Companies Starting To Realize That Playing Solitaire Isn't Always Bad For Productivity
from the can-be-refreshing dept
For years, we've pointed out how silly it is every time yet another web filtering company comes out with a study and the press hypes it up about how much time people spend doing non-work things, such as personal web-surfing or playing solitaire. Hell, in New York City, there was even a big story about how Mayor Michael Bloomberg fired some poor office worker after seeing that he had solitaire open on his office computer. The simple fact is that you cannot expect workers to be productive every second of every minute all day long. It actually hurts productivity by not giving them the chance to have important breaks. The good news, though, is that it appears more and more companies are starting to recognize that all slacking isn't a bad thing. They're trying to figure out the right "slacking/working equilibrium," though that doesn't seem that hard to figure out. If the employees are getting the work done that they're supposed to be getting done, then what's the problem? If they're not getting the work done, or it's not getting done well, then there's a problem.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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We Used Solitaire to Increase Productivity
Shop floor workers, many who had never used a computer, would be entering data. A few weeks before the application was installed we set up the computers out in the factory and encouraged everyone to play solitaire. This gave them familiarity with using a computer and a mouse, and smoothed the way for the new software.
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You fail, asshat.
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Wow
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It was a dumb idea now we just play other "SWF" games off the web. Well maybe it made the managers feel powerful.
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Re: never work for this nazi
Immediate dimissal for doing "something for him or herself on company time"? Are you serious? I guess you never go to the bathroom during "company time", or drink any water, or THINK, or BREATHE, or tie your shoes or, wait, isn't advancing your career doing "something for him or herself on company time"?
Guess what, friend, when you have a job, that doesn't mean you sold your soul/brain/identity/self to the company. You're at that job to make money, to move ahead in your career, to network or learn a new skill so that you CAN move ahead, because you enjoy the work (I know there are at least a dozen people out there that this applies to...), OR because you in some way get something out of it. It isn't because you are a slave, owned by the company. And indeed, the company hired you for a reason--they need something from you. It is a reciprocal give and take relationship, really, not the feudal system.
So, if my employer needs something from me, and I want what they have to offer, then they need to provide me with the space or time or motivation to get what they want from me. And if that involves giving me some paid downtime every once in a while, then that is what they have a DUTY to give me, else they forfeit my ability and my DUTY to give them 100% productivity.
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Re: James Terrel
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There is no human possible way to be "productive" the whole 8 hours, simply unless that job is the actual center of your existence the brain will not be able to focus all the time.
More often than not if you keep trying over and over again to fix a problem you will lock up and get nowhere. Now if you go, grab a cup of coffee and chat to a colleague about a non-related work conversation you will be able to see the problem afterwards from a different perspective since your brain will have "freshen up" a bit.
The same way surf the net or play solitaire or call the wife, girlfriend, etc... will have the same result.
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Re: by James Terrel on Feb 2nd, 2007 @ 11:49pm
Point one: Many people are exchanging THEIR valuable time for less wages than they should
Point two: companies force employees to play the corporate game by working extra hours even on weekends, attending corporate functions etc for no extra pay- is that not the employee's time? I figure it evens out in the end.
Any country that once had unlimited free labor is going to find it difficult to transform their thinking from "If we pay you we own you" After all, many times people were owned without even paying them...I guess if that's where you are coming from I can see your point!
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Using your logic, if my wife or kids call me to discuss something urgent for example, I should be fired.
There is something to be said for taking breaks, balancing work and personal life, it makes for better employess and morale.
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In my working life worked a hell of a lot of companies of all different types, from the small 10 man type to the large blue chip multinationals (as a contractor i move on after a project is done) and there is one thing i have found without fail.
If the company has your type of mindset they normally need 3 times the staff to get anything done and take twice as long to get it done and at the end of the day probably do it badly and except for management most of the staff have been there for less than 3 years.
Where as the companys who do not treat their employee's like mindless slave robots, staff have been there for donkey years, get things done with less staff, in half the time and do things so well that the clients are calling management to thank them for the service.
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how do you control that someone figuering out the best wording for a presentation is acually working or day dreaming ? if you cannot trust creative person, dont run such business.....
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rethink your attitude and your emplyees might work harder for you and maybe even like you
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Re: James Terrel
You're dedication to work is admirable. Hope you live to see 50.
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Missing the point!
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Yes, dedicated to finding another job before they slip up!
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"Dedicated", or demoralized?
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Obtaining dedication from your employees requires that they like their job and what they are doing.
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Monitoring Internet? Hired to perform your "Duty"?
