If only

[9th Engineer]

Ok, since I started the threadjacking with my enraging comment about posting at work, I think the Real Dolls are creepy as all hell. Anyone who catches themselves ordering one should really seek professional help, even if it would mean brushing the cobwebs off the phone and pry the boards off the door to come in contact with real people.

[9th Engineer]

justifications, Nineth, not reasons......

Hey, those are reasons. Maybe some some justifications thrown in, but primarily reasons...

[JayMcGee]

mmm.... okay, maybe so.... On the personal level, I wish you well.

[footfootfoot]

If I was a different sort of chap, I'd be tempted to order one of those dolls, not only while at work, but with my company credit card.

But I'm not that kind of guy.

[zippyt]

9Th , go for it , be driven , have lofty goals , be pissed off when folks don't see things they way you do ,,,,, Yo GO Boyyyye !!!! ( and I Do NOT meen that in a patronizeing way ) .

But as an engneering type of dude you have to wounder just HOW life like they REALY ARE ???

[bbro]

Originally Posted by 9th Engineer

bbro, so you regularly spend hours at work doing nothing productive then? Working 60% for your 100% salary there? If you regularly find yourself with no work to do then that's a pretty bad sign, take some initiative man.

What initiative am I supposed to have? I am a contract worker at the moment and was hired for a particular purpose. I have no flexibility in what I can do. When that work lags, there is nothing else for me to do. I don't just sit here and not let anyone know. I follow the chain of command. If I was a full-time employee, yes, I would be getting different things to do. I have seen full-time employees who sit there for weeks and not tell anyone that they don't have anything to do. I actually hate not having anything to do.

At my old job, yes, I would take a 10 minute mental break and surf a bit. What is the difference between that and people going out for a cigarette or going to take a couple laps around the building? I have always gotten my work done. No one has ever had a problem with my performance, in fact, I get compliments.

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by glatt

They close whatever they are reading, and I pretend I didn't see it.

I just want to revisit this particular note because it is central to the whole matter. Glatt of course you're doing the right thing if your people are otherwise fine. Your approach means you understand the matter. But the dynamic here is definitely I'm not supposed to be doing this and I am hiding it as well as possible because you are supposed to demerit me if you catch me.

So you've noted that "coffee breaks" are not only acceptable but promote productivity, but your people are worried and act guilty when you catch them at this productivity-increasing activity.

Is this dynamic working? On the face of it, I bet you're a better manager than 19 out of 20 managers, simply because you DO ignore it. In your group there is only a little less of a trustful relationship than in other groups. There is only a little disconnect.

I tellya, the last manager who caught me Cellarizing and bitched at me up and down for it, was left holding the bag, as I was out of there six weeks later and gave an exit interview that put it all on her.

Now I admit to being a problem child. Under manager "A" I was the smartest, most productive employee who worked extremely hard to improve the organization. Under manager "B" I spread wide dissatisfaction and eventually left. Manager "A" was considerate, respectful, gave me space, and recognized the work I did... and so I quickly became the top person. Manager "B" used the carrot-and-stick approach, except without the carrot, and within months I pretty much gave up on doing a lot of good work.

I just won't stand for a lot of disrespect.

[BobT]

Originally Posted by morethanpretty
I will NOT allow my thread to be hijacked! I am intensly curious as to what the cellarites think of the Real Doll! I must needs to know! NOW!

OK...here it goes.....i could probably jerk off with a pair of pliers (spanner) if it were done gently, but the idea of hugging the severed torso of a blow-up doll is spooky. my hand has served me well through my 58th birthday. Blow up, $5,000 dolls make my skin crawl.

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by 9th Engineer

Oh, and Shawnee, the feeling is mutual

Oh thank GOD! Because, to be perfectly honest, I would rather be stuck on an island with a "real doll" than you. Charlie would be loads more fun. He would probably reach for a towel for me while you were bitching that the fish you were trying to spear were not efficiently using their time and resources and therefore are useless to our society.

[morethanpretty]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

Girlfriend, your thread is SO hijacked right now.

I know, I cried. But now I'll just accept it and jump right in.
I don't work in an office with a comp. If I did, I would probably do some goofing off on the computer, but only if I didn't have any work to do. Which to me means I've done all of my reg work and can't find anything else to clean (never gonna happen). For some odd reason I like to clean, but not my house.

Originally Posted by BobT

i employ 15 people. if i could get 6.5 hours of productive work from each of them every day i would be RICH!!!.....but.....i'm not

I would work as many hours you would need me too, as long as you pay well, I get some breaks and don't have to stand on my feet the whole time.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

But the dynamic here is definitely I'm not supposed to be doing this and I am hiding it as well as possible because you are supposed to demerit me if you catch me.

That's an interesting point. As I think about it more, I admit that it is a little conflicted. On the one hand, the people in my department (this is a paralegal department in a law firm) bill their time to the firm's client. They and the attorneys are the only income our firm has, so we want them to bill as much of their time as possible. On the other hand, my department only does litigations, which are very deadline driven. When you have a filing due at 5PM as the court closes, you have to make that deadline, or you get sued for malpractice. So we really spend a lot of effort focusing on the work product and meeting the deadlines. We don't focus so much on keeping people busy. It just happens on its own. But if we don't keep everyone busy, we don't make any money. So, as a manager, I'm conflicted. And so are the employees. More seasoned folks have figured out what the right balance is, and they will pull me in to show me something they found while surfing the web, because I know they were working hard until 10PM the night before. It's mostly the new people who are nervous when I walk in on them.

From an "official" point of view, we expect everyone to spend 6.5 to 7.0 hours of each 7.5 hour day doing work that will be billed to a client. The remaining 30-60 minutes is there to take care of general office paperwork, go to the bathroom, take coffee breaks, surf the web, whatever. If somebody only bills 4 hours on a particular day, they aren't going to get in trouble. But we do look at long term trends in hours billed to see if one particular case is over or understaffed.

And finally, from a practical standpoint, many of the folks in my department work so hard, and do so much overtime, that they easily make themselves valuable, even if they slack off for an hour or two each day. So that's why I pretend I don't see them surfing the web.

[morethanpretty]

I think that if your realdoll doesn't have enough work to do and is therefore "goofing" off, it is your fault.

[BobT]

Originally Posted by glatt

And finally, from a practical standpoint, many of the folks in my department work so hard, and do so much overtime, that they easily make themselves valuable, even if they slack off for an hour or two each day. So that's why I pretend I don't see them surfing the web.

my point exactly. a good employee pulls his or her weight, and is not chastised for an occasional distraction. no one can work non stop. the human brain just isn't set up to work non stop.

just because you BILL the client for 4 hours doesn't mean that 4 hours were ACTUALLY worked. the people that i pay for 8 hours certainly aren't working 8 hours. but they get their job done.

[lumberjim]

sorry, no time to read this thread.....too busy working!

[glatt]

Originally Posted by BobT

just because you BILL the client for 4 hours doesn't mean that 4 hours were ACTUALLY worked.

I understand what you are saying and that there may be an understanding where you work that getting a certain job done will result in an hourly charge of a set amount, but at my firm, we are very serious that you don't pad the bill. If you didn't spend the time working on a case, you better not bill the client for it. That's just wrong, especially when you consider that our hourly rates are extremely high. Getting caught falsifying time records is something that will get you fired very quickly here.