[bryanlarsen]

My google-fu is failing me, but I believe there's a study out there that postulates that the most efficient utilization rate for a secretary is about 40% -- in other words, they should be idle about 60% of the time.

The thesis is that the primary purpose of a secretary is to be available to do work. When the boss wants something done, an idle secretary can do it immediately whereas a busy secretary has to finish what they're doing before moving on to the next task.

Obviously the study contains a bunch of simplifying assumptions, but the general principle applies to many service jobs.

[ArkyBeagle]

Strange; Ethernet segments/collision domains start to have collisions at 40%. It's 1/e again, isn't it?

<cue Theremin music>