Re: Average Hours Worked

[Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

I said....

>>So, how do you solve that dilemma? You need to get X amount of work
>>done, but you don't have the budget to hire more people. And your employees are
>>complaining that X can't be done in the time alloted? 

Then "Sean Brierley" <sbri -at- haestad -dot- com> responded...

>Assuming your employees are not lying trolls, and assuming they are
>average, honest, hard-working types, you have a couple of options:

>1) Work the employees like slaves for no pay.
>2) Raise the price of your product to cover your costs.
>3) Stop making the product in question.

That is your complete list of options? Exploit or give up. 

The answers for my question are far more diverse than that. 

1. Re-prioritize work and expectations. Put less important work (like
single-souring, font-fondling, information mapping, etc.) out to pasture and
refocus the employees on core needs. "Sit yer butt down and write them docs." 

2. Reassign staff. Move high-powered employees into positions where they can have
a more dramatic impact on the project. Relocate lower powered employees into
support roles. 

3. Distribute additional work over a few people, thus reducing the over all
impact.

4. Change the release dates or features in the final product. 

5. Out-source some functions and pull money from a capital budget instead of a
personnel budget. 

These are just a few of the options. And none of them center around exploiting
people. But they may involve requiring writers to abandon their sacred cows (like
single-sourcing projects) and focus on jamming out docs. And they may require
some overtime, but if employees were warned in advance and steps were taken to
minimize that impact, then all should be okay.

Andrew Plato 

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
HotJobs - Search Thousands of New Jobs
http://www.hotjobs.com


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Save up to 50% with RoboHelp Deluxe. Get 2 great products for 1 low price!
You'll get RoboHelp Office PLUS RoboDemo, the software demonstration tool
that everyone's been talking about. Check it out and save!
http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

TECHWR-L is supported by ads and sponsorships...and donations.
You can help maintain the TECHWR-L community with donations
at http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/abouttechwhirl/donate.html

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.