Sawmill Creek At Work

[Bill Edwards(2)]

Oops! I work for a company that only gives us the traditional holidays - Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, July 4 - so I don't even think about Veterans' Day, MLK Day, and Presidents' Day as being days when some folks are at home.

I work for a trucking company, they barely acknowledge the major holidays.

And then they act like it's a communist plot.

They'll give you time off for a funeral....... if it's your's.

[Steven DeMars]

What he said . . .

That said . . . I'm a industrial designer . . . I am paid for the problems I solve & the packages I produce . . .

If my employer did not want me to have INTERNET access he would simply turn it off . . . and I would find a new employer . . . then he can start that game all over again with the new guy . .

The days of the grind stone is over dude . . . companies destroyed that "AMERICAN WORK ETHIC" when they destroyed the American Workplace . . . outsourcing, union busting, eliminated pensions, demanding drug, tobacco & in some cases alcohol test, I could go on & on . . . . . .oh wait, I forgot the smokers . . . you know the 4 to 5 fifteen minute breaks everyday . . . then you got the early birders when flex time is available . . . . get there at 6;00, bs with the other early birds, drink coffee, bs some more, than when the normal time people come in they start all over with us . . . hey that's not bad, two hours to bs in the morning and then leave an hour early. hey thanks , I'm changing my schedule this week . . . early birder I will become . .

Maybe everything is as it should be and you just need a better job where you are treated as a professional & not a burger worker . . . I never worked fast food as a kid simply because no one was every going to treat me differently than I would treat others . . . . . . .

My motto is simple, if you can hire someone that can accomplish the task you have given me BETTER, FASTER & CHEAPER . . . HIRE HIM . . .

I'll go to work for your competitor in the morning . . . Just like employers say now days, "LAYING YOU OFF IS NOT PERSONAL, JUST BUSINESS"

Taking my skills to your competitor is "JUST BUSINESS" . . .

I'm sure you will get a lot of answers and comments . . .

Actually, my employer used to pay me for my knowledge, experience and results.

Generally speaking, if an employee is underperforming, that should be taken up by a manager that's paying attention. If employees are spending hours a day surfing the net, someone is obviously not paying attention and is setting expectations far too low. Either that or they have brilliant employees that can goof off AND perform at a high level...I don't really see a problem with that.

An open and free work environment is a good work environment. A good work environment contributes to free flowing interchange of ideas. It's a place people want to be. As long as the work is getting done, I don't see it as wasteful at all. It's an investment and just another cost of doing business.

[Jerome Hanby]

I run simulations, tests, etc. as I develop code at work... it may be anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes between runs, but it's generally not enough time to do any other real work (else my brain has to shift gears). I log onto the Creek.

Same thing here. Plus, there are times I need to let my brain idle for a while when I'm trying to work out something intricate. Like RAH said, trying to force an ideal is a sure fire way to abort it.

[Frank Guerin]

I believe the majority of posters must work the night shift. Thats got to be it.

[Dave Lehnert]

You also have to remember that Sawmill has people from all over the world. What may be work time on the west coast of the USA may be home time on the East coast.
Also a lot of people are unemployed.

[Myk Rian]

I'm retired, and can post any time I want to.

[Lee Koepke]

" Either that or they have brilliant employees that can goof off AND perform at a high level...I don't really see a problem with that"

I'd like to think I fall into this category! I get my job done, despite multiple re-directs and interruptions ... yet I still wander to several websites during the day.....

[Phil Thien]

I'm self employed (for almost 25 years) and while I could sit here all day long, I don't. I try to read the site in the mornings and evenings, and keep my nose to the grindstone while I'm at work.

[Callan Campbell]

WORK, um, employer is paying you for your time. Not for you to have personal FUN.....

That's my point in case it wasn't crystal clear.

No , I got your point, but you missed my humor. I'm more along the lines of Ken's work experience/post. When I start a download to a vehicles' computer, I'm waiting for upwards of 1/2 hour while I monitor the progress and any possible errors or crashing during the progress. That's when I typically pause and check out the Creek for any interesting posts. Sometimes lunch hour, but usually it's a 5 minute look. That's also why I'm late to the multi-post threads until late in the day when I'm back home.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I just retired on 2/1/2011 but....my profession had me working all kinds of strange hours.......working 30-40 hours in two days wasn't unusual. You change an x-ray tube on a CT scanner and turn the calibration software loose and you can sit there for over an hour without any required response from you. It takes nearly 12 hours of mechanical alignments and calibrations once the tube is physically changed. So to fight sleep, you drink lots of coffee......and fight boredom. Because x-ray exposures are happening, someone with a knowledge of what's taking place needs to be monitoring the machine....so you also get on the internet.

[Joe Angrisani]

Callan.... I did miss your humor. Sorry.

But boy, there sure are a lot of people running simulations or getting their day's work load done first thing in the morning today, now that we are back to a regular workday. There's easily twice as many posts so far this morning (by 9-10am Eastern, 6-7am Pacific) as there was all day yesterday when it was a holiday.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Why should it matter? Are you at work?

[David Weaver]

This thread reminds me of people who worry about how much someone else spends for clothes or a car.

[Joe Angrisani]

It matters in that perhaps that's the reason everything seems to have moved overseas. Too much goofing off by the average American worker and the subsequent loss over time of a work ethic (if anyone denies that average situation, I say you're kidding yourself). I'm retired, Ken. I worked when I was at work, and played when I was not at work. Perhaps that's why I was able to retire at 41.

And I'm not "worried", David. Just observing.

Peace, everyone....

[David Weaver]

Quite an assumption to imply that people on SMC.org or any other forum have caused a shifting of jobs offshore. It may assist it actually, in back office issues, but it seems the bulk of jobs that have gone overseas are the ones where nobody has access to the interent.

Just observing never would've elicited a comment.