Working under the clock
The pitfalls of having a fixed schedule at work
Roberto Enrique Chavez Rodriguez
Managing Software Development
Innopolis University
Innopolis, Russia
r.chavez@innopolis.ru
Abstract
The world is currently moving in
such a direction where people, and
particularly software engineers, can
work for a company not only by
going to the company’s offices, but
also remotely. Furthermore, established work shifts among these engineers seem to be antiquated for
how projects evolution leads modern development of software products. In many cases, working a determined schedule may not indicate
that software engineers work effectively. Rather, such a metric could
hinder IT companies from analyzing real productivity of their computer science employees, and new
performance and efficiency metrics
must be determined.
Index Terms—engineering, performance,
goal
I NTRODUCTION
Nowadays programming has become a skill
that is not dependent in time, i.e., a software
program could be written with quality in less
or more time, depending on the ability of the
programmers who develop it. However, if not
managed properly with the time worked by
I.
the developer, this fact may trigger in losses
for the company and a lack of efficiency in
the development teams. It is common that
companies fix a determined schedule on their
employees, working in general 8 hours a day,
but what if a programmer can finish their
daily work in less time, what if in more? Having a fixed schedule may affect the performance of the specialist [1]. Another issue is
how programmers look into the work of others. Sometimes they might complain about a
colleague that receives the same salary but
attends work only for a few hours, while they
work under full schedule. They might think
that this is unfair, and therefore they may also
start working fewer hours or they might start
to give some work time to personal things to
do while still being at work, reducing their
overall effectiveness. That is why that it must
be determined if working under schedule
or under skill brings the best benefits to a
company that works with different computer
scientist who have different levels in their
abilities.
It is clear that in the field of Information
Technologies and Computer Science, programming is a skill that is not dependent in
time, i.e., a software program could be written with quality in less or more time, depend-
ing on the ability of the programmers who
develop it. However, if not managed properly
with the time worked by the developer, this
fact may trigger in losses for the company
and a lack of efficiency in the development
teams. This paper aims at contributing to the
analysis of whether working under schedule
or under skill brings the best benefits to a
company that works with different computer
scientist who have different levels in their
abilities.
an improvement in worker performance,
signifying that such changes can be good.
However, the performance improvements
where not the same in all work areas. There
were studies where countries that reduced the
working time of their employees experienced
negative economical outputs, since they compete internationally with other countries [4].
Nonetheless, it should be noticed that the
industries where economical contrary effects
where experienced were mostly physicalII. L ITERATURE R EVIEW
labor oriented, where workers had to perform
physical work for and achieve objectives in a
A Bannai describes that eight hours of
determined period of time.
work in a day might be too much for an
average worker [2]. In experiments carried
A. Orienting efforts towards the right goal
out by Scandinavian Journal of Work show
Another factor to consider is the implementhat working 8 hours consecutively for an
extended period of time might incur in neg- tation of the right objectives for a company.
ative effects for health, particularly for the Some companies might require workers to
elderly. But working that many hours in a row attend work for a concrete period of time,
does not bring negative consequences to old while other sectors in the industry might as
workers, but also to the young ones, where well be interested in a more goal-oriented
excessive work shifts trigger in depression work time approach. The key issue is, in fact,
and some psychological problems for these to analyze what is the real objective for a
company before planning the path to accomemployees.
In fact, in several areas of the world plish it [5]. Leslie Pack says that once a pridifferent measures have been already taken mary goal is established, companies should
to counteract the negative issues that come learn the right ways to attain the goal, without
along with working the typical eight-hour precisely caring in the amount time it should
work shift in the industry. Among these be taking to get the job done. And referring to
measures, there is the most known known computer science, goals are oriented towards
one, the reduction of work hours, which delivering a good product for the client [6].
was applied in many countries [3]. In
the countries where such measures were
implemented, research found that the level of
performance did not vary that much from a
scenario where people work 8 normal hours.
