Category: overtime

Measuring time at work

December 14, 2006 by Artem

One of the simplest metrics that some managers are actually paying attention to is time at work, i.e. how much time or overtime each programmer spends in front of his workstation. This simplest metric might work for manufacturing-like tasks: when worker spends 50% more time at the production line, he is likely to produce 50% more goods (those typically he wouldn't be happy about it). However, the "more time – more goods" approach doesn't work for complex, intellectually intensive tasks like programming. Everyday every software developer has to write the code that never existed before. It is not just pushing the same buttons as yesterday; a programmer has to literally invent a new thing everyday. And invention needs a fresh mind.