American employees waist 20% of their work day 2

according to the last survey reported by the website Salary.com

http://salary.com/aboutus/layoutscr...cat=cat012&ser=ser041&part=Par674&isdefault=0

Maybe you're one of them

Cyril Guichard
Railroad Sub-System Manager
Belgium

 

[Sideswiper]

Perhaps employeers demand people are at work 20% more than they actually need to be.

 

[PSE]

I did not notice any country specific information that would lend itself to the notion that American Employees waste 20% of their work day. Anyone can partake of such a survey and I did not see any way to dig into the published results to find information on the distribution of respondents.

We use a utilization factor (productive hours)/(hours at work) primarily for the direct hourly people. Meetings, breaks, paperwork etc. all go into the denominator

Salaried is a lot muddier. The philosophy where I work is to do what it takes to get the job done by such and such a time.

Here is another stat site. Again, the underlying information as to ranking criteria is obscure.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_bus_eff-economy-business-efficiency

Regards,

 

[FrenchCAD]

That could be a possibility as well. It's true that american seemingly work more hours than me I dunno what is the legal work time in US?

Cyril Guichard
Railroad Sub-System Manager
Belgium

 

[corus]

I don't think the survey or topic posted by the OP was a dig in any way wt americans per se as PSE infers, but it is intersting to note that on the second site the USA is rated as having 100% efficiency. Yeah right.

Personally I don't think taking a break from work to either write to an engineering forum or answer emails or chat or whatever is wasted time. I think it was recognised many decades ago that the best productivity is obtained by giving people rest breaks, whatever that form takes. I know, for instance, that if I'm doing a crossword and concentrating on it continually then I'll get nowhere. If I take a break then the answer comes (well sometimes anyway).

corus

 

[TheTick]

French employees work 80% as many hours as Americans. I'd prefer the French way, and spend more time on the links.

 

[sms]

FrenchCad,

That is the difference, in France there is a legal work time, in the US for engineers who are normally considered exempt from overtime laws, there are no legal requirments around work time.

I have worked 48 hours straight in the past, although with an improved safety attitude more companies are limiting work to 16 hours with an eight hour break before returning.

I did a plant maintenance outage in France a few years ago. We did all the work in a 36 hour work week, and on one shift. The same outage in the US would be done on two 12 hour shifts with an hour turnover on each side, so that everyone would be working 14 hour days, for about 30 to 40 days straight with no time off...

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?" Oddball, "Kelly's Heros" 1970

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of the Eng-Tips Forums.

 

[KENAT]

Survey respondents also feel that some of their work-related activities are a waste of time including: fixing someone else’s work (18.1%), dealing with office politics (16.2%) and sending or responding to emails (13.1%).

Well if you include that above as time wasted then some days I'm lucky to waste less than 50%.

I'm trying to get better, not get caught up in stuff etc, not reply to some messages if I think they'll go away/blow over.

However assuming you include the above as time wasted then if I hit 20% I'd be doing really well.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[SylvestreW]

OT:
I thought this was going to be another topic about over-weight north americans.


-

http://www.Aercoustics.com

High quality consulting services in the science and engineering of noise and vibration.

 

[COEngineeer]

I thought it was about over weight nort american.. The topic mentioned something about our "WAIST" . My defense is... we only get 10 days of vacation time a year so we can waste some time at work

http://www.swijetty.com

Sea Water Intake and Jetty Construction

 

[csd72]

COEngineer,

I think it was a misprint, I think he meant:

"American employees wait 20% of their work day"

What are they waiting for? Maybe for the pizza to be delivered?

csd

 

[Comcokid]

CSD72 and COEngineeer-

You're both wrong on the misprint. What he meant was:

"American employees awake 20% of their work day"

After all, we spend most of our work time in meetings or creating reports nobody will read.

 

[FrenchCAD]

That is the difference, in France there is a legal work time, in the US for engineers who are normally considered exempt from overtime laws, there are no legal requirments around work time.

Yeah, there is a legal work time in France (in Belgium as well) but engineers are parts of those people that do not count hours. You contract is about 38/40 hours per week but it is absolutly not rare to spend 42/45 hours in office... and overtime hours are for free, of course...

I thought this was going to be another topic about over-weight north americans.

My bad, I mistook between waist and waste. I apologie for this

Cyril Guichard
Railroad Sub-System Manager
Belgium

 

[csd72]

Sans souci Cyril. Its all in good fun.

 

[cudaracer]

OK... let's just take -5 off for spelling, and move on...

 

[EngineerDave]

I don't know what would be better, but it sure would be nice to have a mandated limit.

There is kind of an unspoken belief around places that if we are busy, we should consider coming in on the weekend also. I think that is unacceptable.

I'd rather bust my ass during the week, work a few very long days (because after about 10 hours at work, what's a few more, since I have already limited what I can do afterwork anyways), then have the entire weekend off to do the things that I don't have time to do during the week after work.

 

[Gymmeh]

I was thinking,

The survey is probably misleading, because the people filling out the survey probably did it while at work or have free time to fill waste filling out a stupid survey, and the people that didn’t respond were the people that actually work.

 

[BRGENG]

I think I waste 20% of my day trying to get Architect’s to pay their past due invoices.

 

[msquared48]

Are you saying that they waste 20% of their day and it goes to their waist?

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[SomptingGuy]

We don't all fire on all 4 (or all 8) all day every day. The important thing is to be hugely productive when you hit the sweet spot. Looking busy is a Dilbert-ism. "Socializing with co-workers" isn't bad - you generally talk about work and share ideas.

(And here's me posting on eng-tips on a Saturday when I could be at work, not being paid!)

- Steve