>In a typical 40-hour work week, what is the minimum number of "productive" hours you would consider acceptable from an employee? My definition of "productive" would be any time doing work for the company: working on assigned tasks, helping others, answering phones, whatever. I would also include a reasonable amount of time spent improving skills, such as reading books, magazines, and forums such as UT. "Non-productive" time is essentially time not doing work: taking breaks, surfing the net, shooting the bull with other employees, etc.
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>I was recently promoted, and I need to communicate company expectations to employees. I want to be sure that my expectations are reasonable and not out of line. I know this is subjective, but I would appreciate your opinion. Please be honest. It would be very easy to take the hard line and demand 100% productivity, but I don't think that is realistic. A certain amount of non-productive time is to be expected and is healthy, IMO. The question is how much? Thoughts would be appreciated.
Joel,
First, congratulations.
Second, I think that Steve McConnell in "Code Complete" laid out some metrics on this, but I can't find it right at the moment.
BTW, you might want to look at his "Rapid Development" or "Software Project Survival Guide" books. I think, if you haven't looked at them yet, they might prove to be invaluable (along with "Code Complete") for you in your new position.
George
Ubi caritas et amor, deus ibi est