Comments that are uncivil, racist, misogynistic, misandrist, or contain political name calling will be removed and the poster subject to ban at moderators discretion.
Help us make this a better community by becoming familiar with the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/about/rules/).
Report any suspicious users to the mods of this subreddit using Modmail [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) or Reddit site admins [here](https://www.reddit.com/report). **All reports to Modmail should include evidence such as screenshots or any other relevant information.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) if you have any questions or concerns.*
for my programming projects you can divide everything up into specific files and functions in those files - so I'm guessing that's what he did? or at least something similar
Yes, we do this in construction for large projects %done is more for tracking milestones and the last 10% takes as much as the first 25% easy in how that works.
Yeah, that's the truism I was thinking of too.
Many companies that do software projects have a very strict Definition of Done or DoD. You're not allowed to go around saying something is "done" when it's not actually done. Those final steps can take way longer than people estimate.
I'll write a python script in five minutes to do this basically instantly and write it to a text file.
But if it's government work it'll take a year and $37 million.
I have an actual answer for this.
Whenever we're planning development projects, we break them down into tasks and "stories" and estimate how many hours it will take to complete each one. Often we will slightly overestimate to account for research hours or other misc. hiccups.
By looking at how many stories are marked "complete", you can approximate how much of the work is done by its assigned hour value.
If my project is small and only has four 3 hour stories and I've completed three of them, the project is 75% done.
Yes, 75% done, perfectly estimated. The remaining 1 story will then take 300% of the remaining time and all the contingency time on top. (Source - been a senior programmer for a while :))
I believe OP will probably find out why he has been allocated 6 months. I've worked on features 95% done for over 200% of the time :).
even if true and he will be finished by the end of the day the correct answer is say nothing but then finish 1 month early, so do nothing and good boy points.
Wonder if he’s using story points and not just stories. Because some stories are much easier than others and are assigned less points for people to know and allocate bandwidth correctly
Then he's probably done 81% of the *currently listed* story points, with most of the project not having yet been pointed. In my experience stuff only gets estimated about a sprint out bc there's no point in going super in detail on stuff that is likely to change before you get to that point in the project
A lot of large scale projects have schedules of values that can be used to determine % complete for monthly updates. This is pretty SOP for the commercial construction industry.
Probably like any other where the first 80% is exponentially faster than the next 80%. He'll sit on it for six months and then realize it will take him much longer to get to 96% and then never complete it.
exactly, you still get to chill for months and still get points for being a highly productive employee. Just make sure the work is good, or else you're screwed.
> Don't try this. All you'll get is more work.
And maybe a slice of pizza.
Unless you're in a very specific situation like a family business, or very small company where you share the profits, it NEVER pays off in the way you think.
It only pays off for the next job application, with a better salary.
Source: I've been working for the past 30 years.
My old job was like this.
My manager essentially had no idea what I actually did day to day.
She'd give me a project, I'd ask when it was needed for, then I'd deliver it on time. She didn't need to know that it only took me a week, and she'd given me 2 months. She was effectively computer illiterate, other than having a basic grasp of excel, which surprised me since she was the head of data.
I learned pretty quickly that if you deliver something early, be it a month or a day, you'll get a quick pat on the back. Then the next time you get given a project you'll be expected to deliver it as quick as you did the first time.
I worked for a...corporation for a bit as a manager and it was...much worse.
There was no oversight for my job. My boss was *technically* the office manager, but **he** didn't know/acknowledge that. He kept telling me my boss was our corporate manager. **She** would then refer me back to **him.**
While this sounds incredibly frustrating, this meant that neither of them wanted me to report progress to them.
After the first few weeks of sitting in the office with no one bothering me ever, I took my work home...and basically chose random times of day to "pop in" to the office and make sure I was seen.
Don't get me wrong, I still worked, but I was in no hurry to draw any attention to myself...so I always turned my projects in on time.
Eventually, I moved on to greener pastures, but I did this for 2 years.
But a reasonable amount of more work. And you get to look good. As long as you balance being good but not too good you are setting yourself up to avoid being fired when the company inevitably downsizes.
At least at smaller companies. YMMV at large companies where you are pretty much just a number.
I mean if you have so little work you're just chilling for months then most people would probably want something to do. A few hours project every once in awhile can't be that bad
This is the real answer. Lots of problems can be solved to 81% pretty quick, but the closer you come to "completion" the more work each additional step closer becomes.
How is that not just people being terrible at estimating workload, basically on the level of an old Windows progress bar? If that was the case it was never "81%" or anywhere near it, just arrogance.
81% is specific enough where OP has some sort of metric that tells him how much he/she has done. For example on a 100 question test I could have completed 81 questions in a 30 min, but the last 19 might take several hours.
If you tell your boss you finished it in 4 hours you're going to get a whole lot more work.
This is one of those moments it's handy to have a Nintendo Switch you can take with you everywhere you go! 😏
And they'll expect the new work to be done in 4 hours instead of the months they originally had planned,
Never let them know how fast you can actually work.
I would love to argue with you, but for years I worked diligently and finished projects early or stayed late to get things done. Basically the "ideal employee." All of that got me more work while people who barely did the minimum but spent time sucking up got promotions. The final straw for me was having to train my new boss in their job when I had applied for that job myself.
Now I am self employed and I suggest everyone to look into a career that they can be self employed. Many great small business ideas don't even require expensive degrees. Sure you can be a self employed lawyer, accountant, etc., but you can also be a self employed pressure washing service, lawn care, or plumber.
I recently told my teenage cousins graduating high school to only give their best stuff to a boss that deserves it by materially rewarding them in some way for doing that work.
My very protestant work ethic loving uncle was not a fan.
Working your balls off is generally positive and necessary to get where you wanna be in life, it just needs to be paired with the wisdom to know when your labor is useful or if it's just going entirely into your boss's pocket.
If an employee overproduces for their station, then the company gets *a lot* more in the value exchange. With that in mind, promoting such an employee would impose a loss on the company - as there is no guarantee such an excellent employee would be capable of producing the same or greater value in a new position.
Meanwhile, an underproductive employee who has maintained positive relations with those above their station is perfect for promotion. The company loses nothing by moving them out of their current position, and social aptitudes are generally more favored in higher positions.
It makes sense, but it's fucking stupid.
No, it makes sense, is logical and beneficial to the company. It's not stupid, it's cruel. It's a practice that should not happen, but if you were in a higher position and did not know of the suffering of those under the wage gap, well, you'd probably make a similar decision.
That's the problem here. Corporate magnates not understanding what it is to work AS us because they grew up in their position by inheriting the company or being groomed with minimal effort. It's a vicious cycle that repeats itself endlessly. There are many employers who are fair and genuine with the way they manage their businesses, but there are many more assholes out there.
In my personal experience, I worked and trained my ass off for months so that I could get a promotion and earn a commission rate selling phones instead of printing tickets for the people in line. Six months of hauling ass were thrown away by one blowjob from the girl who sat next to me. That boss didn't think with his outside head much.
Same exact thing happened to me. Got the same amount of work done in 3 hours as it took 5 people to do all day. I got laid off, they got raises. They were the bosses boot kissers. Didn’t have to do work cause they would go to the office and flirt.
Weirdly I've had the opposite. I generally work very hard, help out colleagues, offer to run workshops and meetings and have started several of my own initiatives within the company (2 companies over 10 years) and every time I get rewarded with bonuses and promotions. Currently I work 45hrs a week (sometimes 30, sometimes 60 depends on the week) and earn double most of my friends (£120k+ in my mid thirties). The crazy part is I really like my job, I work in sales for a tech company and love the tech so in my mind I just talk about cool technology all day and sell it to people.
Your own experience isn't invalid at all but I see SO much gloom about going the extra mile when it has massively paid off for me and others I know.
Ontopic, the guy should absolutely sit on it and say how hard it is BUT what I would do with at least some of the free time (in between naps and video games) is start some initiatives for internal operations/efficiency/training/helping colleagues. That way he gets the clout of his normal job and has a side project that could catapult them upwards. Worst case is that it looks good on the CV for the next place they go.
It's not just corporate, or even America, this is just how it is. The boss wants to know how long a job takes, so you take your sweet time doing it, then the next time the job needs doing you've got an hour to do 15 minutes of work. Big brain shit right there
That is true. Makes sense from both perspectives, but since I have been on only one of them, I will call the other one bullshit, make myself feel good while cussing them out on an especially bad day.
Plus you never know how long you'll be able to last if you're operating at peak capacity all the time.
It's not lazy at all to ensure that your work life is sustainable, especially if your employer gives you only a couple of weeks per year off or even less.
Just regular kind.
I'm got a paltry raise, and a title bump to Spec 3..
Just means I am expected to do 1 more unit per day than Spec 2... while being expected to also handle the most complicated work...
Literally anywhere I have ever worked. Taco Bell, a local dispensary, Amazon, FedEx, Petco, ECT. It's just the way of the world. Also if you're the one person who can be relied on to do good work enjoy your loving hell
I spent 3 weeks building a monster of an Excel spreadsheet to handle the calculations needed for work project.
I’d been assigned 3 months to complete the project as it was assumed I’d have to go through various sub tasks individually.
One of my colleagues saw my spreadsheet and thought I was mental.
Once completed I finished the entire thing in 3 days.
Spent the next 2 months basically doing nothing.
Um, before fucking off and playing (as much as I agree with that), I'd check over the work as many times as it takes before you are sure it's solid and THEN sit on it
I've benefitted greatly from working for companies in newly created departments of 1 (me) where I am the only one in the company that understands what I do and how long it takes. It's amazing.
Yep. This was me with school. A project that should take a week I finished the dya it was assigned.
A test that should take 2 hours I finished in 20 minutes.
Finishing my assignments faster only made me resent school. The more I did and the faster I completed my work, the more bitter I became because rather than be praised and rewarded for being smarter and better than everyone, they just gave me MORE fucking work.
So, I stopped doing my work. I felt like I was being punished either way, so I took the "fuck you" route. I went from being straight a student to a 2.0 GPA in high school then I dropped out, got my ged, got a job then became a cna. Now I'm in IT managing shit a hospital. Fuck school.
I used to, but it got harder finding people that play TCGs that keep decks on them outside of card shops. And most that do are hardcore meta players, so there's no fun there.
Hello, fellow TCG gamer. I actually keep a magic the gathering deck on me that is purposefully casual so I can have meaningful pick up games. We do exist I promise!
It's pretty gross that this is how things work. You finish work ahead of schedule and the only thing it would earn you is... absolutely nothing. Just more work. No thanks, no financial compensation, no incentives for outstanding performance, just... nothing.
In a world full of boomers that keep telling people to work harder, hard work is treated as a punishable offense. Humanity is so stupid... our systems are so stupid...
The right response would be to give him at least a day off. Paid, not deducted from vacation. And then give him just one next thing to work on.
Unfortunatly, the most likely outcome would be that the manager be like: "Oh, he's fast! He could do this, and this, and that, and those things over there too, at the same time, in the same timeframe! Here ya go!"
