Lately I've been annoyed with the content that shows up on Medium - or the fact that an interesting sounding article is pay-walled and I'm not willing to pull out my wallet for Medium.
But, I enjoyed reading this.
>how long you work does not equal how much work you get done
This is, in my opinion, undeniably true. The problem comes down to implementation and, importantly, perceived fairness. It's difficult to have two employees produce the same quality and quantity of work, for the same pay, but one is only required to work for 30 hours and the other is required to work 40. Is it fair? Personally, I think so - if you work faster than me but have the same quality of work, I'll be asking you how you do it! But I know, because I've encountered them, there are people who take this as an insult and would rather see their colleague sit idle for 10 hours so that they put in an equal amount of time.
>People have a million different circadian rhythms and lifestyles. The idea of 9am shoehorns the entire population into one of them.
This resonates. I think there is a problem in that lots of jobs need 24/7 coverage and shift work is an effective way of handling that. Also, we have an expectation of the "business day" - everyone has an idea of what time period and days that covers. But I would be in a much better place if I could work according to my bodies sleep cycle, not my bosses.
>You’re the best person to set your own goals, and your peers will measure you based on how well you achieve those goals.
Love the sentiment, but I disagree - in a work setting. This is great advice for personal growth, personal well-being, personal XYZ. But, personal goals and work goals don't always align, or as an employee I may not know all of the specific goals for the companies roadmap. Being an adult means we should have a conversation about our separate goals and how we can align them, not avoiding corporate goals altogether. After-all, I need you to stay in business so I can keep myself afloat. I think a good boss/corp would focus on setting realistic goals in consultation with their employee, rather than expecting their employee to have the same goals as them, and execute them in the same way.
It sounds very nice in theory, but I wonder how many of their employees actually end up taking a solid month of vacation to travel the world. (And if my employer expects me to answer the phone while I'm on vacation, it's not a real vacation.)
But, I enjoyed reading this.
>how long you work does not equal how much work you get done
This is, in my opinion, undeniably true. The problem comes down to implementation and, importantly, perceived fairness. It's difficult to have two employees produce the same quality and quantity of work, for the same pay, but one is only required to work for 30 hours and the other is required to work 40. Is it fair? Personally, I think so - if you work faster than me but have the same quality of work, I'll be asking you how you do it! But I know, because I've encountered them, there are people who take this as an insult and would rather see their colleague sit idle for 10 hours so that they put in an equal amount of time.
>People have a million different circadian rhythms and lifestyles. The idea of 9am shoehorns the entire population into one of them.
This resonates. I think there is a problem in that lots of jobs need 24/7 coverage and shift work is an effective way of handling that. Also, we have an expectation of the "business day" - everyone has an idea of what time period and days that covers. But I would be in a much better place if I could work according to my bodies sleep cycle, not my bosses.
>You’re the best person to set your own goals, and your peers will measure you based on how well you achieve those goals.
Love the sentiment, but I disagree - in a work setting. This is great advice for personal growth, personal well-being, personal XYZ. But, personal goals and work goals don't always align, or as an employee I may not know all of the specific goals for the companies roadmap. Being an adult means we should have a conversation about our separate goals and how we can align them, not avoiding corporate goals altogether. After-all, I need you to stay in business so I can keep myself afloat. I think a good boss/corp would focus on setting realistic goals in consultation with their employee, rather than expecting their employee to have the same goals as them, and execute them in the same way.