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American employees waist 20% of their work day
2

American employees waist 20% of their work day

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

Perhaps employeers demand people are at work 20% more than they actually need to be.

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

I did not notice any country specific information that would lend itself to the notion that American Employees waste 20% of their work day.  Anyone can partake of such a survey and I did not see any way to dig into the published results to find information on the distribution of respondents.

We use a utilization factor (productive hours)/(hours at work) primarily for the direct hourly people.  Meetings, breaks, paperwork etc. all go into the denominator

Salaried is a lot muddier.  The philosophy where I work is to do what it takes to get the job done by such and such a time.  

Here is another stat site.  Again, the underlying information as to ranking criteria is obscure.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_bus_eff-economy-business-efficiency

Regards,

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

(OP)
That could be a possibility as well. It's true that american seemingly work more hours than me :) I dunno what is the legal work time in US?

Cyril Guichard
Railroad Sub-System Manager
Belgium

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

I don't think the survey or topic posted by the OP was a dig in any way wt americans per se as PSE infers, but it is intersting to note that on the second site the USA is rated as having 100% efficiency. Yeah right.

Personally I don't think taking a break from work to either write to an engineering forum or answer emails or chat or whatever is wasted time. I think it was recognised many decades ago that the best productivity is obtained by giving people rest breaks, whatever that form takes. I know, for instance, that if I'm doing a crossword and concentrating on it continually then I'll get nowhere. If I take a break then the answer comes (well sometimes anyway).   

corus

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

French employees work 80% as many hours as Americans.  I'd prefer the French way, and spend more time on the links.

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

FrenchCad,

That is the difference, in France there is a legal work time, in the US for engineers who are normally considered exempt from overtime laws, there are no legal requirments around work time.

I have worked 48 hours straight in the past, although with an improved safety attitude more companies are limiting work to 16 hours with an eight hour break before returning.

I did a plant maintenance outage in France a few years ago. We did all the work in a 36 hour work week, and on one shift. The same outage in the US would be done on two 12 hour shifts with an hour turnover on each side, so that everyone would be working 14 hour days, for about 30 to 40 days straight with no time off...

"Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?" Oddball, "Kelly's Heros" 1970

Please see FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on how to make the best use of the Eng-Tips Forums.
 

 
 

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

Quote:

Survey respondents also feel that some of their work-related activities are a waste of time including:  fixing someone else’s work (18.1%), dealing with office politics (16.2%) and sending or responding to emails (13.1%).   

Well if you include that above as time wasted then some days I'm lucky to waste less than 50%.

I'm trying to get better, not get caught up in stuff etc, not reply to some messages if I think they'll go away/blow over.

However assuming you include the above as time wasted then if I hit 20% I'd be doing really well.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

OT:
I thought this was going to be another topic about over-weight north americans.  

-
www.Aercoustics.com
High quality consulting services in the science and engineering of noise and vibration.

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

I thought it was about over weight nort american..  The topic mentioned something about our "WAIST"  smile.  My defense is... we only get 10 days of vacation time a year so we can waste some time at work  smile

http://www.swijetty.com
Sea Water Intake and Jetty Construction

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

COEngineer,

I think it was a misprint, I think he meant:

"American employees wait 20% of their work day"

What are they waiting for? Maybe for the pizza to be delivered?

csd

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

CSD72 and COEngineeer-

You're both wrong on the misprint. What he meant was:

"American employees awake 20% of their work day"

After all, we spend most of our work time in meetings or creating reports nobody will read.

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

(OP)

Quote:

That is the difference, in France there is a legal work time, in the US for engineers who are normally considered exempt from overtime laws, there are no legal requirments around work time.

Yeah, there is a legal work time in France (in Belgium as well) but engineers are parts of those people that do not count hours. You contract is about 38/40 hours per week but it is absolutly not rare to spend 42/45 hours in office... and overtime hours are for free, of course...

Quote:

I thought this was going to be another topic about over-weight north americans.

My bad, I mistook between waist and waste. I apologie for this

Cyril Guichard
Railroad Sub-System Manager
Belgium

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

Sans souci Cyril. Its all in good fun.

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

OK... let's just take -5 off for spelling, and move on...

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

I don't know what would be better, but it sure would be nice to have a mandated limit.

There is kind of an unspoken belief around places that if we are busy, we should consider coming in on the weekend also. I think that is unacceptable.

I'd rather bust my ass during the week, work a few very long days (because after about 10 hours at work, what's a few more, since I have already limited what I can do afterwork anyways), then have the entire weekend off to do the things that I don't have time to do during the week after work.

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

I was thinking,

The survey is probably misleading, because the people filling out the survey probably did it while at work or have free time to fill waste filling out a stupid survey, and the people that didn’t respond were the people that actually work.

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

I think I waste 20% of my day trying to get Architect’s to pay their past due invoices.  

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

Are you saying that they waste 20% of their day and it goes to their waist?

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

We don't all fire on all 4 (or all 8) all day every day.  The important thing is to be hugely productive when you hit the sweet spot.  Looking busy is a Dilbert-ism.  "Socializing with co-workers" isn't bad - you generally talk about work and share ideas.

(And here's me posting on eng-tips on a Saturday when I could be at work, not being paid!)

- Steve

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

SomptingGuy:

Why would you go to work on Saturday if you wouldn't get paid?  bigsmile

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

I didn't mean it quite like that.  Although I have done it before.

Burning idea, Friday night.  Crappy weather forecasted, no social plans for the weekend.  No mandate to try out those ideas that are burning in your mind.  This is often where whole new innovations come from.

Then I got married.

Now, several years later I'm seperated and the weekend is near...

- Steve

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

Working on a weekend when you don't have to, because you don't have anything else to do.
I've been there, until I got a life. I'm keeping my life, and the weekends are mine to do nothing with.

Yes I do waste time at work, but it makes up for the unpaid over time that is required at other times. The storm jobs, the we have to fix it tonight things.
And then there is the paperwork waste of times that my employer requires, and they payme for.

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

Just flew to Seattle to see some guys and, given a choice of times available they chose to see me on Friday afternoon.
Now in Europe, you'd be lucky to find the cleaners working on a Friday afternoon.
That's 1/2 one day in a 5 day week.
Now let me see that works out to be 10% of the week. So there is 10% back.
I'm sure we'll find the other 10% somewhere, oh yeah, how about the number of days paid holiday in the year?
Europe? 4-5 weeks plus ban holidays.
America?
I'm sure we'll find this 20% is balanced out pretty well.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
 

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

A few more percent can be found in the length of the working week.  Our official working week is 37.5 hours long, compared with 40 for our offices in America.

The Friday afternoon thing isn't laziness.  Some companies have a policy of long days Mon-Thu and then a half day on Friday.  I've worked one place where they had a 39 hour week: 4x8+1x7 - home early on a Friday.
 

- Steve

RE: American employees waist 20% of their work day

I used to be one those people at my other job. We had cubicles so we would just go to each other and talk talk talk. I mean, I always had my job done but still I probably talked a little more than I worked.

At my new job I have my own office so I am in there all the time and I work away. I am way more professional because I am treated like a professional. If I hit a slow period I browse the forum and try to give helpful hints or read up on what can help me. Everything for me is about work, when I am at work.  

Thank You
JSF SWISS

 

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