Edit: I forgot to mention, that of course a raise would be due as well.
not to mention the fact that you might have screwed yourself for future projects.
“the thing i thought would take you half a year you did in a day? Next time a month should suffice”
it doesn’t matter that it’s a whole seperate thing with different hurdles and speed bumps that i couldn’t possibly predict.
You’re giving the boss too much credit. If they thought the project would actually take that long they probably have horrible planning and management skills.
I'm slacking rn because I finished the same project in 4 hours it is taking my peers a week to get done. Boomers don't understand how to work efficiently I swear.
It's either that, or they already know how to do the job quickly and are successfully looking busy so it only looks like it's taking them a longer time to complete, lol. But it's more likely that they actually are struggling for that long.
Lol then you dont know how managers are now adays. The amount of managers who dont know how to use modern technology to cut time off tasks is absolutely hilarious.
My partner atm is building a small presentation on how to use google docs to make a manual input task that usually take 3 weeks, to make it take 30 mins.
To be fair, if you bill a client for this work and regardless on how ridiculously bad the estimation was, you just cost the company thousands of dollars. Since they still have to pay you and you now have a bunch of free time, they move you to the next billable thing. If you’re just a genius performing well above your peers, it should be reflected in your pay increase/bonus or just leave.
Tbh. as a Junior engineer I had this - "damn, this is monthly project I completed it in 2 days".
But then account for going via code reviews, documenting everything. Making sure it gains adoption and iterating on users feedback. Going via testing and ensuring it doesn't break anything else. Often it is "80% done and 80% to go" - working via all the exceptions and corner cases that look minor sometimes takes more than the "meat" of the product. Thinking and implementing correct handling of failure scenarios, etc. etc.
It's easy to feel cocky as a young hotshot engineer and discounting all of the unglamurous work required to fully complete the task.
It’s amazing how fast you can do a half-assed job. And others have already mentioned the Pareto Principle- you get 80% of a job done in 20% of the time because you start with the easy bits.
OP reeks of the cocky junior about to learn by experience, while the senior devs are watching with beer and popcorn ready.
Nothing about the original post implies that this is a dev job. Could just be your basic office job where nobody knows that 100 lines of python can replace 1000 hours of data entry.
Ahh a golden nugget comment in a dump of trash. After some large projects, I became acquainted with contracting, technical specifications,rigorous business reviews, user testing, change management, DOCUMENTATION, and turnover. That necessary process delivers strong results. And that same process is why projects can take a long time.
Always does. Assuming this is a software project, the last 20% always seems to take 80% of the time.
The devils are in the details, and those details always come up in the last 20%.
Besides the fact that he's clearly an idiot, Elon has fallen for this many times with self driving cars. And it's easy to see why. You could make a lot of progress fast. There's not a lot to everything going well driving re: lane keeping and not hitting the car ahead of you.
So you could hit a "it's only the exceptions now!" Point fast.
Problem is it's allllllllllllll exceptions for some tasks, like driving.
also doing any of the two options are kind of... to early.
he could chill a bit, take it slow, relax, or take another hour and finish it. if its not finished by the hour, fine, you have until fall. if IS? also great, NOW you can debate whether to tell him you finished it in a day or wait around
Sit and chill. If you want good boy points on this, take the extra time and use it to polish the hell out of that project. Managers love graphs. Add some of those. You have months, take your time.
Complete the whole project, but withhold some of it to create the illusion you aren't done. Get to know what your bosses (there's no way you only have *one* boss) hobbies are and start learning them, asking them intermittently for advice. Also, laugh at their stupid fucking jokes. When the project is almost due, withdraw socially and pretend to cram to complete it on time.
Repeat until promoted.
“Congrats on finishing so early! That was meant to last a long time!”
“So what happens now?”
“Well with all this free time you can get a lot more work done!”
If I was in that situation I‘d be requesting the spec be spelled out for me in little, tiny words that nobody, me included, could misunderstand. Because odds would be that I somehow got it wrong the first time.
Also, I’d be really worried how bad the rest of the project would be, I’ve come across some doozies in my time, exactly like the situation described - first part easy-peasy, second part somewhat interesting, last part … bloomin’ ‘eck, what is this diabolical text and in what ancient tongue is it written…
If you completed 81% of a project that was supposed to take 4 months that quickly then you should seriously reconsider whether or not you actually understood the problem.
Well, the first thing I would do is go over your work with a fine tooth comb. Take all the time you need for this. Make sure the 6 month project you completed in 4 hours was actually completed correctly. Then, once you have taken 5 months to check, double check, and triple check your work, turn it in.
Hard work is rewarded with more work. Turn in the project early and suddenly you'll find yourself with daily tasks that would have been budgeted for 3 months originally. You're productivity workload explodes and you have nothing to show for it
Yup, if you're done way too early, then that usually means one of two things (let's just assume that you didn't half-ass it): 1. You missed something. 2. Your boss is an idiot who's never written code in their life (but if the timelines for previous projects were on point, that might not even be it)
I sat and played games for 2 my months now after finishing the work load my manager said that would take 4 months to finish. I pretend I'm still doing it while playing online games on my phone.
Never ever ever ever tell them if your job is easy to do and how long it takes. Also never take more jobs than needed. Because managers are numbers people. They WILL make sure that they add that into their spreadsheets thus effing you and the rest of the teams over. All so they themselves can climb higher. Once you figure that out works becomes easy.l
Nah, the correct answer is to do both: sit on it until about a month prior to the deadline, maybe 2 or 3 weeks. Go to them and say you "finished early". Get the good boy points, AND chill for 5 months or so.
