How long until you’re done?
I don’t know how many bosses understand that productivity doesn’t necessarily rise when you watch your employees. I guess it’s necessary in some jobs with repetitive work, and especially if you don’t pay them enough. All I know is that I’m happy to a) be self employed and b) sit in my own office without anybody watching me.
When I was in the USAF, I would have sure liked to tell the Chief of Maintenance that sometimes, (like the times we were getting a call every fifteen minutes).
In the Navy they always asked “When will it be fixed?” even before I knew what was wrong. The right answer was “Fifteen minutes after I find out what’s wrong, or fifteen minutes after I get the right part, whichever is later.” I can’t remember if I ever had the nerve to say it out loud.
Reminds of a classic joke:
“How long will it take?”
“I’ll be done by tomorrow”
“Can you do it in 3 days?”
“Yes, but that won’t be easy.”
“What about 5?”
“I’ll need an assistant, then.”
Oh, the times I’ve had that conversation…
“When will you be done?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
(five minutes)
“When will you be done now?”
“Thirty minutes.”
(five more minutes)
“When will you be done?”
“Two hours.”
“Howcumzit you keep needing more time, each time I ask you?”
“Notice a pattern forming here, bonehead?”
(I am irascible, nasty, sarcastic, and brutally competent. It is the latter quality – in combination with finding out rapidly where the important bodies were buried – that allowed me to keep a job in spite of the first three!)