As a matter of fact, even some places showed
This software product comply with
quality standars that are widely known in
the field of computer science. Therefore,
it could be inferred that developing a
software product should be entirely focused
on delivering it with these standards measures to support pro-activity and superior
for the client to be satisfied with it. productivity could be taken by the companies
towards their employees. In such case, working under a schedule could be very benefiHence, a given worker could develop his or
cial for an experienced software developer,
her work with decent quality in a given period
because this developer could be working on
of time. Now, considering the case where an
extra tasks the remaining work time in a
experienced worker in software engineering
shift, becoming deserving of this developer’s
can achieve his or her objectives in less
company’s rewards and bonuses.
time than his or her colleagues, there could
be the chance that this professional have
III. I DEAS IMPLEMENTATION AND
to help his or her colleagues. E. Erickson
D ISCUSSION
describes that the obligation of a worker
In this section some ideas are discussed.
to help with colleagues’ tasks that were
not initially assigned to them might bring These ideas could be implemented to meafrustration and burnout [7]. This worker sure effectiveness of software engineers at
would have to then do only his or her work work and see if working under a given schedand even if the worker finished a task before ule brings more productivity or if working
time, then they would not virtually have to under objectives and skill is better.
do anything else, in order for the company
to take care of its employee. Nevertheless, A. Company-goal-oriented plan
this is not the case in real life, and the
It has been mentioned already that in the
question arises ”Does a company loses software engineering industry, a product with
money when its employee does not work even quality for the customer is the ultimate goal
though the employee achieved the goal?”. that must be achieved. The professionals involved in all the aspects concerning the prodIt could probably be that a given company uct development and release could work undoes not have any issues with this scenario, der a goal oriented or time oriented metric.
but many other companies could have prob- The following case is considered for the evallems with their workers not collaborating uation:
Let us consider the development departwith extra tasks that were not previously
assigned to them. T. Gong describes in an ment of the team developing a software prodinteresting article how the hard work could uct. Inside this development team, there exbe compensated by clients in a worker-client ist an experienced software developer who
situation [8]. In the article, Gong explains finishes his or her daily tasks always in a
that customers could probably reward the lesser period of time than eight hours, say,
hard work of the employees by being loyal to five hours. What should he do the other three
the workers and always helping the workers hours? The company has a few options:
by helping them improve their products with
• Option 1: Send this developer home since
new ideas and customer feedback. Likewise,
he or she finished his or her work.
•
•
Option 2: Have the developer help his
colleagues with other tasks, indicating
that the developer’s salary is given on the
amount of time they work and not the
amount of work they do.
Option 3: Also have the developer help
with other tasks but with the promise of a
bonus.
It is clear that the company might experience some advantages or disadvantages. Analyzing each of the options, the company
could experience:
a) Option 1: The developer is not working the three remaining hours of the day;
therefore, the company would be wasting the
developer’s skills greatly, when other tasks
could be assigned to the developer at that
moment. On the other hand, the company
would not be risking losing such an excellent
employee by forcing them to do other tasks,
in which situation, the developer may experience negative emotions towards the company.
The company could just ”wait” for the rest of
the development team members to finish their
tasks before moving on to the next phase of
the project.
b) Option 2: On the one hand, in this
situation the company would be maximizing
the developer’s skill power to carry out with
tasks faster, having a more efficient development team. Consequently, the experienced
developer might resent to be given so many
extra tasks. This latter factor would cause of
risk for the company to lose the employee.
On the other hand, the company could remind
the employee that the salary is being paid for
the worked time and not the tasks done, but
this could be a really risk approach, because
it could lead to either of the following:
•
•
•
the developer might ask for a salary increase: the company would lose income
in the developer’s salary rise.
the developer might start to slow down
their productivity. In this case the developer’s skill power would not be seized to
the fullest.
the developer could think about quitting.
Therefore, it does not seem to be a good
idea to have a salary conversation with the
highly qualified developer.
Option 3: This scenario seems to be
ideal for the developer, but the question is
whether it could be ideal for the company. At
the beginning it could be that giving bonuses
to the employee for extra performance could
trigger the fact that the company experiences
loss income in the employee’s bonuses, but
a great advantage seems to rise in this scenario. The fact that an experienced developer
takes gladly on extra tasks for extra bonuses
(money or any other thing else) might speed
up the development process of a software
product. This factor could be greatly beneficial for the company, since it would be able to
deliver products faster. Clients would be glad
not to wait that much for their products, and
everybody would win. However this could be
just an ideal scenario, since in reality software development goes through a large phase
processes that must be met before releasing a
product to the customer [9].
c)
It is in fact difficult to choose among all
these options, because all advantages and disadvantages for the company should be carefully considered.
B.
change for doing more work they are
supposed to do in the company.
Worker-goal-oriented plan
Now again, the question arises: ”Should
the employee work under time or under goal
accomplishment?” This question in fact is
also difficult to answer and it should bring an
employee to determine what his primary objective is, whether to work for a determined
time or to achieve a determine career goal.
