The Illusion of Hard Work

Maybe I've mentioned it before, but for some reason, bosses do not consider starting earlier than normal as putting in 'extra time'. Have you run into that? So far, in many decades at several companies, I've not found one manager that actually realizes that if you start a 1/2 hour earlier and leave on time, that you've put in overtime.

When I was working at a major medical manufacturer, all of upper management (department managers, directors and executives) had a curious work pattern. Not all of them, but the majority performed this ritualistic work 'dance' on a daily basis. I call it the Illusion of Hard Work. No matter what the normal starting time for employees, management would drag in somewhere between 9 and 10. The first order of business would be to grab their coffee and head into a meeting to chit-chat with their fellow managers. As lunchtime approached, the more 'diligent' would suddenly find that their employees needed to do some 'important' job before they took lunch. Managerial lunches were of the hour to hour and a half variety so that they would get back just in time to demand a lot of information from their employees before they could leave for the day. In a typical company, if you do personal stuff during work, it's considered stealing from the company. However, if the company requires unpaid overtime, that's good business, despite the fact that they are stealing from you.

Now the manager stays after quitting hours. Note that he's done very little so far. He stays to 7, 8 o'clock. Note that one of the reasons this happens is that the manager can A) demand stuff be done before you leave and B)Make you feel guilty if you leave on time.

If the company is lucky, the manager actually does accomplish some work in the afternoon/evening hours. However, as you can guess, the total amount of actual work can be counted in minutes. The manager then goes home to complain how hard he works. The next day the dance begins again.