April 11, 2012 at 11:33 am
TravisDBA (4/11/2012)
Stephanie J Brown (4/11/2012)
As with some earlier comments about smoke breaks, what looks like "non-productive" time to an external watcher may actually be very productive. During the Y2K years (12x7 days...) several of us would go for a walk for 15 to 20 minutes - sometimes up to a half hour. While walking we would discuss problems we were running into, and usually the group would come up with solutions to those problems. Plus we'd come back re-charged and eager to dive into the code again.I think that counts as SUPER-productive time!:-P
Fortunately, our supervisor agreed - she saw the end results and was very happy.
Yes, but I would venture to say that that is much more the exception than it is the rule. Most smoking conversations I ever overheard while walking past had nothing to do with business. They were about the baby spitting up or what hubby had to eat at dinner the night before. 😀
Why do you care what people are talking about so much? Sounds like a waste of time.
Cheers
April 11, 2012 at 11:53 am
I didn't say I did care. I said I OVERHEARD it. Dude, I can't help it if I'm not deaf.:-D
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
April 11, 2012 at 12:38 pm
But you cared enough to remember it and repeat it here. As long as a group of people are smoking, would it matter to you what they are talking about? I get the feeling it wouldn't matter a single bit.
Cheers
April 11, 2012 at 12:48 pm
It is quite interesting what one remembers when walking past a conversation one isn't involved in. Random information sometimes has a way making it to ones long term mamory for no apparent reason.
April 11, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Well maybe yes, if I was waiting on them to get back from their 15-20 minute shooting the breeze smoke break to do their job so I could do mine. Maybe, then I would. It's not the first time I, or my boss, has had to go outside to find somebody in the smoke area and let them know we have a work emergency to take care of. As far as remembering things, I remember things because I have a good memory.:-D
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
April 11, 2012 at 12:52 pm
Sure but it is called worthless knowledge in most cases and isn't worth a lengthy conversation after the fact.
Cheers
April 11, 2012 at 12:56 pm
Just for the record, I would come down on people that took long smoking breaks too. Nobody needs to tell me that work is work and I'm not entitled to smoking. As far as having to go find someone, well, you could have to go find them in the server room, outside, up or down stairs. If this is really a problem as you describe then your boss needs to crack the whip.
Cheers
April 11, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Yep, and just for the record. I'm not opposed to breaks either, smoking or otherwise. As long as they are not abused. That was my original premise back on the first page.:-D
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
April 11, 2012 at 1:30 pm
lest we forget - it is not the right to make one's workplace unpleasant or disturbing for someone else - like playing the radio in an office you share with someone who is greatly distressed by such a thing.
in 'the old days' - well some of you won't remember this, I realize that I'm indicating my age here, but ... - when people could - and would - smoke in the office and at meetings, almost everyone, but then laws changed - no smoking anywhere public, even in bars and restaurants - and a majority of smokers gave it up - those January deep freezes were enough of a deterrent - and it generally went out of style, so for most of one's time out and about, one didn't encounter people smoking and certainly not at work, and you don't really think about it, unless you were a smoker, but, you're sitting in your office and someone comes in from a smoke break and the - to say the least - unpleasant attack on one's nasal sensibilities - is so strong, it being so unpleasant and obvious by its distinction of it being the extreme exception and then you think about it and realize that for many years that was the norm and fresh air was the exception
I hate that, I can't work beside someone who has just returned from a smoke break.
I'm just sayin'.
April 11, 2012 at 4:37 pm
SQL Central is never a waste of Time. I am not a DBA, but I do a lot of work with SQL Server and almost every time I read the Editorial I learn something. Not necessarily about SQL, but also the SQL community, and that helps me do my job better.
April 12, 2012 at 6:06 am
Work is distraction from my free time. So there shouldn't be too much of it! 😀
April 12, 2012 at 1:58 pm
I find email to be a bigger distraction than anything else.
At SQL Bits Buck Woody (Microsoft) and Kevin Kline (Quest) mentioned that email and IM technology is banned between certain times simply because of its distractive properties.
They even choose scrum times so as not to jolt developers out of the zone!
Sometimes chatting with colleagues brings or gives a different perspective to a problem and one the principal would not have thought of. It can break a log jam.
Sometimes its someone in the business saying "I wish I could do x" and the IT guy saying "But that's easy, simply do....". That's agile, not a distraction.
As for smoking, I've lost count of the 1:1s I've had outside with my boss during his smoking break. As this is outside of the building and away from other people discussions are usually short, frank, direct and productive. They are also known a "going for a passive". Personally the only time I'll smoke is when my kids put me throught the crem after a luxurious stay in a decent care home:hehe:
The important thing is to distinguish between interuptions that jar you out of a rut and those that break your chain of thought.
One of the things you are taught in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is that you may not be able to change a thing but you can control your perception of a thing. Sometimes an interuption from a colleague lightens the mood and puts you in a better frame of mind. That is a productivity booster and trust me, that is much better than anti-depressants.
April 12, 2012 at 3:07 pm
As for smoking, I've lost count of the 1:1s I've had outside with my boss during his smoking break. .
Depends on what you are discussing .If you are discussing things with the boss, or the boss is making decisions based on your private conversations outside that utlimately affect a much larger group of people than yourself then that is flat wrong. We had a supervisor at Kennedy Space Center years ago that was doing this all the time with only certain individuals, and those individuals were not sharing that information with the rest of the group who it affected. After several of us that were not involved in these conversations went to HR multiple times and complained about this, the supervisor was reprimanded on two occasions for even sharing that kind of information to select people, and was ultimately terminated after he started reprisals against the very people who reported him. We all celebrated the day he got fired too. This is a big no no for any boss to be doing outside in the smoking areas with anyone. If you are a supervisor and have information that affects others don't be sharing that with particular individuals out on the smoking porch, it could get you ultimately fired.:-D
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
Viewing 13 posts - 31 through 42 (of 42 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply