[levosmetalo]

> An example of that I've observed are construction workers maintaining railway infrastructure. There are probably a few times as many people working there as needed. When walking by you'll see them standing around talking, or maybe one of them is sitting in an excavator and four are staring at him. Meanwhile people have to take the replacement buses for two months. Most of the work only gets done in the first and last week, largely using machines, while everyone relying on the train connection is at risk of delays or has to spend extra time on the journey.

An example of that I've observed programmer maintaining enterprise software. There are probably a few times as many people working there as needed. When walking by you'll see them standing around talking, or maybe one of them is sitting in front of the computer and four are staring at him. Meanwhile people have to do the "some important work" manually for two months. Most of the work only gets done in the first and last week, largely using third-party tools and libraries, while everyone relying on the "some important work" is at risk of delays or has to spend extra time on the job.

Ok, I fixed this paragraph for you. The way you see construction workers and their work is the way business people see IT workers and their work. Come, we are just staring in the monitor without actually doing anything.

Quote from child comment that TLDR it:

> To an outsider, a lot of work looks like non-work.

[pkaye]

Can you actually answer why his observations are wrong instead of saying the problem exists in other fields?

[jarek]

To an outsider, a lot of work looks like non-work.

[pkaye]

No, better reasons might be 1. work specialties, 2. safety considerations, 3. inter-dependencies that prevent full productivity. I just hate the "...yeah our industry sucks also..." knee-jerk answer.