On Sun, 2 Jul 2000, Eric J. Korpela wrote:
[someone unquoted elsewhere write:]
> > *ROFL* I'm trying to think of the last time that I worked on a project where
> > 65+ hour weeks didn't have to be sustained for the lifetime of the project, and
> > for the life of me I think it was 1982. Avant! wasn't all that atypical with
> > it's unspoken requirement that people turn in 80+ hour weeks even when it
> > wasn't crunch time.
That borders on foolishness. People have lives and committments
outside of the paid workplace, and to expect people to work more than
somewhere between 32 to 40 hours per week, not counting the time it
takes to drive to and from the workplace, is greed and inconsideration
on the employers' behalf.
> At 80+ you still get to go home. It gets hard when 130+ is required for
> more than a few weeks in a row. My personal record is 152 work hours
When sleep is reduced, then it can have a negative impact on one's
health - talke a look, there's plenty of evidence out there in the
psychophysiological damage that this can cause. Caffeine should never
be relied on as a substitute for needed sleep. Gastric ulcers, auto
accidents, immune system impairment leading to increased incidences of
cancer, etc. are amongst the results of not getting enough sleep. I've
worked with people who continuously drank coffee, bragging about their
levels of consumtion of it, making a big deal over how little sleep
they were getting, as if it made them look important. Do such people
realize that they're boasting about destroying their health?
> > The difference I see is that if you're late on your
> > thesis you can add time, a luxury that isn't afforded in industry.
That's not a luxury, it's called protecting one's life, and if enough
people did it, companiues would be forced to like it or else; that is,
if there was a way to not allow them to keep hiring cheap foreign
labor to displace employees who are citizens of the country where
they're working (e.g. the droves of H/J visa employees being hired by
U.S. employers to replace U.S. citizens who won't work long hours for
peanuts). Perhaps we need to tar and feather a few politicians; can't
think of a much better solution at the moment.
--
R. D. Davis
rdd_at_perqlogic.com
http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd
410-744-4900
Received on Sun Jul 02 2000 - 08:55:50 BST