August 1, 2008 at 14:56Arrival time
I post the article with permission of the author. The original is here .
I know two options for organizing the time I started working in an IT firm and I had the opportunity to work with both options.
I worked for 7 years in a company where I had to come every day at 9.30 and leave no earlier than 18.30, and now for six months now in a company where everyone comes and leaves whenever he wants.
And now I'm ready to compare the options.
The first option is usually justified by the fact that since you need to interact a lot at work, everyone should be at work at the same time. And then suddenly you need programmer A, but he is gone and the work has stopped. Also, the first option supposedly disciplines people and sets up for work. It is also quite simple for managers and other directors, as Keeping track of employee time is very simple.
Cons of the first option :
I know two options for organizing the time I started working in an IT firm and I had the opportunity to work with both options.
- Coming to work at a specific time. Akin to the Soviet: at 8.00 everyone should be at work, otherwise a fine or even dismissal. All leave at 17.00
- Free arrival at any time. There can be a bunch of variations when you need to work 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week, or no one watches at all, if only the work is done.
I worked for 7 years in a company where I had to come every day at 9.30 and leave no earlier than 18.30, and now for six months now in a company where everyone comes and leaves whenever he wants.
And now I'm ready to compare the options.
The first option is usually justified by the fact that since you need to interact a lot at work, everyone should be at work at the same time. And then suddenly you need programmer A, but he is gone and the work has stopped. Also, the first option supposedly disciplines people and sets up for work. It is also quite simple for managers and other directors, as Keeping track of employee time is very simple.
Cons of the first option :
- Arriving at a specific time does not allow the employee to properly manage their free time. Maybe I want to do something until 4 in the morning and then sleep longer? But no, I have to go to work, and which of me is an employee, if I slept for 3 hours? And if 2 days for 3 hours?
- Keeping track of “worked” time in IT is an absolutely useless activity. For IT professionals, time is not directly converted to a product. “Mythical man-month” was written a very long time ago, and not everyone read it yet.
Work should be organized so that the absence of programmer A does not stop the entire process. Otherwise, no rules of arrival will help in the event of force majeure. And forcing people to come at the same time is simply masking the real problems with the workflow.
This option is just annoying for many people. And sometimes it becomes the reason for finding a new job.