Who's paying for this time? 10

[trainguy]

All,

It's pretty clear that many of us devote a considerable amount of time responding to posts on Eng-Tips.

By curiosity, what do you charge this time to? i.e. I'm not exactly sure where to assign the last 30 minutes (that I spent on the site) when filling out my time sheet.

How do you handle this?

e.g: Charge the current project?, Business development, Training, IT, Make up the time by working later...

Just curious.

tg

 

[ctopher]

"other"


Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[MiketheEngineer]

OJT

I get many new or great ideas by perusing these forums...

 

[zdas04]

My time on eng-tips.com gets charged 100% to "Advertising". The last 5 new clients I've gotten have found me because Google likes eng-tips.com, and people have liked some of my technical posts and hired me. With what those accounts have resulted in, my time here is the cheapest advertising I can imagine. Most effective too.


David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

http://www.muleshoe-eng.com

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

"It is always a poor idea to ask your Bridge Club for medical advice or a collection of geek engineers for legal advice"

 

[Ron]

In our group, we don't record anything but billable time. I know that in a corporate structure you need to account for all time, so that you can establish overhead and billing rates....but we don't work that way....so I don't worry about charging E-T time to anything...besides, I'd probably cut down if I recorded how much time I spend here!!

 

[moltenmetal]

"professional development"!

 

[Yagonyonok]

Don't ask, don't tell.

Use of system voids warranty.

 

[pennpiper]

"It's pretty clear that many of us devote a considerable amount of time responding to posts on Eng-Tips.

By curiosity, what do you charge this time to? i.e. I'm not exactly sure where to assign the last 30 minutes (that I spent on the site) when filling out my time sheet."

1. You should not be spending "Company time" on Eng-Tips unless there is a problem and you have been directed by your supervisor to find help solving that problem and you tell them where you intend to look for help.

2. Your lunch hour is your own time. Check Eng-Tips while you eat that ham sandwich.

 

[coldmaster]

Here here. You should only be charging for billable time or related research, etc. Unbillable time would be a business decision and it doesn't sound like yours to make.

Killing time should be on your time.

 

[bridgebuster]

Unbillable time is not allowed where I work. That's why it takes me 11 hours to work 8.

 

[moltenmetal]

pennpiper: I'm glad I don't work where you do!

I'd MUCH rather my junior engineers spend their intellectual down-time browsing Eng-Tips than surfing stuff that has far less to do with their profession! Everybody who is realistic knows that having universal Internet access on every workstation is a double-edged sword- it makes access to information far easier, but it also represents a temptation to waste time.

Every company retaining professionals has to expect that they're going to spend some of their time, ON THE CLOCK, building their skills and knowledge. Whether that's reviewing and responding to posts on Eng-Tips, reading journal articles or trade magazines or attending courses or vendor presentations etc. is really not all that important.

Properly that time should be billed to non-chargeable (overhead) time, rather than being billed to projects or clients, since the clients/projects are paying an overhead-burdened rate for the time already.

I've learned enough here to justify every moment I've spent. Except in the Pub of course- that comes out of uncompensated overtime...

 

[pennpiper]

"moltenmetal",
The original poster obviously does not work for the same company as you do or was never told it was okay to surf "Technical" web sites for professional self improvement during "down-time". He was evidently experiencing pauses in his productive work flow and was doing what you suggest but had a lot of guilt about doing it.
My posting was not clear but what I intended was: If the Company does not allow it then don't do it.

 

[abusementpark]

I try to limit my time spent on the board to "after hours".

However, if I have a couple down minutes at work, I will quickly peruse the structural board or check the responses of threads in which I am involved.

 

[csd72]

Pick a billing code out of a hat and charge it to that.

One of my former bosses did this when he worked for a local authority, after 5 years working for them he ended up racking up about 12k in 'photocopying'.

 

[SomptingGuy]

Unpaid overtime. Traded against booked time by sleight of hand/booking.

OJT is an accounting method of allowing HR to reduce their costs. Costs are absorbed by unpaid overtime.


