Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Oh give it up. Very few jobs require 100% attention. At my job I'm on the phone at least half of every day and on 70% of those calls I only need at most 10% of my attention.

The rest of the time I'm going through emails, filling out endless bureaucratic forms/documents, doing mandatory training, and every now and again I get to actually write some code (more likely: reviewing PRs), LOL! My performance reviews are always spectacular and I'm the only one in our (much) larger team that's actually 100% in compliance/up-to-date with everything and completing all my work on time.

The one thing all those tasks have in common? They can wait five minutes while I take care of something and if I'm on the phone I can do something else entirely while I'm listening. Just the other day I did--the horror!--laundry while I was on a call discussing how we should move forward to solve a problem. And I was the one speaking most of the time while I folded my laundry and put it away!

I could easily watch a 6yo and do my job at the same time. Based on how much real "work" comes out of your average corporate office employee I'm certain they could do the same.

Employers should give zero fucks about what their employees are doing while they're at work as long as they get all their work done on time and don't cause the company any problems (and no conflicts of interest). We hire people to get things done not to dress a certain way or keep a chair warm in a very specific place all day!



Hah, just yesterday I had a conversation where an individual told me that I have no pride in my work if I don't devote 100% attention to it and I guess today's generation has no shame. I politely pointed out that I work based on results requested. If someone wants different results, they should adjust accordingly.

But no.. you want 110% and everyone looking busy, because.. manamagement does not know how to manage..

No offense, but to me it shows severe lack of skill in management class.


I could easily watch a 6yo and do my job at the same time.

I have a pretty chill WFH tech job at the staff level, and a pretty easygoing child, and this sounds like the kind of thing no one who has been a parent would say. My daughter was six during the pandemic when she and her mother and I were all stuck at home, the two of us trying to split our time between watching her and working our jobs, and it was hell.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: