1237c404a613
tech



Hello Phil - 

--8<--cut 

CA>>> It's funny for about a week and then it becomes very
CA>>> unfunny when you can't get anyone to do their work so
CA>>> that you can do yours when it's a 'team' effort. 

RJT>> Yeah. I take that sort of thing rather more seriously than
RJT>>  most, and go in there to get the job done, not goof off. 

PM> About productivity in offices: Scientific American ran an
PM> article based on a government study about it, specifically
PM> about why use of computers hasn't increased it very much.
PM> Trouble is, this was about five years ago so don't know if
PM> it still applies. From what I can recall, some factors
PM> involved were: Downtime. Difficulty in using software.
PM> Personal use of computer. Not sure as it was awhile ago but
PM> I think it was the last that was the biggest factor. And
PM> going by the stories you read about workers sending
PM> personal emails, visiting porn sites, and even running
PM> their own businesses from the office computer, I wouldn't
PM> be surprised. One area where productivity was increased was
PM> in the typing pools of large legal firms. But then that's a
PM> very controlled environment. 

============== 

Here is a more recent survey: 

http://www.internetwk.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml?article
 

"Peer-to-peer file-sharing software for trading music, movies,
and even software has more than a toehold in corporate
networks, Canadian asset monitoring company AssetMetrix said in
a global survey of 560 companies that it released Wednesday. 

The survey, conducted by the company's AssetMetrix Research
Labs arm, poked through computers at companies of all sizes in
the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa,
and the Pacific Rim. The results discouraged IT administrators. 

File-sharing applications such as Kazaa, Morpheus, and Imesh
were spotted on machines at three out of every four businesses,
said Steve O'Halloran, the director of the lab and one of the
founders of AssetMetrix. And no company with more than 500
employees escaped the file-sharing syndrome: All of the
surveyed companies that size had at least one computer with the
software on the hard drive." 

============== 

From what I've personally observed accusing these people of
running their own businesses using their employer's computer
would be giving them _way_ too much credit. 

What I saw was passing joke emails around (much the way FAX was
abused in years past), looking for cheap air-fares and auto
rentals to plan their next vacation, and for some unfathomable
reason typing up 'banners' to tape, pin, and hang all over the
office _everywhere_. 

It reminded me of seeing trees decorated with toilet paper. 

These people were so _very_ inept it would take them hours to
do one banner. 

Occasionally they would redo a few lines (literally) of their
resume and carry that around asking everyone to read it and
offer suggestions. 

Some would do job search (daily) and apply for jobs they only
had one half of the qualifications for somehow believing that
one day they would find someone desperate enough to over-pay
them to do a job they had no idea how to actually do. Of course
being _at_ a workplace where they did next to nothing gave them
the courage to believe doing nothing for even _more_ salary was
possible. 

I am not trying to say these people are easy to beat at this
game.  Quite the contrary.  The supervisors are often some of
the most flagrant abusers of company time and want _no_ part
of anyone who actually thinks work should be accomplished each
day.  Focus on your job and you won't be there for long.  Find
all the Internet jokes, games, airline URLs, and cheap car
rentals and you will be an assistant manager in no time. :-)

>
>        ,                          ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich      \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >          USA, MI           < \   __\__
 

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