Anne Zelenka has a great new article over at Web Worker Daily. Entitled Busyness vs. Burst: Why Corporate Web Workers Look Unproductive, it examines the nature of traditional “busy” work, where continuous presence and attention are deemed as valuable, versus the way in which many web workers (and IT workers generally, in my experience) operate with periods of high productivity (“bursts”) separated by periods where to the unfamiliar eye they may look idle, but are in fact doing a great deal.
This quote in particular made me smile:
… your coworkers who don’t get how the Web changes work may think you’re a malingerer, given your incessant online connecting and surfing combined with your lack of attention to the old rules of work.
Oh, this seemed so familiar. I have always worked this way, and my ability to produce on time and to the necessary (or better) quality has never suffered. Yet, I have had more than one discussion with management (at a former employer) where I was essentially threatened with dismissal unless my work was able to look “busy”. Explanations of my work approach didn’t cut it - the management style and economics of that employer relied on busy work.
More than anything, Anne’s article reminded me of The Hacker FAQ, and its partner, The Manager FAQ.
With many of my clients being Federal Government agencies, the ability inside the wall to work effectively in “burst” mode is restricted - IM and webmail is almost always blocked, internal use of wikis are often banned outright, corporate blogging is not even on the radar… Apparently the government department that my wife, Alli, works at has banned RSS readers of any sort due to security risks. And in more than one government department I know of, access to tools such as del.icio.us is banned as there isn’t “demonstrable business need”.
All this means, of course, is that I bring my notebook and wireless modem in every day for when I need external access to resources or communication with colleagues via IM (I still need to convince/cajole Matthew and Andrew to get Skype accounts and to turn on their IM every day).
So, how do you work? Burst or busy?
Hi Steve,
I’m definitely in the “burst worker” category. I suspect most web design/coding/IA types are - we accumulate enough knowledge to do the task then we Just Do It. Single point of focus is important to what we do.
PS: downloading Skype now. I’ve got limited access to text chat on client site but goodness knows I spend a lot of non-client time in front of my laptop
PPS: limiting access to technology for technology-based work is a sad fact of Government based work. It sounds like something that I should blog about also
Cheers, Andrew
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