Hi Kevin,

(In a Lumberg from Office Space tone)Yeah... I don't think that "working as hard as the employees" thing is going to work <g>. Seriously, I agree with you. Thanks.

>This is one of these cases where one can lead by example or by mandate...
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>An approach I took years ago was to first look at myself and what I expected from me, before I ever set expectations with others. It's also important to differentiate between personal styles and work habits - inexperienced managers often confuse the two.
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>I think a manager should expect his people to 'work as hard' as he does (but NEVER EVER harder)...because often times the manager may be fighting battles with clients, upper management,etc. to protect his people.
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>The smart employees will pick up on that pretty quickly, and that filters down to the mid-range employees. After a few months, those who don't realize that you'd take a proverbial bullet and don't act accordingly are pretty easy to spot.
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>It's really all about what kind of environment you want to set. I think the most successful teams are ones where the work habits of employees mirror that of the boss.
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>As for numbers...I heard 80% from someone. Personal opinion, I think that's a tad low. That means that in an 8 hour day (480 minutes), you're accepting about 96 minutes that really isn't benefiting anyone. As far as I'm concerned, I think more than 30 minutes a day of TRULY non-productive stuff is excessive. Just my two cents.
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>Kevin