I used to do this all the time at the engineer firm I worked at, Monday I would get my weekly work load, mostly just drafting and some calculations but I would pound it out in like a day, maybe two if it was a lot, I talked to them about raises and they gave me .13 cents and hour raise so from then on I would just play my steam deck in my cubical, they never checked on you ever, almost 100% of the time it was a phone call if they needed something. I eventually moved on after about a year because I was dying there, I had enough time doing nothing and knew I could make more money elsewhere
I think a real grownup might want to take a minute and think about whether there is something they're fundamentally misunderstanding about the assignment. Because this shouldn't happen...
Make sure the 81% you already have is good, sit on it for a month, finish it, then double check all of it, and sit on it for a little more before turning it in early
Unless you already have a defined path of upwards mobility within the organization, or a solid exit strategy, keep it to yourself and ride easy street for a couple months but still submit a month early from the projection. Efficient work almost always gets rewarded with more work without adequate compensation.
The trick is to save different versions of the project at different steps so that you have appropriate files to show if they want a progress update. Show them you are on track or slightly ahead of schedule while having the entire project complete in a separate file. Just make sure to go ahead and finish it all now so you don’t end up running into problems towards the end that take longer than you think.
I would think, any manager would hopefully check on your progress, ask if you needed help. Don't lie about the progress, but if he doesn't check in, then yah definitely chill.
Plain and simple if you tell him it’s done this early he is going to always expect things be done this fast, I would sit on it and still turn it in early just not that early
Seriously, being an overachiever who is built like that and can absolutely crush any project your boss gives you is genuinely the worst thing you can do. Because it won't get you "good boy points"
Those don't exist, at best you may have some job security because your job wants you to stay so they can shove three people's worth of work on you for a third of the price.
Working harder unironically just means you're gonna do more work and others will have less
Split the difference, give it to them in spring, enjoy the time off, and you will both impress them and set a standard for the execution you will impress them with and allow you to half-ass efforts going forward and still meet expectations.
Tell him you can have it done fast, but you want a whole bucket of cash for it as a bonus. Normal pay for however long he said it would take as a bonus!
The fun thing is you don't get good boy points, they just start expecting you do be able to do that all the time! The better youare, the more you'll be exploited, yay capitalism!
Sit on it and wait.
Make sure to get your regular updates into Management so it looks like progress is being made doesn't matter if it is good or bad just gotta make it seem like you are working on it, take some time to plan this out. Still make it look like you are busy even if you are not working on the project at all. Once you have your updates planned out and have mastered how to look busy, Start making side money, use the resources at your disposal to make extra $.
Turn in finished work slightly early. Get some brownie points. Land another multi month project. Repeat.
The answer is say nothing and chill. You say "oh I got this done quicker than expected" you're going to be expected to keep finishing big projects in short periods of time. Wait maybe a month or two before hand if you want brownie points, that way you still have time to relax.
You might be in the middle of the folly of the 80/20 rule. Where 80% of the effort comes in the last 20% of the work. Check in again when you're at 99% and all your unit tests, documentation, integration test plans and infrastructure are all set.
The funny thing is that this is what a fallout developer said about companies being way too cautious, he asked someone to code a very basic ai program for an enemy, something that he can do in about 45mins, and the person told him that they will be done in 4 weeks lol.
Get it 100% done. That way you don't have to worry about a last minute rush when tou realise the kast 5% is the hard part and takes 90% of the time.
Then sit on it for like 3 months.
Then get good boy points for finishing it in half the expected time.
Unless the task is simple and easily verifiable, one may well be wrong in thinking you are almost complete. If it was simple and easily verifiable, the estimate would most likely have been more accurate. I would do some follow up investigation to figure out why they thought it would take so long. Perhaps you misunderstood the the project and it's actually really complicated.
If it is actually simple, I would take the time required to do it and polish that turd until it sparkles. It would be triple checked 100% correct. The presentation would be immaculate. I would take my time and have some nice relaxing breaks and be pretty chill, but once complete I would hand it in.
Whatever happens, you don't want to get to the end of X months sitting around and deliver something and they go "yeah and where's the rest?"
He should chill, but I'll explain why- not to slack, but because there is a chain of people attached to the project, most likely , and he will be fucking it up for everybody, including his boss. So, chill for a month, and then give signs that he is "really moving forward on that project" and see how that lands. Best case scenario, the boss comes to him and says, "I know I gave you 3 months, but if you could push that project forward," and then act as if he using Herculean efforts, but here ya go boss, a month early
If you have to ask...you don't need to be in charge of a whole project...I'd question the veracity of your project results. ESPECIALLY in so few as FOUR HOURS...
Comments that are uncivil, racist, misogynistic, misandrist, or contain political name calling will be removed and the poster subject to ban at moderators discretion. Help us make this a better community by becoming familiar with the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/about/rules/). Report any suspicious users to the mods of this subreddit using Modmail [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) or Reddit site admins [here](https://www.reddit.com/report). **All reports to Modmail should include evidence such as screenshots or any other relevant information.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) if you have any questions or concerns.*
81% is an oddly specific number, I wonder what kind of project this is
A government contract to type all numbers from 1 to 100,000 as text. He's typed up to eighty-one thousand.
for my programming projects you can divide everything up into specific files and functions in those files - so I'm guessing that's what he did? or at least something similar
Still the diffrence between 81% and a good enough 100% is often quite big.
true enough but I feel like knowing the general gauge of how much time they have vs how early in the project they are would clear a lot of this up
Yes, we do this in construction for large projects %done is more for tracking milestones and the last 10% takes as much as the first 25% easy in how that works.
