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on 2/15/00 11:05 AM, Bob Morrisette at writer1 -at- sabu -dot- ebay -dot- sun -dot- com wrote:
> I'm wondering if others have to furnish this type of information
> and if you think it is appropriate.
At my last company we did this, but a little differently. Each of us had our
own method of tracking which projects we worked on throughout the month. At
the end of the month we would input this into a spread sheet. That was then
given to a variety of "higher ups" as most of our "Department Status
Report".
One way in which this benefitted us, though, is that we were able to justify
staff additions. We were spending a lot of time on production aspects, and
using these tracked percentages, we could show that we had enough production
stuff to justify another body.
These weren't used in any way to judge our personal performance. Our manager
knew that of each 8 hour work day, at most 6 hours are usable for "real"
work.
I didn't mind so much. Largely because I knew it wasn't being used to judge
me. In my new job, where I am the only writer, I've thought about tracking
this myself. That way, I can see how much time I spend on dealing w/ the
printer and print production tasks vs. writing, and how much is spent on
each project.
I guess I might be less inclined if it were going to be used to judge my
performance.
Christi Carew
Technical Writer
Sage Instruments
Freedom, CA, USA
www.sageinst.com