... and i'd just run out of stuff to do.
There's definitely days where there's just not that much to do besides look for shelved/back burnered stuff or side projects that need to get pushed along or finished and you just kind of dink around. But i've always had at least 1-2 days a year where i leave at 4am and come back at 7am because something critical came up, and i'm back in bed at 10:30 to sleep for infinity hours.
I agree with the above though, when i was consulting/contracting it was basically always 95%. It always felt like racing a car on a track versus driving it in commute traffic.
posted by emptythought at 12:46 PM on October 23, 2015
There's definitely days where there's just not that much to do besides look for shelved/back burnered stuff or side projects that need to get pushed along or finished and you just kind of dink around. But i've always had at least 1-2 days a year where i leave at 4am and come back at 7am because something critical came up, and i'm back in bed at 10:30 to sleep for infinity hours.
I agree with the above though, when i was consulting/contracting it was basically always 95%. It always felt like racing a car on a track versus driving it in commute traffic.
posted by emptythought at 12:46 PM on October 23, 2015
There would be a big difference between jobs where people are paid to be available and jobs where people are paid to produce, or jobs where tasks are constantly available and where they ebb and flow. In some jobs and with some office cultures, unstructured chatting with coworkers is part of the creative, collaborative process and in others it's a major distraction.
I have lot of distractions in my office, like chatting with adjacent coworkers throughout the day, or taking breaks to stretch and make tea. I'm always working on something, though, even if it's just researching something peripheral to a work project. Then there are people in my office who are partly paid to be available to answer work tickets, so they spend a lot more of their time messing around than I do when there are no tickets to answer. Reading Metafilter on the clock would be fine for them, but not fine for me. I'm paid for my work, not for my presence, so if I were literally just reading news articles and not even trying to do something work related, I would clock out.
posted by wrabbit at 2:45 PM on October 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have lot of distractions in my office, like chatting with adjacent coworkers throughout the day, or taking breaks to stretch and make tea. I'm always working on something, though, even if it's just researching something peripheral to a work project. Then there are people in my office who are partly paid to be available to answer work tickets, so they spend a lot more of their time messing around than I do when there are no tickets to answer. Reading Metafilter on the clock would be fine for them, but not fine for me. I'm paid for my work, not for my presence, so if I were literally just reading news articles and not even trying to do something work related, I would clock out.
posted by wrabbit at 2:45 PM on October 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
When at home, I'm 95% productive because I travel for work a lot--like 80%--which cuts it down the average because I have a fair amount of unproductive but necessary lost time what with walking to gates, driving, etc. (Let's be real: there's only so much you can get done on a phone.)
However I am still expected to complete tasks at the same rate at which I might were I just working from home or the office (LOL OFFICE--everyone interrupts you every 10 seconds...how does anyone get anything more taxing than responding to an email done?)...so I'm just sort of hyper-productive all the time. That said, I've had this gig for about a year and am about to quit despite how much the work resonates with me and how nice they are, so YMMV?
Before that, I'd been either a high school teacher (150-200% productivity, 50-100% unpaid) or a consultant (100% productivity with no benefits or job security).
posted by smirkette at 3:27 PM on October 23, 2015
However I am still expected to complete tasks at the same rate at which I might were I just working from home or the office (LOL OFFICE--everyone interrupts you every 10 seconds...how does anyone get anything more taxing than responding to an email done?)...so I'm just sort of hyper-productive all the time. That said, I've had this gig for about a year and am about to quit despite how much the work resonates with me and how nice they are, so YMMV?
Before that, I'd been either a high school teacher (150-200% productivity, 50-100% unpaid) or a consultant (100% productivity with no benefits or job security).
posted by smirkette at 3:27 PM on October 23, 2015
This question and its answers are making me feel so much better about myself. I would say I average about 60-70% productive effort at the office. I surf the web a lot, but try to avoid actively posting to sites vs. just reading. When I do buckle down, I'm pretty effective; for example I can write high quality materials much faster than many people can. I work with a lot of high-performing workaholic types though so it's tough to know where I stand sometimes.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:18 AM on October 24, 2015
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:18 AM on October 24, 2015
I struggle with this because I am the type of person who can get things done FAST, but I'm also somewhat careless. I make mistakes, that i really should have noticed, but no amount of taking my time and double checking for errors seems to fix that. (In fact, double checking frequently makes me confused - what is more current, this email or my paper notes?)
This summer I took breaks, went on walks, read development books. But, this month I've not had time for that. Was I being lazy? Or am I being overworked? I don't know.
Where I've landed is being clear with management about what they expect from me, and if they feel like they are getting it. Always be willing to pitch in and help when coworkers ask, but keeping an eye on how you can turn the request around and teach them to fish.
posted by rebent at 8:00 PM on October 28, 2015
This summer I took breaks, went on walks, read development books. But, this month I've not had time for that. Was I being lazy? Or am I being overworked? I don't know.
Where I've landed is being clear with management about what they expect from me, and if they feel like they are getting it. Always be willing to pitch in and help when coworkers ask, but keeping an eye on how you can turn the request around and teach them to fish.
posted by rebent at 8:00 PM on October 28, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
On the other hand, I also have days where I answer more AskMe questions than work emails. I've just learned to put work first, in order to continue getting paid for the occasional web-surf day/half-day.
posted by kythuen at 2:01 PM on October 22, 2015 [4 favorites]