Troubleshooting, enabling new functionality in, or patching a ridiculously expensive piece of software managed by a ridiculously large team of technical people.
ETA: I understand that those one or two hours are potentially capable of making up the rest of my salary, at least from the perspective of someone who might want to pay me to perform such a duty, but I would also state that the lack of general feedback for the other 38 to 39 hours, and the requirement to show up to the office and generally pretend not to be blatantly non-busy, is akin to the problem humans have with large numbers: it’s very difficult to feel like I’ve accomplished something for a few, tiny moments of work involving check boxes and following documentation, and it’s highly irrational that I have to pretend I’m getting paid for 8 hours of hard work a day, when all they really want is 1 per week. That’s in addition to the fact the dollar amounts involved invoke the large number problem itself...
Reading and updating documentation; assisting related teams; developing improvements to the system; refining existing business or technical processes; coordinating between various technical teams; other things I can’t think of right now, I’m sure.
The reason I don’t do any of that (or make it my one hour a week for a particular week) is that I get all the rewards without it. See the thread on incentive structures.
So, is your quality of life suffering because your employer is being blatantly stupid? Would you be happier if you were actually working 40 hours a week?
What do you do? Having something to do, and having something asked of one, is far more fulfilling than being asked to do nothing. Eliezer’s example of the exhausted peasant comes to mind. Who would actually enjoy doing nothing all day?
I am afraid your question is based on a misreading of my question. I didn’t mean to imply that the “correct” answer was that having nothing to do was better than having to do work. I was honestly asking, so that I could provide actually useful advice, instead of simply assuming and possibly saying something stupid.
My apologies. I took “Would you be happier if you were actually working 40 hours a week?” to be sarcasm, since it seemed like Rain had already answered the question. I hope I didn’t offend too greatly.
My apologies. I took “Would you be happier if you were actually working 40 hours a week?” to be sarcasm, since it seemed like Rain had already answered the question. I hope I didn’t offend too greatly.
Yes, it is suffering, and I would be much happier. For the moments when I have had steady work, in the form of large projects taking actual effort (the last was a couple years ago), I much enjoyed showing up to work and oftentimes would stay a bit late just to solve the intellectual puzzles.
Note that “work” like pointless meetings, forms, etc, are not satisfying either, but I’m able to largely ignore that part of the environment if I wish.
Have you considered working in a start up? Rolf Nelson who writes The Rational Entrepreneur may be able to help. I assume that you are relatively skilled at programming and thinking, since you post here and get away with only 2 hours of work a week. Where are you currently working? A really well known firm, a legacy firm, or what? If a start up wouldn’t work (if, for example, you need someone to enforce the work on you), you might want to consider applying to work at Google or another top valley firm.
ETA: I’ve become uncomfortable with this line of conversation, and feel that people are putting too much pressure on me in an attempt to other-optimize. Thank you for your attempts to assist, but I would rather that this thread end here.
Troubleshooting, enabling new functionality in, or patching a ridiculously expensive piece of software managed by a ridiculously large team of technical people.
ETA: I understand that those one or two hours are potentially capable of making up the rest of my salary, at least from the perspective of someone who might want to pay me to perform such a duty, but I would also state that the lack of general feedback for the other 38 to 39 hours, and the requirement to show up to the office and generally pretend not to be blatantly non-busy, is akin to the problem humans have with large numbers: it’s very difficult to feel like I’ve accomplished something for a few, tiny moments of work involving check boxes and following documentation, and it’s highly irrational that I have to pretend I’m getting paid for 8 hours of hard work a day, when all they really want is 1 per week. That’s in addition to the fact the dollar amounts involved invoke the large number problem itself...
What do they actually, explicitly expect you to be doing when you’re not doing what they (really) pay you to do?
Reading and updating documentation; assisting related teams; developing improvements to the system; refining existing business or technical processes; coordinating between various technical teams; other things I can’t think of right now, I’m sure.
The reason I don’t do any of that (or make it my one hour a week for a particular week) is that I get all the rewards without it. See the thread on incentive structures.
So, is your quality of life suffering because your employer is being blatantly stupid? Would you be happier if you were actually working 40 hours a week?
What do you do? Having something to do, and having something asked of one, is far more fulfilling than being asked to do nothing. Eliezer’s example of the exhausted peasant comes to mind. Who would actually enjoy doing nothing all day?
I am afraid your question is based on a misreading of my question. I didn’t mean to imply that the “correct” answer was that having nothing to do was better than having to do work. I was honestly asking, so that I could provide actually useful advice, instead of simply assuming and possibly saying something stupid.
My apologies. I took “Would you be happier if you were actually working 40 hours a week?” to be sarcasm, since it seemed like Rain had already answered the question. I hope I didn’t offend too greatly.
My apologies. I took “Would you be happier if you were actually working 40 hours a week?” to be sarcasm, since it seemed like Rain had already answered the question. I hope I didn’t offend too greatly.
Yes, it is suffering, and I would be much happier. For the moments when I have had steady work, in the form of large projects taking actual effort (the last was a couple years ago), I much enjoyed showing up to work and oftentimes would stay a bit late just to solve the intellectual puzzles.
Note that “work” like pointless meetings, forms, etc, are not satisfying either, but I’m able to largely ignore that part of the environment if I wish.
Have you considered working in a start up? Rolf Nelson who writes The Rational Entrepreneur may be able to help. I assume that you are relatively skilled at programming and thinking, since you post here and get away with only 2 hours of work a week. Where are you currently working? A really well known firm, a legacy firm, or what? If a start up wouldn’t work (if, for example, you need someone to enforce the work on you), you might want to consider applying to work at Google or another top valley firm.
No, thank you. I’d rather suffer where I am.
ETA: I’ve become uncomfortable with this line of conversation, and feel that people are putting too much pressure on me in an attempt to other-optimize. Thank you for your attempts to assist, but I would rather that this thread end here.