It is that moment that you show how you earn your corn. Following is a singular view, rather I would call it an observation, on whether there are too many cases of overtime, more than the scenario would warrant. This of course, is more about the attitude of the people behind the desks and also the same about people behind smaller desks. So, we have all done overtime some way or the other, once I asked myself the holy grail of all logical statements, 'Why?'. The answer to this question lies not with the amount of work being done, but the mannerism in which the work is being done, rather 'not done'. This of course has its roots in the attitude and also the hallmark of what a so called 'hard working' employee is suppose to be.
Now, picture this, you are in your cafeteria, having a quite little repast. Plus, without any entourage all you do is observe the folks in the cafeteria and the adjoining 'recreation room'. I often saw the same people again and again, and why not? their accompanying folks did a fairly good job at holding onto the crucial gains around the table tennis board and the cafeteria seating as well. Playing board games for protracted periods of time, waiting for the order to arrive and then of course waiting for the delivered order to simmer down. All this doesn't always take a wee bit of time, but the time tends to go unnoticed if you are around with your cronies. If you were to take a cumulative of such periods of time, you notice that it not only forms a large chunk of the apportioned office time but also the overtime taken as well. In fact, the more 'loner' employees who do their work more often, as they don't really have an entourage, tend to avoid overtime on more occasions than not. Because?, well their work is done!, the time they save from the extra curricular activities might make them look grumpy but they are usually the ones to do their work on time. An abridged summary is that because you are letting your time down the drain , you are sitting those supplementary hours in the office when everyone is gone.
Where is the fallacy here? Let me latch onto that as well. Now, who do you think is the hard working employee?, a swift, but myopic, answer is the one who sits in the office when everyone is gone, more or less the overtime fellow or fellows. It may sound inconclusive, but the manager is usually not that observant of the employee regime especially the one behind his back, rather his wall. The manager or the team lead who tends to be more or less busy in meetings for a good part of the day, tend to view the overtime employees as obedient and hence good for 'company plans'. Even though in terms of working hours their throughput is not at all more than the employee who has a diligent attitude towards the office work timings. The height of all this is that the overtime folk get underscored as 'hard working'. This is what gives birth to the fallacy in the working world. The scenario here is that folks who dawdle around for good part of the day and then take the extra shift only to finish the work which could/would/should have been done in the regular hours are now 'hard working'. All by the virtue of being in the office for overtime. This falls perfectly with the conventional view of a hard working employee. The one who waits and finishes the work, not the one who works without waiting.
Now, picture this, you are in your cafeteria, having a quite little repast. Plus, without any entourage all you do is observe the folks in the cafeteria and the adjoining 'recreation room'. I often saw the same people again and again, and why not? their accompanying folks did a fairly good job at holding onto the crucial gains around the table tennis board and the cafeteria seating as well. Playing board games for protracted periods of time, waiting for the order to arrive and then of course waiting for the delivered order to simmer down. All this doesn't always take a wee bit of time, but the time tends to go unnoticed if you are around with your cronies. If you were to take a cumulative of such periods of time, you notice that it not only forms a large chunk of the apportioned office time but also the overtime taken as well. In fact, the more 'loner' employees who do their work more often, as they don't really have an entourage, tend to avoid overtime on more occasions than not. Because?, well their work is done!, the time they save from the extra curricular activities might make them look grumpy but they are usually the ones to do their work on time. An abridged summary is that because you are letting your time down the drain , you are sitting those supplementary hours in the office when everyone is gone.
Where is the fallacy here? Let me latch onto that as well. Now, who do you think is the hard working employee?, a swift, but myopic, answer is the one who sits in the office when everyone is gone, more or less the overtime fellow or fellows. It may sound inconclusive, but the manager is usually not that observant of the employee regime especially the one behind his back, rather his wall. The manager or the team lead who tends to be more or less busy in meetings for a good part of the day, tend to view the overtime employees as obedient and hence good for 'company plans'. Even though in terms of working hours their throughput is not at all more than the employee who has a diligent attitude towards the office work timings. The height of all this is that the overtime folk get underscored as 'hard working'. This is what gives birth to the fallacy in the working world. The scenario here is that folks who dawdle around for good part of the day and then take the extra shift only to finish the work which could/would/should have been done in the regular hours are now 'hard working'. All by the virtue of being in the office for overtime. This falls perfectly with the conventional view of a hard working employee. The one who waits and finishes the work, not the one who works without waiting.
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Bring out the eggs....eh...feedback