Roy J. Tellason wrote
 
---------WORKPLACE
 
RJT>> Maybe, or maybe it's an influence, portraying workplaces in
RJT>> general like that. I'm not sure.
 
CA>> When I complained to friends and relatives who have always worked
CA>> in offices they told me that it was "situation normal"
to them. I
CA>> had avoided office work most of my life when I was young and used
CA>> to think the TV shows were trying to be 'funny'. Now I know they
CA>> were just trying to be realistic.
 
RJT> I guess those office folks are into buying fantasy, too...
 
CA> I thought that but they _suceed_ this way. They get job titles,
CA> raises, promotions, etc. It's like "Alice in Wonderland".
 
> Or something.
> No wonder those "Dilbert" comics are so popular...
 
CA>> It's funny for about a week and then it becomes very unfunny when
CA>> you can't get anyone to do their work so that you can do yours
CA>> when it's a 'team' effort.
 
RJT> Yeah. I take that sort of thing rather more seriously than most,
RJT> and go in there to get the job done, not goof off.
 
 
 About productivity in offices: Scientific American
 ran an article based on a government study about
 it, specifically about why use of computers hasn't
 increased it very much. Trouble is, this was about
 five years ago so don't know if it still applies.
 
 From what I can recall, some factors involved were:
 
 Downtime.
 
 Difficulty in using software.
 
 Personal use of computer.
 
 Not sure as it was awhile ago but I think it was
 the last that was the biggest factor. And going by
 the stories you read about workers sending
 personal emails, visiting porn sites, and even
 running their own businesses from the office
 computer, I wouldn't be surprised.
 
 One area where productivity was increased was in the
 typing pools of large legal firms. But then that's
 a very controlled environment.
 
 BTW, Roy, in another post you mentioned some
 Scientific American article you were interested
 in. It might be online. There's a delay before
 they put the articles online -- I guess because they
 want you to buy the magazine, but they do end up
 online. Unfortunately, this info is -also- 5 years
 old: I haven't looked at the site since then.
 Worth a look-see tho.
 
 

--- Maximus/2 3.01