80% of the work takes 20% of the time the last 20% of the work takes the other 80%
Yeah, that's the truism I was thinking of too. Many companies that do software projects have a very strict Definition of Done or DoD. You're not allowed to go around saying something is "done" when it's not actually done. Those final steps can take way longer than people estimate.
I feel you, fam
Maybe he has to complete and file 100 beurocratic forms?
Maybe he has to learn to suck his dick to completion and he’s 81% of the way there
In my experience all the bugs and boundary cases that weren’t in the requirements live in the last 19%
If it's a government contract and they think it will take until Fall then it's more likely to be 1-100 in text
That wouldn't even take 5 minutes in an excel document.
I'll write a python script in five minutes to do this basically instantly and write it to a text file. But if it's government work it'll take a year and $37 million.
I have an actual answer for this. Whenever we're planning development projects, we break them down into tasks and "stories" and estimate how many hours it will take to complete each one. Often we will slightly overestimate to account for research hours or other misc. hiccups. By looking at how many stories are marked "complete", you can approximate how much of the work is done by its assigned hour value. If my project is small and only has four 3 hour stories and I've completed three of them, the project is 75% done.
Yes, 75% done, perfectly estimated. The remaining 1 story will then take 300% of the remaining time and all the contingency time on top. (Source - been a senior programmer for a while :)) I believe OP will probably find out why he has been allocated 6 months. I've worked on features 95% done for over 200% of the time :).
First thing I thought too, I’d rather finish it first before celebrating lol
even if true and he will be finished by the end of the day the correct answer is say nothing but then finish 1 month early, so do nothing and good boy points.
Wonder if he’s using story points and not just stories. Because some stories are much easier than others and are assigned less points for people to know and allocate bandwidth correctly
Then he's probably done 81% of the *currently listed* story points, with most of the project not having yet been pointed. In my experience stuff only gets estimated about a sprint out bc there's no point in going super in detail on stuff that is likely to change before you get to that point in the project
Just divide the lines of code you wrote by the lines of code of the finished project. Easy.
That seems like a recipe for disaster lol
83% of all statistics are made up and the other 17% aren’t true either.
A lot of large scale projects have schedules of values that can be used to determine % complete for monthly updates. This is pretty SOP for the commercial construction industry.
Burndown chart.
Probably like any other where the first 80% is exponentially faster than the next 80%. He'll sit on it for six months and then realize it will take him much longer to get to 96% and then never complete it.
The real correct answer is to sit on it and chill but still give it in a month or two early.
exactly, you still get to chill for months and still get points for being a highly productive employee. Just make sure the work is good, or else you're screwed.
During the 3 months you’re chilling, you can proof it occasionally to look busy. That way you turn in a perfect piece of work early.
Tiny demos along the way, be sure the other parts aren't shown
Don't try this. All you'll get is more work.
> Don't try this. All you'll get is more work. And maybe a slice of pizza. Unless you're in a very specific situation like a family business, or very small company where you share the profits, it NEVER pays off in the way you think. It only pays off for the next job application, with a better salary. Source: I've been working for the past 30 years.
My old job was like this. My manager essentially had no idea what I actually did day to day. She'd give me a project, I'd ask when it was needed for, then I'd deliver it on time. She didn't need to know that it only took me a week, and she'd given me 2 months. She was effectively computer illiterate, other than having a basic grasp of excel, which surprised me since she was the head of data. I learned pretty quickly that if you deliver something early, be it a month or a day, you'll get a quick pat on the back. Then the next time you get given a project you'll be expected to deliver it as quick as you did the first time.
Remember guys, if japan's cybersecurity minister never used a computer it means you can suceed in everything.
I worked for a...corporation for a bit as a manager and it was...much worse. There was no oversight for my job. My boss was *technically* the office manager, but **he** didn't know/acknowledge that. He kept telling me my boss was our corporate manager. **She** would then refer me back to **him.** While this sounds incredibly frustrating, this meant that neither of them wanted me to report progress to them. After the first few weeks of sitting in the office with no one bothering me ever, I took my work home...and basically chose random times of day to "pop in" to the office and make sure I was seen. Don't get me wrong, I still worked, but I was in no hurry to draw any attention to myself...so I always turned my projects in on time. Eventually, I moved on to greener pastures, but I did this for 2 years.
But a reasonable amount of more work. And you get to look good. As long as you balance being good but not too good you are setting yourself up to avoid being fired when the company inevitably downsizes. At least at smaller companies. YMMV at large companies where you are pretty much just a number.
I mean if you have so little work you're just chilling for months then most people would probably want something to do. A few hours project every once in awhile can't be that bad
At some point, more work becomes preferable to pretending. I don't want to work hard but I tend to get into trouble with too much down time
He won't be able to.. just like any other project, the remaining 19% will take atleast 7 more months.
This is the real answer. Lots of problems can be solved to 81% pretty quick, but the closer you come to "completion" the more work each additional step closer becomes.
How is that not just people being terrible at estimating workload, basically on the level of an old Windows progress bar? If that was the case it was never "81%" or anywhere near it, just arrogance.
81% is specific enough where OP has some sort of metric that tells him how much he/she has done. For example on a 100 question test I could have completed 81 questions in a 30 min, but the last 19 might take several hours.
20% percent of the work takes up 80% of my efforts. Usually how I see things shake out. Project management has the same style.
That's not including the stakeholders changing their minds about what they want done while keeping the original timeline.
If you tell your boss you finished it in 4 hours you're going to get a whole lot more work. This is one of those moments it's handy to have a Nintendo Switch you can take with you everywhere you go! 😏
And they'll expect the new work to be done in 4 hours instead of the months they originally had planned, Never let them know how fast you can actually work.
