Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!pantor!richard
From: richard@pantor.UUCP (Richard Sargent)
Newsgroups: comp.sw.components
Subject: Re: Schedule and budget are secondary
Message-ID: <24.UUL1.3#5109@pantor.UUCP>
Date: 13 Oct 89 14:46:20 GMT
References: <9670@attctc.Dallas.TX.US>
Organization: Pansophic Systems Inc, Graphics Product Company
Lines: 43

> From: phil@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (Phil Meyer)
> Message-ID: <9670@attctc.Dallas.TX.US>
> Date: 11 Oct 89 22:10:39 GMT
> 
> In article <6742@hubcap.clemson.edu> billwolf%hazel.cs.clemson.edu@hubcap.clemson.edu writes:
> >From rcd@ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn):
...
> >    A professional will meet cost and schedule
> >    constraints by using CASE tools, advanced programming languages,
> >    and so on, using overtime as the last resort.
> 
> This last line is the killer.  If you don't work your butt off, you don't
> work for me!  If the job needs doing, you stay 'till it's done.  What is this?
> Bankers ethics in the computer center?  Forget it!

You've got to be joking! Sweatshops went out of fashion in the last century!
It is true that entrenpreneurial companies and start-ups require long hours
of the staff/owners, but sensible employers plan for their staff to be still
alive and functional so that they can do the next project.

Staff distracted/unhappy/etc. from divorces/miserable homelives/etc. or
burned out, etc. are poorer producers than those who aren't. Whether the
burnout takes 6months, a year, or two isn't germane. Turn-over is *very*
expensive for companies

If a company can't budget a project to avoid burning out its staff, it is
in long-term trouble. There certainly circumstances where the 6 month
project just has to be done in 3 months, but if that is company policy,
you'll lose a lot of people.

*I* work to live, not live to work. I am fortunate to work in a field
that I enjoy. If my employer tried to make 16 hour days a policy, I
would switch to working for a bank faster than you could say "boo".
(They pay better and the fringe benefits are nice - low interest and
a pension plan, for starters. :-)

Enough said. I fully realize there as many rebuttals possible as there
are circumstances for everyone out there. This is my opinion: you don't
have to agree nor even like it.


Richard Sargent                   Internet: richard@pantor.UUCP
Systems Analyst                   UUCP:     uunet!pantor!richard