- Steve

 

[trainguy]

Guys,

For the record, it's rare that I'll spend more than 3-4 minutes on this site, approx. 2 times/day. More time over the lunch hour.

The 30 minutes of the other day was an anomaly. I don't feel particularly guilty about it, and I am one of the supervisors here.

I usually don't bother charging the time specifically, kind of like most of the above posters.

I've told several of our young engineers about this site (but I haven't told them my handle), and I'm hoping they won't abuse it.

tg

 

[rowingengineer]

Probably a big difference for those of us how won their own company v's those whom work for the man. Owning my own company I use this site as a way of staying up-to-date and getting that extra 2% confidence such that I can sleep at night, when others in my company can’t provide the extra confidence. Yes Ron, Hokie, IDS, Paddington, Ozeng, civeng, dik, dick, RAPT, asixth ect you are helping me sleep in my bed naked. So since it is my own money that I am spending anyway I don’t feel guilty for booking the time to general.

ANY FOOL CAN DESIGN A STRUCTURE. IT TAKES AN ENGINEER TO DESIGN A CONNECTION.”

 

[dhengr]

Trainguy’s question is really a very good question, and I’ve often wondered the same thing as I watch the back and forth here during the work day. As is my case, some of us here are retired or semi-retired and trying to pass on some of our experience and knowledge to the younger engineers and a whole bunch of posters who are pretending to past themselves off as engineers, seemingly embarrassed to admit their level of experience so we knew at what level to start responding to an OP. I have read a bunch of B.S. rationalizing above about people’s time spent here, on the clock. I gotta say that if I were paying you 25 - $50/hr. I’d be pissed if I caught you spending much time here on my time, given much of what I’ve seen here. At that rate you better be productive, not just fartin around on the internet. Some significant percentage of the questions here are questions about things you should have learned in the first few years of collage, basic strength of materials and basic structural concepts. I would want you coming to me with your questions so I actually knew the state of your progress and actual knowledge. I don’t want you pretending to know something that you got from a third party, who may or may not know what he’s talking about, and has no real interest in your or our well being, just to hide your own ignorance, all based on a half-assed question. I want you to point at the plan or the detail and try to explain what you need so I know how to help you arrive at the right answer. And, I don’t mean to imply that I have all the answers, but I might point you in the right direction and suggest where to look. If you want to be a real engineer, there is some learin involved, and some of that is on your own time, at your rates, and some of that is at my expense for your and our betterment. These forums are good and many times informative and helpful, but they do not take the place of going back to your text books, assuming you had the foresight to save them for reference.

Things have really changed in the working world, I can’t say I never looked at a text book during working hours or actually had to read the code in the office to know what direction to go. But, when a new code came out, I read it and learned it on my own time, not during working hours. With few exceptions, when I ran into a problem I couldn’t solve, I went to the boss for help (mentoring, etc.), or went on to something else, and then studied that night so I could solve the problem the next morning, and I never gave this situation another thought, except to think I really should have known how to handle that problem, that’s what I’m getting paid for. You guys have many more diversions these days that you think must be attended to instantaneously or the world will stop turning, not on my time, please. And, you have many newer means of gathering information some of that good, much of that info. overload, and time wasting info. crap.

The guys who are on their own can spend 23hrs. a day here, it’s their nickle, but you guys who are being paid by the company better use your time here very judiciously and carefully, you are not getting paid to socialize on the internet, on a forum. And, if you don’t know the answer to the problem, you better figure it out on your own time, with my help, that’s what I hired you to know, and you assured me you did know most of that stuff.

 

[europipe]

I don't know why you should spent more than 10 min. a day here.
You should only look at the things you're interested in.
Most posts are much to theoretical.

 

[kontiki99]

It depends why I'm here.

If I'm taking a 10 min break, it's invisible, like a smokers break.

If I'm looking for something or posting a on a work related subject, I caulk the time up on the project.

If it’s Saturday AM and I just find it more interesting than the banal nonsense that seems to permeate all media, it’s a moot question.