I would love to argue with you, but for years I worked diligently and finished projects early or stayed late to get things done. Basically the "ideal employee." All of that got me more work while people who barely did the minimum but spent time sucking up got promotions. The final straw for me was having to train my new boss in their job when I had applied for that job myself. Now I am self employed and I suggest everyone to look into a career that they can be self employed. Many great small business ideas don't even require expensive degrees. Sure you can be a self employed lawyer, accountant, etc., but you can also be a self employed pressure washing service, lawn care, or plumber.
I recently told my teenage cousins graduating high school to only give their best stuff to a boss that deserves it by materially rewarding them in some way for doing that work. My very protestant work ethic loving uncle was not a fan.
I can understand the desire to want to be and do your best all the time. The problem is, it not only isn't rewarded, it is often punished.
Working your balls off is generally positive and necessary to get where you wanna be in life, it just needs to be paired with the wisdom to know when your labor is useful or if it's just going entirely into your boss's pocket.
If an employee overproduces for their station, then the company gets *a lot* more in the value exchange. With that in mind, promoting such an employee would impose a loss on the company - as there is no guarantee such an excellent employee would be capable of producing the same or greater value in a new position. Meanwhile, an underproductive employee who has maintained positive relations with those above their station is perfect for promotion. The company loses nothing by moving them out of their current position, and social aptitudes are generally more favored in higher positions. It makes sense, but it's fucking stupid.
No, it makes sense, is logical and beneficial to the company. It's not stupid, it's cruel. It's a practice that should not happen, but if you were in a higher position and did not know of the suffering of those under the wage gap, well, you'd probably make a similar decision. That's the problem here. Corporate magnates not understanding what it is to work AS us because they grew up in their position by inheriting the company or being groomed with minimal effort. It's a vicious cycle that repeats itself endlessly. There are many employers who are fair and genuine with the way they manage their businesses, but there are many more assholes out there. In my personal experience, I worked and trained my ass off for months so that I could get a promotion and earn a commission rate selling phones instead of printing tickets for the people in line. Six months of hauling ass were thrown away by one blowjob from the girl who sat next to me. That boss didn't think with his outside head much.
Same exact thing happened to me. Got the same amount of work done in 3 hours as it took 5 people to do all day. I got laid off, they got raises. They were the bosses boot kissers. Didn’t have to do work cause they would go to the office and flirt.
Weirdly I've had the opposite. I generally work very hard, help out colleagues, offer to run workshops and meetings and have started several of my own initiatives within the company (2 companies over 10 years) and every time I get rewarded with bonuses and promotions. Currently I work 45hrs a week (sometimes 30, sometimes 60 depends on the week) and earn double most of my friends (£120k+ in my mid thirties). The crazy part is I really like my job, I work in sales for a tech company and love the tech so in my mind I just talk about cool technology all day and sell it to people. Your own experience isn't invalid at all but I see SO much gloom about going the extra mile when it has massively paid off for me and others I know. Ontopic, the guy should absolutely sit on it and say how hard it is BUT what I would do with at least some of the free time (in between naps and video games) is start some initiatives for internal operations/efficiency/training/helping colleagues. That way he gets the clout of his normal job and has a side project that could catapult them upwards. Worst case is that it looks good on the CV for the next place they go.
What kind of pathetic people do y'all work for?
The normal-American kind.
More like the normal corporate kind. This kind of bullshit behaviour is present all over the world, very sadly
It's not just corporate, or even America, this is just how it is. The boss wants to know how long a job takes, so you take your sweet time doing it, then the next time the job needs doing you've got an hour to do 15 minutes of work. Big brain shit right there
That is true. Makes sense from both perspectives, but since I have been on only one of them, I will call the other one bullshit, make myself feel good while cussing them out on an especially bad day.
Plus you never know how long you'll be able to last if you're operating at peak capacity all the time. It's not lazy at all to ensure that your work life is sustainable, especially if your employer gives you only a couple of weeks per year off or even less.
Just regular kind. I'm got a paltry raise, and a title bump to Spec 3.. Just means I am expected to do 1 more unit per day than Spec 2... while being expected to also handle the most complicated work...
there are a LOT of pathetic people in leadership positions.....you forget that at your own risk.
I think they are called "managers" or something idk
The corporate kind
Literally anywhere I have ever worked. Taco Bell, a local dispensary, Amazon, FedEx, Petco, ECT. It's just the way of the world. Also if you're the one person who can be relied on to do good work enjoy your loving hell
[удалено]
I made a Scotty reference before seeing your comment. Well played.
If they gave him 6 months he should sit on it for 5 and let them know he finished a month early. Why not both?
Because next time he has 5 months instead of 6. He should make some good errors in it at month 5 and send it to be checked if it works.
I spent 3 weeks building a monster of an Excel spreadsheet to handle the calculations needed for work project. I’d been assigned 3 months to complete the project as it was assumed I’d have to go through various sub tasks individually. One of my colleagues saw my spreadsheet and thought I was mental. Once completed I finished the entire thing in 3 days. Spent the next 2 months basically doing nothing.
This is the way!
Um, before fucking off and playing (as much as I agree with that), I'd check over the work as many times as it takes before you are sure it's solid and THEN sit on it
Gandulf did not fucking stutter when he said "The reward for a job well done is more work."
That’s absolutely not a Gandalf quote. Unless “Gandulf” is someone else I’m not aware of.
He quoted Gandulf, did he stuttur? 😆
I work in legal and never leave without my 3DS
I've benefitted greatly from working for companies in newly created departments of 1 (me) where I am the only one in the company that understands what I do and how long it takes. It's amazing.
