7:00 - drive to client in Redlands
8:00 - arrive in Redlands
8:42 - client arrives for 8:00 meeting
8:51 - client leaves for emergency
8:52 - review project with programmer - still 18 months behind
9:15 - daily email to 6 bosses about dire status
9:38 - take call from boss #4 - debate "strategic direction"
10:20 - coffee, snack, & bitch session with lead programmer
10:45 - drive to client in Century City
12:20 - arrive in Century City, everyone at lunch already
12:30 - have hot dog at sidewalk cafe, look for Christina Applegate
1:15 - meet with client for daily status
1:22 - client leaves for emergency
1:28 - review project with programmer - still 18 months behind
1:40 - daily email to 5 other bosses about dire status
2:15 - take call from other boss #3 - debate "strategic direction"
2:28 - referee dispute between contract & employee programmers
3:20 - coffee, snack, & bitch session with lead programmer
4:20 - drive home
5:50 - arrive home
8:10 - take calls from 4 other bosses debating strategy
9:20 - end day knowing tomorrow will be exactly the same
Total work done: 0
My typical day working for an enterprise:
7:30 - drive to work
7:50 - arrive at work, turn on Windows workstation
7:51 - get coffee, greet co-workers
8:10 - workstation finally up, check overnight logs
8:15 - check email
8:30 - resume programming on current project
9:15 - take calls from 6 customers, changing scope
10:00 - go to daily status meeting
10:12 - everyone else arrives at daily status meeting
10:48 - drop current project, work on daily emergency
12:10 - go to lunch at mall foodcourt
1:00 - check email
1:10 - resume programming on current project, drop daily emergency
1:40 - take 4 calls, give project status
2:00 - go to Special Planning Session for Project #127
2:12 - others arrive at Special Planning Session for Project #127
2:48 - candy bar break, bitch with other programmers about code review
3:10 - resume programming on current project
4:00 - go to daily stand-up meeting for project status
4:08 - others arrive at daily stand-up meeting for project status
4:45 - email project status to 8 bosses
5:10 - drive home
5:45 - day ends
Total work done: 2 hours
My typical day working for a start-up:
6:00 - code
8:00 - breakfast at desk while coding
10:00 - coffee break outside
10:10 - code
12:00 - lunch at desk while coding
2:00 - break outside
2:15 - work on everything else except coding
4:00 - review & print code
5:00 - exercise
6:00 - dinner with SO
7:00 - visit mother, watch Jeopardy & Family Guy with her
8:00 - code
10:00 - turn off monitor, review code, plan next day
Total work done: 8 hours
Silly question, why do you eat at your desk? And do you actually type in any code, or do you just look at your code and think about stuff in your mind?
It seems like you take breaks outside, but for me there's nothing like taking 30 mins to have lunch _at_ a table to clear your mind.
I find one of the most important functions of Lunch is to take a break and clear my head. My hands tend to be occupied, so if I'm home I'll watch an episode of something on Hulu or read HN. If I'm out with someone we'll just chat.
It's really quite refreshing and I love the feeling of having solved something over lunch that was frustrating me all morning, without having to think about it directly.
Every one of my colleagues and me find the couple of people who eat in the cubicles next to us incredibly rude.
Both are either managers or team leads so there's not a lot of volunteers to inform them of this. Although there have been subtle hints, but no one has picked up on the clues yet.
And both are very proud of giving it 110%, hence the eat and work at the same time show. Which is a joke, because one of them often eats with a knife and fork. How much coding is he really getting done while doing that?
But we do have the noise of the utensils and the glass dishes to enjoy, along with the smell of the food and the other noises which tend to accompany eating.
So for all of you out there, eating at your desks at work. Please stop!
I guarantee you, your neighbors don't like it. It's a mess. You're not fooling anyone into thinking you're working extra hard because you're eating at your desk. An office is not a lunch room. Do yourself and everyone else a favor and take a short lunch break.
7:50 - arrive at work, turn on Windows workstation
7:51 - get coffee, greet co-workers
8:10 - workstation finally up, check overnight logs
You know you can just leave your windows computer on all night too, it will eventually enter sleep mode anyway (takes a few seconds the next day to "wake up") :)
That's against policy where I currently work. They also push updates that require a reboot overnight. Lots of big companies I've worked for do that as well.
10:00 - go to daily status meeting
10:12 - everyone else arrives at daily status meeting
2:00 - go to Special Planning Session for Project #127
2:12 - others arrive at Special Planning Session for Project #127
4:00 - go to daily stand-up meeting for project status
4:08 - others arrive at daily stand-up meeting for project status
If you know everyone else is going to be reliably late to a meeting, why show up on time and waste 32 minutes?
I considered commenting on how familiar this sounds.
Personally, I can't help showing up on time. It just comes naturally to me. It used to irritate me that other people don't show up on time, but I'm trying to get used to it.
If everyone could just show up on time for meetings, we would probably be done earlier and have time to get real work done.
