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by mkinnan 5610 days ago
My comment is a little off-topic with the main article, but emphases the opening paragraph:

I will never understand why people seem so intent and boasting about the number of hours they work each week. Sure, we can all work high number of hours each week but at what cost? Family? Friends? Personal down time?

It is one thing to put in extra hours for deadlines, but not each and everywhere week!

How long can most people go before they eventually burn out? I have seen this and experienced this in graduate school. At some point everyone just crashes and needs a significant amount of vacation time to recover. Then you have to question whether working long hour weeks is worth.

Back on-topic ... I believe it is KEY to keep your employees informed about how their work is contributing to the overall big picture of the company.
4 comments
veb 5610 days ago
My old boss was a lot like this. It turned into incredibly narrow tunnel-vision, which ended up sucking anything creative/fun from the company.

You really need social interaction, and interaction that isn't related to work to succeed.

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g0atbutt 5610 days ago
That's a good point. There are times when you might have to work a crazy week, but that an burn you out very quickly if it goes unchecked.
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mkramlich 5610 days ago
> I will never understand why people seem so intent and boasting about the number of hours they work each week.

Agreed. And generally the smarter you work, the less time and energy it takes. To wit:

"I worked 80 hours this week hand-rolling a web server from scratch in pure assembly!"

"Yeah, well I did it in C in 50 hours!"

"I did it in Python and only had to work 25 hours."

"I used an existing web server and just wrote a static HTML page. Worked 4 hours."

"I posted an article to a blogging service and then used MailChimp and another SaaS for the other little bits I needed. Worked 2 hour this week."

"I directed somebody else to do it and paid them. Worked 30 minutes. Delegation, baby."

"I'm the owner and am catching rays on the beach. No work this week. Still got paid."

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earl 5609 days ago
It's a dick size contest.

This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

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