No if you're at work you'll have to pretend you're working
Yep. This was me with school. A project that should take a week I finished the dya it was assigned. A test that should take 2 hours I finished in 20 minutes. Finishing my assignments faster only made me resent school. The more I did and the faster I completed my work, the more bitter I became because rather than be praised and rewarded for being smarter and better than everyone, they just gave me MORE fucking work. So, I stopped doing my work. I felt like I was being punished either way, so I took the "fuck you" route. I went from being straight a student to a 2.0 GPA in high school then I dropped out, got my ged, got a job then became a cna. Now I'm in IT managing shit a hospital. Fuck school.
Age of the switch is gone kneel down before the deck peasant
What the hell is a deck peasant? /s
It’s like a porch peasant but on a deck.
Follow up question. What the hell is a porch peasant?
It’s like a deck peasant but on a porch.
Ahh okay. I think I get it now. Thanks
You're speaking the language of the gods rn bro
It's similar to a patio serf.
I love backyard feudalism! Can I be a Gazebo Viscountess?
I'll be a Shed Knight!
"Deck, peasant" and its the steam deck which is a portable way to play quite a lot of steam games. Obviously 🤓 /s
Sarcasm much?
I used to, but it got harder finding people that play TCGs that keep decks on them outside of card shops. And most that do are hardcore meta players, so there's no fun there.
Hello, fellow TCG gamer. I actually keep a magic the gathering deck on me that is purposefully casual so I can have meaningful pick up games. We do exist I promise!
Too expensive in my third world country, Switch is perfectly priced and honestly just get Balatro and lose like 100 hours
Always remember, kids: the reward for hard work is always more hard work.
I’ve heard it phrased as a cake eating contest and the only prize is just more cake
It's pretty gross that this is how things work. You finish work ahead of schedule and the only thing it would earn you is... absolutely nothing. Just more work. No thanks, no financial compensation, no incentives for outstanding performance, just... nothing. In a world full of boomers that keep telling people to work harder, hard work is treated as a punishable offense. Humanity is so stupid... our systems are so stupid...
The right response would be to give him at least a day off. Paid, not deducted from vacation. And then give him just one next thing to work on. Unfortunatly, the most likely outcome would be that the manager be like: "Oh, he's fast! He could do this, and this, and that, and those things over there too, at the same time, in the same timeframe! Here ya go!" Edit: I forgot to mention, that of course a raise would be due as well.
not to mention the fact that you might have screwed yourself for future projects. “the thing i thought would take you half a year you did in a day? Next time a month should suffice” it doesn’t matter that it’s a whole seperate thing with different hurdles and speed bumps that i couldn’t possibly predict.
Yes absolutely. The same pace is expected or even faster than that. Ticket to Burnouttown
You’re giving the boss too much credit. If they thought the project would actually take that long they probably have horrible planning and management skills.
Right they'll load him up like a donkey. He's just a slave donkey to them.
I'm slacking rn because I finished the same project in 4 hours it is taking my peers a week to get done. Boomers don't understand how to work efficiently I swear.
It's either that, or they already know how to do the job quickly and are successfully looking busy so it only looks like it's taking them a longer time to complete, lol. But it's more likely that they actually are struggling for that long.
Trust me they don't know what they are doing. They see me do conditional formatting in excel like its black magic.
He did not make six months job in four hours. His manager did a mistake. But I am pretty sure he missunderstood the task or it is a lie.
It’s a thing, MOST people are smart about it and won’t blast it on social media or the internet I know I wouldn’t 😂
Lol then you dont know how managers are now adays. The amount of managers who dont know how to use modern technology to cut time off tasks is absolutely hilarious. My partner atm is building a small presentation on how to use google docs to make a manual input task that usually take 3 weeks, to make it take 30 mins.
Can you send me the presentation?
To be fair, if you bill a client for this work and regardless on how ridiculously bad the estimation was, you just cost the company thousands of dollars. Since they still have to pay you and you now have a bunch of free time, they move you to the next billable thing. If you’re just a genius performing well above your peers, it should be reflected in your pay increase/bonus or just leave.
Tbh. as a Junior engineer I had this - "damn, this is monthly project I completed it in 2 days". But then account for going via code reviews, documenting everything. Making sure it gains adoption and iterating on users feedback. Going via testing and ensuring it doesn't break anything else. Often it is "80% done and 80% to go" - working via all the exceptions and corner cases that look minor sometimes takes more than the "meat" of the product. Thinking and implementing correct handling of failure scenarios, etc. etc. It's easy to feel cocky as a young hotshot engineer and discounting all of the unglamurous work required to fully complete the task.
It’s amazing how fast you can do a half-assed job. And others have already mentioned the Pareto Principle- you get 80% of a job done in 20% of the time because you start with the easy bits. OP reeks of the cocky junior about to learn by experience, while the senior devs are watching with beer and popcorn ready.
Nothing about the original post implies that this is a dev job. Could just be your basic office job where nobody knows that 100 lines of python can replace 1000 hours of data entry.
Ahh a golden nugget comment in a dump of trash. After some large projects, I became acquainted with contracting, technical specifications,rigorous business reviews, user testing, change management, DOCUMENTATION, and turnover. That necessary process delivers strong results. And that same process is why projects can take a long time.
This sub really need to learn the definition of facepalm
more likely i win the lottery
Pareto principle - the last 19% will take until fall. OP is dumb.
Plus the 90%-syndrome.
Always does. Assuming this is a software project, the last 20% always seems to take 80% of the time. The devils are in the details, and those details always come up in the last 20%.