It could be the case that the employee only
wants to receive a salary and then work their
assigned time in a day to later go home or do
other activities. It could also be the case that
this employee wants to achieve some milestones in life and moves towards them. This
is why it so important to understand the employee’s mind before trying to even answer
the formulated question in this section. As
already mentioned, it should be determined
what is the real employee’s objective to then
aim at an strategy [10].
Let us consider the same case study where
a experienced senior software developer is
working in a project for a company. Likewise,
the same example as in the previous section
is cited, where the developer reaches their
eight-hour work goal in only five hours. What
should this skilled professional do in the remaining three hours? A few of the possible
options the developer could take are:
•
•
•
•
Option 1: Go talk to the human resources
department to see if he can go home early.
Option 2: Stay in the office and hang
around while the day work shift ends.
Option 3: Willingly take on other tasks
and possibly wait for the company’s initiative to offer them a better position or a
bonus.
Option 4: actively state the developer
wants to get some extra bonus in ex-
Again, as formerly analyzed with the company, the worker might experience some positive and negative outcomes from making any
of these decisions. Let us assess each of these
options to see possible consequences for the
developer.
a) Option 1: The developer might actually create a bad self impression on the company. The company could think the developer
is not committed enough to the success and
progress of the company. This could potentially generate bad popularity for the developer. Now it could also be that the company
does not mind the developer starting to go
home at early hours, taking into account the
good performance the developer has, but experience and studies indicate that companies
do not have much of a sense of care for the
worker but they rather focus on performance
and productivity [11]. Therefore, this option
might as well not be the best the developer
could make. Let us explore the other options.
b) Option 2: Here the developer would
experience one or more of some of these
interesting consequences:
•
•
•
If the developer only waits until the completion of their time, both they and the
company would lose productivity.
The company would soon realize the
developer’s slack-off in working hours.
Therefore, the developer could start being
badly seen by their the company. This
would be a great minus.
It could be that the developer finds this
time valuable to review their work and do
other tasks to support and check their previous work. This attitude would be bene-
ficial for the company and the employee.
However, it is not clear if the developer
would get something beneficial from such
an action, since the company might not
notice these extra in-office efforts.
everything in life, working under the clock or
under goals would bring benefits and drawbacks for both, the employee and the company.
Option 3: In this case the developer
would be extremely kind, and this is rarely
observed in research. Such mindset could exist in some workers but tt is well-known that
humans act mostly on rewards of any kind
and not only because they want to do extra
work without any incentives [12]. However,
if the company were willing to offer some
kind of extra bonus for the developer, then
this decision would seem quite feasible to be
made. The developer and the company should
come to terms to clearly establish the conditions under which a bonus could, if ever, be
given for exceptional or extra work.
d) Option 4: In this context, the developer
could be seen either as pretentious or as an
innovator for productivity boost. In the first
scenario, making such a move would reduce
future possibilities for the developer to level
up their career in the company. But in the
second situation, the developer might arrange
some good deals for rewards to extra productivity that would positively affect them and
their colleagues. The relationship between
the company and the employee should be analyzed in order to make a decision concerning
this option. In many cases, where the worker
has already been part of a company for a long
time, they have importance in the company
and the employee’s opinion is considered
Although it is hard to make a choice and
fully predict the consequences of each of
them, it should be noticed that, up to this
point, it has been clearly showed that, as
To this point, several scenarios have been
brought up for both, the worker and the
company and possible consequences of these
scenarios were also described.
It is worthwhile mentioning that the analysis was done in a hypothetical environment
where the developer in question was an experienced worker who could finalize their
work in less time than the assigned one. Why
was not the analysis done in the case of
a developer who needs more time than the
assigned to complete their work? The answer
seems to be obvious here: because simply,
in such case, the company would eventually
replace this worker for a more effective one.
In fact, the analysis of this paper was done
in a company-worker relationship and not
in the software development itself, an area
that requires other type of analysis briefly
described in this document, when observing
that software products must be done with
quality first over doing them fast.
All in all, working under a fixed schedule
seems to have issues, either for the developer
or for the company, and it would be much
better for the companies in the Information
Technologies world to implement a system
that encourages their workers to accomplish
several tasks instead of having hem sitting
idle just waiting for the clock to mark their
time. However, this recommendation is not
set in stone, and the analysis of this paper is
only to bring a guideline for those software
managers looking to understand the problems
c)
IV.
C ONCLUSION
of having their employees working under the
clock and the things they could do about
them.
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