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Comment by hawkharris | Hacker News Reader

I no longer have to sit at my desk pretending to complete tasks, as the only person I am cheating is myself.

A job is not about individuals in the workplace. It's about people contributing to an organization to make it better: asking for work when none seems to be available; helping co-workers; coming in early and staying late.

Whether you work for a large corporation or you run your own company, you'll have to think about your whole team, not just yourself, to succeed. And when you think about procrastination from a group-oriented standpoint, workers always cheat themselves by pretending to work.

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>> A job is not about individuals in the workplace. It's about people contributing to an organization to make it better: asking for work when none seems to be available; helping co-workers; coming in early and staying late.

I was with you up to that last part where you define a job as coming in early and staying late. The hours worked do not define success especially if people are doing the kinds of things the article mentions. I come in late, hit it hard until time to leave, sometimes checking work mail in the evening but do not attempt to tell me I"m not a good worker if I'm not in the office even more hours.

I had the exact same reaction there. I'm doing the best I can for the company I work for during work hours, but, once my shift is done, my time is my own. I agree with the rest, and always try to go out of my way to make things better for my employer, but asking me to donate my time when it's not necessary is a needless imposition, and I do not generally take kindly to it.

I can understand (and will happily agree to) working overtime when it's a) necessary b) compensated fairly and c) under the understanding that I'm changing my plans at the last minute. Everyone has emergencies, and I don't mind working a bit more to help out in one, but, in general, longer hours quickly means less productivity overall (at least for me).

Seconded on the hours bit. Its not about working harder (more hours), its about cooperating and coordinating with the team. We all require communication with our teams and reports etc, but that communication only needs to happen for part of the work day -- most of the day should be spent on work unless you have meetings or need to get together as a group to discuss and plan the work.

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