Why do people work late?

Here are some common reasons for people working late -
  1. Plain inefficient – Lacking logical thinking you spend loads of time on simple problems.
  2. Bad planning – Managers bad planning, leaving no time for the execution phase, so team has to slog.
  3. Bad process – Whole process is inefficient so lots of time waste.
  4. Managers perception – If people working late are assumed to be efficient, then you have to sit late..
  5. Bad personal planning – people wasting time in initial phases and then scrambling in the end. We tend to have the last minute scrambling syndrome.
  6. Inefficient team – So you end up doing what you team was to do. This is probably fine in initial phases but sometimes it just never improves.
  7.  Office perks - Bachelors sit for free internet, coffee, dinner, comp off's, etc.
I have had many instances where people working late as perceived as hard workers. The problem is big in software industry as this is a service industry. You can spend hrs solving and researching a trivial problem, or you can solve that in 2 mins. Managers who do not get into the thick and thin either agree go with the perception. So all efforts by perceived good workers are assumed as legitimate and all by perceived bad workers is assumed illegitimate.

what more??

Comments

abhishek tyagi said…
Good,Precise,experienced write-up & quite capable of eliciting the corrective steps !!

Infact, present n previous TCS project, both have shown & proved a lot what u wrote!

Point 1-6 specially..n 7..true..not a long runner though!

To tell u here, I gradually opted to go the 'late sitting way' cz it was :
1. Proving the only visible way there, (hope u can interpret this) &

2. wanted to bring down the performance n show up d presence..

At such places, its a big bad hole supporting the Ass n Face sitting - malafide & unhealthy practice only,

The Ones who r insecure,lacking in 1 or other important thing or so..promote this.On other hand, Having zeal to fit in time n good knowledge base within ourselves is good enough to cater such issues..partially I agree!

...no matter what.. I still remain the loner to oppose this..n still silence is best answer I guess :)!
10:38 PM
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