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Best Buy's new "Results Oriented Working Environme
The working environment in general is changing.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16040492/
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I see. So that means you'd have to fire every single employee. I don't believe that there exists an employee who doesn't slack off every now and again, if there is, he´s either a robot or a workaholic heading for a serious nervous breakdown. And if you believe otherwise my friend, then you have obviously never sat in front of a screen debugging somebody else´s code for 8.5 hours a day, five days a week.
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The people who believe that you should be fired instantly probably worked in or managed a factory crew. Factories, Retail and Offices are completely different work environments.
There is a reason why factories have so many breaks throughout the day. Retail and Office work, you kind of make your own breaks. In the end they accomplish the same thing except factory breaks are controlled(for good reason, having someone take a break on an assembly like is not going to work at all).
As long as if your mind breaks are not interfering with a level of work required by your employer there should be no problem.
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Aaron and James
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Aaron and James
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Freelance = productivity freedom
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games
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Productivity
We might be gone an hour (sometimes more). But, sometimes, halfway through the ride, we'll stop and take a break and then BOOM! the problem we were trying to solve "appears" to 1 or all of us. I keep a little notebook and pencil in my pack that I ride with.
Maybe for us it's a different version of the "cocktail napkin", but some of things we have worked on for clients takes a sufficient amount of creativity.
But, I'll admit, that's my business and many of our circumstances.
There are probably appropriate work environments were restrictions on internet access are probably appropriate. But, most of these are obvious (e.g., service jobs). But, office jobs, you need the break
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Problem solving
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The larger issue is that the hours spent isn't a g
Companies used to be terrified of this -- the idea that the couldn't track attendance and hours spent was difficult for management.
In the end, companies need to be tracking results and out put, making users accountable for work product not time spent on work product.
I'm a programmer, and have my own company now. I never ever do things on a purely hourly basis. Why? Because I'm very good at what I do. I produce quality work in less time. For this I should be paid less than a moron or newbie who takes longer to produce crap? I don't think so. Instead, I charge whatever I want -- a price a fix at whatever amount will make me glad I did the work. The few clients who don't like that, I offer to help them find someone else qualified who will work their way. No hard feelings, just not personally interested.
--AP
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Re: The larger issue is that the hours spent...
I once worked a mainframe programming job 9-5. Aside from the fact that doing anything other than staring at that green on black terminal meant you weren't working, I didn't write my best code at 9am - especially when the environments and challenges were fairly uninteresting.
The idea that programming could be gauged or paid by the hour always seemed strange. The fact that I couldn't choose those hours and work from say, 6pm to 3am (where I do my best work ;) ) made even less sense. The fact that I was forced to be alert at non-optimal times of the day without the odd mind break was what eventually sent me hurtling back towards furthering my education to a point where I get to call the shots ;)
Rigid office structures aren't conducive to most types of work but the lack of imagination of management teams means most work goes on in these environments.
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Why not fire ?!
Sure , this isn't the right thing for R&D , but for clercks , QA , telemarketing , manufacturing and everything else that doesn't require creativity , a person should be fired for wasting company time .
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Re: Why not fire ?!
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Oh...wait...thats fiction...But then again so is James Terrels' idea of a responsible employee...
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careful
I can multitask, but not everyone can. Also, a few years back, before the advent of the cell phone, taking person calls at work was considered a no no everywhere, now people think its terrible when a boss or company requests that they turn off cell phones.
I have worked for many companies and now own my own, and I hope that my employees will try to be as productive as possible, and leave their down time for their break time.
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PS careful
I was taught at a young age that if you didn't work as hard as you knew you could at a job you were being paid for, then you were stealing. Now, let me qualify that: I am not suggesting spending dozens of extra hours a week at the office, or any nonsense of the kind, but if you are sitting at your desk, deliberately slacking off when you know you could be working, then what you are doing is wrong.
It is no different than stealing money from a cash register, or taking a longer break than you are allowed by state and federal law. As someone said earlier, you hired on for this job, so either find a better one or suck it up and do it.
I work about 35-40 hours a week with the company I own, and spent plenty of family time by design, the guy who works for me spends even less, but I was promoted with every company I worked for because of diligence that the management and my coworkers quickly became aware of.
A lack of ethics is what is slowly but surely undermining what it took to make our country great.
That said, I am getting off my soap box.
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My Job
Long story short, fuck you draconian whip lashers who think that the only way is your way!!
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Re: My Job
Hear. Hear. I'll second that.
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Re: My Job
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If paid by the hour slackings wrong.
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Re: If paid by the hour slackings wrong.
Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on the person. Depends on the workplace. Depends on the job. Depends on the time-of-day. There is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution in the workplace. What works for you - starting a new task of shifting to a different task - may not work for others. A good manager should be able to recognize that.
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Maybe this is obvious...
Maybe there is something in not slacking...
*closes solitaire*
*realises he doesn't even want to own a company*
*gets back to slacking*
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Re: Maybe this is obvious...
Closes solitaire...
Realizes he doesn't own his own company...
Gives two weeks notice and Starts own company...
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Re: Aaron and James
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they still make you?
I tell my employees to call it a night if I see they are getting frustrated towards the end of the day. Maybe they finish a milestone at 4:30, how much can you truly get started on in the next 30 minutes or so. They like me and respect me for this, they are also willing to burn the midnight oil when we need to hit a deadline.
Most people fail miserably when they are given any degree of freedom, but did you really want them working for you anyhow?
Learn how to manage, build a good team, and don't become the man . If you take care of your employees, they will take care of you.
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Democracy in the workplace
By closely monitoring employees you may have employees that show up on time and don't surf the web, but you'll also have a culture of fear. You will not have motivated employees functioning at their potential. Your best employees will leave when they have a chance, taking their intellectual capital with them.
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Solitaire on the job
Point is people..........we're all human, we need un planned distractions.
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Re: Solitaire on the job
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The smarter employee tries to always at least look busy and avoid this scenario.
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Terrel's Bullshit
And yeah, "Office Space" is a classic classic movie...)
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'When a person decides to do something for him or herself on company time, that person SHOULD be fired. You are hired to perform your duty, slacking of is reason for immediate dismissal.'
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Re: Re: Solitare on the job
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We are changing . . .
The nature of how we work is changing. We are no longer "9-5" employees; not only are we now 8-5, many of us are 24/7. As an attorney, I need to be available at all times for a client should an emergency occur, doctors go "on call," Tech support rush in at 3 a.m., and retail employees get fewer days truly "off." Four years ago a study came out that showed that the American workers worked more hours than every country in the world, save South Korea and the Czech Republic.
When I go on vacation and stop answering my cell from clients, I'm still reading my email, checking-in with my office, and thinking about my cases. On top of this, I experience a lot of guilt simply for being away. (This is not unique to me, legal publications have been talking about this phenomenon for years). So excuse me when I take a minute, clear my head, and read my personal email or catch-up on a blog.
We are working more hours, whether companies recognize it or not. When a company calls a worker at 7:00 p.m., that worker's night is changed. No longer is she sitting at home with her husband eating dinner -- now she's sitting at home, eating dinner, and worrying about something at the office. Our minds are in constant overdrive, and we need this time to step back.
Finally, solitaire (or some other type of semi-mindless activity) does not mean there is no work going on. One of the best ways to focus on something is to put part of your mind to work doing something else, so that other concerns do not trespass their boundaries.
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The beatings will continue ...
A lot of hard-asses can only get zombie-like employees to work for them, which is fine. The non-zombies will work for more productive places and the problem will solve itself.
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One more thing . . .
Now for those of us who charge by the hour, we certainly shouldn't be charging someone else while we are going to the bathroom. Not only would that be unethical, it would be downright mean. But simply because I'm sitting staring off into space doesn't mean I'm not developing a brilliant strategy to defend you in court because your employee screwed up because he hadn't had his morning coffee and ran someone off the road.
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Alright lets cut...
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The occasional slacker isn't the problem
I think its rare to find companies that fire people for occasional slacking. Most companies find plenty of problems at a much more serious level. Besides, unless a company can prove they have written policies against any non-business related web browsing, they risk legal action if that is the only reason an employee is fired.
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Slacktime and worktime...
Now, technically speaking, if my Boss claims my time from 9 to 5, then I claim my time from 5 to 9 as my personal time and if I happen to get some idea during this period that would help me at work, then I would demand to be compensated for the private time lost. The same applies when I'm back home and studying new techniques or expanding my knowledge. There's no such thing as a free lunch, not even for my employer.
So basically, time overlaps. I get compensated for the loss of personal time by having some time during business hours for personal issues. In general, this is a very good trade-off for both me and my employer. What is lost between 9 to 5 is compensated between 5 to 9.
In the past, I did work for a Boss who tried to get everyone to work between strict hours. Unfortunately, he did this when there was a deadline for some project so the first day that this was implemented was leave at exactly 5 o'clock. We hadn't agreed to overtime and if he wanted to play it strictly to the rules then that was fine by me.
The second day I left again at the same time but before going home I told my boss that at the current working pace, we would not make it for the deadline.
So on the third day he came to his senses and made things less strict again. So I did a bit of overwork again and (as I used to do before) I also sacreficed some of my personal time again instead of trying to think about something else when my project came up in my head while I was at home.
We made it to the deadline, btw.
There are of course real slackers out there. I've seen plenty of them. Worse, I've seen slackers work from 9+ to 5-, getting in a bit late and leaving a bit early, spending lots of time near the coffee machine (mostly talking) and in general doing absolutely nothing. But they managed to appear busy all the time. That is, up until the moment that they had to show the results of their work. But by then, it was too late already to have them kicked out and replaced.
Slacking is something that requires great responsibilities. If you get your work done in the amount of time set for the project then you can slack as often as you like. In the end, it's the result that counts, not the amount of real hours that you've worked on it. That's because with real slackers, you can never tell how much of their personal time they have used on the project in compensation for lost business hours...
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i mean you james terrel
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re: Solitaire (Productivity)
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Reading this article at work
:(
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first, yes when you work for a company, you get paid fir x hours or what. typically it's 40 hrs/wk. some do the 80hrs/2wks (meaning that you can work a 30/50, 60/20, 40/40, etc.) either way, you are contracted to work a specified number of hours. if you don't, you really aren't doing your job. however, it's next to impossible to deliver a consistant period of producitvity.
I think the one poster who said, that he "slacks" during the day but makes up for it at night has a good feeling. you may be required to be at a desk for 8 hours, but that doesn't mean you should be working. there are 168 hours in the week, for which we normally work 40. there's plenty of time to "make up" for lost desk time. however the problem is tracking. how can we prove you worked 3 hours at home, or whatever.
next, "getting work done" who defines getting work done? does it mean completing a project before the deadline? but does that mean if you get youor project done on time, and still slacked, that you can take on more work? technically, yes. in actuallity, probably not.
so, i think any company has a right to expect full productivity from all employees. however, i feel that any company that expcets this is destined to fail. also, i wouldn't work for said company.
just mho....
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It is not uncommon for construction projects to include bonuses for getting work done before a deadline and penalties for getting work done after a deadline. If you get a project done before a deadline, why can't the 'slack' time be considered a bonus?
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Anyway...
So I think I have a right to slack a little since I get the job done.
Btw, how about all those people slacking at other jobs? Many jobs tend to have moments of waiting, where there's just nothing to do for a while. A open shop with no customers, for example. Or a newspaper reporter waiting for a call that will give him a new lead to a story he's working on. A police officer reading the newspaper since there's no crime going on at that moment. A babysitter watching TV since the baby is fast asleep. A secretary paining her nails because there are no visitors nor any need for coffee. A construction worker waiting for new materials.
Work in general tends to be 20% real work and 80% just waiting. Or maybe 70-30% for some. Or 50-50% if you're in a real stressful job. But someone working 100% of the time between 9 to 5 will be dead due to stress within months...
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Playing solitaire at work
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Games & Skills
If you can't manage to point and click within the first 2 minutes of sitting down to the keyboard, you need to find another job. Come on people, it's not that hard.
What to click on is another matter, but no game in the world is going to teach you what to click on to get your job done.
I'd thought I'd heard it all...till I got here.
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More games
If you're having a bad day, buck up.
What I'm hearing are the same excuses I've heard for why it's okay to have a beer at work, or a joint, or pop a few pills, etc.
You get paid to work, you don't get paid to play games. I'm sure MOST job descriptions do not include a reference to getting paid to play games while at work. If you're a programmer then perhaps you get paid to program a game and playing it allows you to debug the game. Lucky you. The average person does not.
While we're at it, let's just put some sleeping quarters in the back, too. We all get tired at work, right? Shouldn't we just be allowed to go take a nap and get paid for it?
What the heck? I've had my eye on that little hottie over in the next cubical for some time now. We aren't tired but we sure could use those sleeping quarters for another reason. I mean, come on, after all, we're having a bad day...
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Final Comments
Just remember, do unto others before they get a chance to do unto you. Yell the loudest and the longest especially when you know you're wrong. God forbid you should be respectful or courteous, it's a sign of weakness. Someone or the government owes you something because you were born into this world?
I have got to find me one of those jobs where my boss thinks that 3 out of 8 hours a day is a full day's work and he blesses me for showing up. And where slacking is a bonus - I have to get that included in my job description, too. I can't tell you guys how much I apprecitate all these great ideas to take to my next interview.
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Can't resist one more
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It doesnt always interfere with productivity at all!
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