re: #66 rwmofo

“…if you give rich people stuff, they will take it and demand respect for taking it and giving nothing…”

This is a great example of how left-wingers look at those of us who go to college for six years (Yeah, I have an MBA), sell our skills which help companies excel, grow and provide goods and services which are in high demand - notwithstanding the extra hours we put in at nights and on weekends in spite of unions demanding we put in no more than the bare minimum (No, I’m not in a union). But we “give nothing.” Yeah, right.

This isn’t to punch the troll, it’s so I can springboard on a common error I see and try to fight.

No, let me punch the troll first. I, too, have six years of college. woohoo, so much for the argument from authority. But I digress.

Believe it or not, work performance and number of hours has been a subject of study for well over a century. In 1909, for example, Sidney Chapman reported his results in his “Hours of Labor” address.

A quick definition here. I’m going to use the non-standard term “good” and “flawed” work. “Good” work is high productivity with a low error rate. As speed of production decreases and/or error rates increase, the work becomes “flawed”.

With that noted, I’m going to really simplify the past century or so of studies here - no annotations at this time as I’m pulling this off the top of my head. (It’s Sunday morning and I’ve other things that need done.)

Point one. For most labor type jobs (aka blue collar) employees are able to do good work for about eight hours. After that flaws creep in. On average, workers hit 50% flawed work at around the twelfth hour. In other words, if workers produce 100 unflawed widgets an hour for the first eight hours, by hour 12 they’re only producing 50 unflawed widgets. At time and a half the employer’s effective cost of labor per widget is tripled.

Point two. For most ‘knowledge’ jobs (aka white collar) the break is six hours. No, that is not a typo. Six hours is the point at which the brain tends to start demanding a change of venue. The 50% flawed rate starts around 9 hours. However, you can get functional extensions by breaking this up with otherwise undesirable activities such as meetings. Yep, there’s actually a reason for those daily excruciating mind-killers; they’re restorative (sorta).

The bottom line is that I am no longer impressed, and indeed am the opposite, at any industry where the norm expected and conducted includes hours and hours of overtime. Bluntly, it means the bosses are ignorant and counterproductive. Bragging because you do worse work (though you do not realize it) does not impress me.

Oh, despite saying no annotations, I’ve got one handy on my desk. This is actually about sleep shortages (a normal consequence of constant overtime). Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, and Human Performance in Continuous Operations. link Working so much you short sleep will allow bursts where the total, even with some of the hours being less than 100%, will still be a lot. But if you sustain that behavior the groups that got their sleep will catch up and outperform you.

Or as one person I know phrases it: You can’t sprint a marathon.