Manager's Schedule vs. Maker's Schedule

theodp writes "Ever wonder why you and the boss don't see eye-to-eye on the importance of meetings? Paul Graham explains that there are Maker Schedules (coder) and Manager Schedules (PHB), and the two are very different. With each day neatly cut into one-hour intervals, the Manager Schedule is for bosses and is tailor-made for schmoozing. Unfortunately, it spells disaster for people who make things, like programmers and writers, who generally prefer to use time in units of half a day at least. You can't write or program well in units of an hour, says Graham, since that's barely enough time to get started. So if you fall into the Maker camp, adds Graham, you better hope your boss is smart enough to recognize that you need long chunks of time to work in. How's that working out in your world?" Ironically enough, I have a meeting to attend in three minutes.

strange

[madcat2c]

Did they tell you to bring all of your desk items with you in a box?

Meeting?

[Blakey Rat]

Ironically enough, I have a meeting to attend in 3 minutes.

Please, oh please, tell me it's about firing your web developer!

Re:What is it with meetings?

[ls671]

This reminded me some Dilbert: ;-)

http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2001-12-15/ [dilbert.com]

http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-11-23/ [dilbert.com]

Documenting your time

[Jason Levine]

Awhile back, we got a new head of our department. He decided that he needed to see how everyone used their day so he required everyone to fill out a form to track our time. I joked that my time tracker would look like this:

8:00am - 8:15am - Checked/Answered E-mail
8:15am - 8:30am - Entered time tracking for 8:00am - 8:15am
8:30am - 8:45am - Entered time tracking for 8:15am - 8:30am
8:45am - 9:00am - Entered time tracking for 8:30am - 8:45am
9:00am - 9:15am - Entered time tracking for 8:45am - 9:00am
etc.

Re:Documenting your time

[VAXcat]

When this happend at a place I worked at long ago, I wrote an application to generate plausible sounding time log entries - worked like a charm! Once a week I updated a list of phrases it needed to keep it sounding currnet, ran it, and was done. Bosses never figured it out.

Re:What is it with meetings?

[Opportunist]

And me of some Userfriendly

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=19980705 [userfriendly.org]

Re:What is it with meetings?

[Opportunist]

You couldn't just put a dummy there with a voicebox repeating "No", "No way" and "We can't do that"?

Or was the one in your company already employed as a SAP programmer?

Re:Ironic?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't want to seem pedantic, provide an example of the correct usage. "Ironically, I have a meeting on why my project is behind an hour" or something like that.

Re:Single biggest frustration for many coders

[Rob the Bold]

e) Meetings need to have rules forbidding the adding-on of endless afterthoughts and sidenotes.

Re:What is it with meetings?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's also why with some intelligence you can dump half of the projects you are given immediately (without notifying upwards) because they'll get cancelled down the line anyway. Why waste time on them. There are some criteria in the decision making of course - dump smaller projects first, and do cursory project design at a high level beforehand so that if you are about to get burned, you can hack something out by working late a couple of weeks.

In the past 8 years, I have NEVER ONCE been burned by doing the above. I.e., all of the projects I've dumped, were cancelled before two weeks before they were due, but often well after they were meant to have been started.

Please note that you need +4 to luck, +6 to guessing ability and +2 to charm for the above to be a viable work ethic. That, or be Wally from Dilbert.

Re:Single biggest frustration for many coders

[lauterm]

as do slashdot threads. :-P

Re:

[mozillalives]

... and Manager Schedules (PITA) ...

fixed that for ya

Re:Single biggest frustration for many coders

[No-Cool-Nickname]

f) and donuts.

Re:Ironic?

[causality]

Pedantic is French for "stop making me aware of my ignorance!". Grammar snob/nazi and prescriptivist, likewise.

Don't apologize for correcting someone's error. If they are offended, that's their insecurity.

That reminds me of an amusing saying:

"I'm sorry if the correct way of doing things offends you."
-- Unattributed

Re:Micro-meetings over regular ones

[weicco]

Another trick I've learned .. if you get invited to a meeting, and you don't really feel like you need to be there, just decline it.

This worked wonderfully for me! I declined a meeting and got yelled by two different managers. It didn't matter that I didn't have any possibility to attend the meeting since my car broke up, busses didn't go that day and even the airport was closed for the month. It would have been 500 km walk to the meeting. The next time I'm calling for sick leave.

Re:It's called a fake 4-hour meeting

[twistedcubic]

Is that in addition to the 1.5 hours a day you waste reading Slashdot? :)