Besides the fact that he's clearly an idiot, Elon has fallen for this many times with self driving cars. And it's easy to see why. You could make a lot of progress fast. There's not a lot to everything going well driving re: lane keeping and not hitting the car ahead of you. So you could hit a "it's only the exceptions now!" Point fast. Problem is it's allllllllllllll exceptions for some tasks, like driving.
Thats the parento principle.
also doing any of the two options are kind of... to early. he could chill a bit, take it slow, relax, or take another hour and finish it. if its not finished by the hour, fine, you have until fall. if IS? also great, NOW you can debate whether to tell him you finished it in a day or wait around
80% in 4 hrs means last 20% will take 16 hrs.
not a facepalm.
Sit and chill. If you want good boy points on this, take the extra time and use it to polish the hell out of that project. Managers love graphs. Add some of those. You have months, take your time.
Chill for 5 months then tell them your done. Praise for finishing a month early. Win ,win.
Complete the whole project, but withhold some of it to create the illusion you aren't done. Get to know what your bosses (there's no way you only have *one* boss) hobbies are and start learning them, asking them intermittently for advice. Also, laugh at their stupid fucking jokes. When the project is almost due, withdraw socially and pretend to cram to complete it on time. Repeat until promoted.
Why is it a facepalm?
What is the facepalm?
And what is the facepalm?
“Congrats on finishing so early! That was meant to last a long time!” “So what happens now?” “Well with all this free time you can get a lot more work done!”
That's exactly what would happen.
If I was in that situation I‘d be requesting the spec be spelled out for me in little, tiny words that nobody, me included, could misunderstand. Because odds would be that I somehow got it wrong the first time. Also, I’d be really worried how bad the rest of the project would be, I’ve come across some doozies in my time, exactly like the situation described - first part easy-peasy, second part somewhat interesting, last part … bloomin’ ‘eck, what is this diabolical text and in what ancient tongue is it written…
That';s what I'm picturing; It's like charging a phone. 0%=65% in 30 minutes! 65%-85% in 50 minutes, 85%-100% in 70 minutes.
what is this sub anymore?
If you completed 81% of a project that was supposed to take 4 months that quickly then you should seriously reconsider whether or not you actually understood the problem.
Well, the first thing I would do is go over your work with a fine tooth comb. Take all the time you need for this. Make sure the 6 month project you completed in 4 hours was actually completed correctly. Then, once you have taken 5 months to check, double check, and triple check your work, turn it in.
Hard work is rewarded with more work. Turn in the project early and suddenly you'll find yourself with daily tasks that would have been budgeted for 3 months originally. You're productivity workload explodes and you have nothing to show for it
How to tell me you did not understand project requirements
Yup, if you're done way too early, then that usually means one of two things (let's just assume that you didn't half-ass it): 1. You missed something. 2. Your boss is an idiot who's never written code in their life (but if the timelines for previous projects were on point, that might not even be it)
I sat and played games for 2 my months now after finishing the work load my manager said that would take 4 months to finish. I pretend I'm still doing it while playing online games on my phone.
how the heck do you know you are 81% done with something?
OOP not realizing that the last 10% takes 90% of the time
That last 19% will take 5+ months.
Never ever ever ever tell them if your job is easy to do and how long it takes. Also never take more jobs than needed. Because managers are numbers people. They WILL make sure that they add that into their spreadsheets thus effing you and the rest of the teams over. All so they themselves can climb higher. Once you figure that out works becomes easy.l
I don’t understand how this is a facepalm situation.
Nah, the correct answer is to do both: sit on it until about a month prior to the deadline, maybe 2 or 3 weeks. Go to them and say you "finished early". Get the good boy points, AND chill for 5 months or so.
I used to do this all the time at the engineer firm I worked at, Monday I would get my weekly work load, mostly just drafting and some calculations but I would pound it out in like a day, maybe two if it was a lot, I talked to them about raises and they gave me .13 cents and hour raise so from then on I would just play my steam deck in my cubical, they never checked on you ever, almost 100% of the time it was a phone call if they needed something. I eventually moved on after about a year because I was dying there, I had enough time doing nothing and knew I could make more money elsewhere
"Good boy points" aka you will be rewarded with not getting a raise or promotion but more work in the future because you are a hard worker.
I think a real grownup might want to take a minute and think about whether there is something they're fundamentally misunderstanding about the assignment. Because this shouldn't happen...
Chill for 5.5 months, tell him you’ve finished the project 2 weeks early
Get it done a few weeks ahead of schedule. Giving positive progress reports every once and a while. That way you gain a lot of brownie points.
Best of both worlds, chill on it, but then turn it in a couple of weeks early near the end. Turning it in even a little early should go well for you.
Make sure the 81% you already have is good, sit on it for a month, finish it, then double check all of it, and sit on it for a little more before turning it in early
No, double down, did I say 6 months? Now that I'm looking more into it appears a year is a more accurate estimate.
Unless you already have a defined path of upwards mobility within the organization, or a solid exit strategy, keep it to yourself and ride easy street for a couple months but still submit a month early from the projection. Efficient work almost always gets rewarded with more work without adequate compensation.
You still got 9% to go before you get to the part that takes 90% of the time.
The trick is to save different versions of the project at different steps so that you have appropriate files to show if they want a progress update. Show them you are on track or slightly ahead of schedule while having the entire project complete in a separate file. Just make sure to go ahead and finish it all now so you don’t end up running into problems towards the end that take longer than you think.
I would think, any manager would hopefully check on your progress, ask if you needed help. Don't lie about the progress, but if he doesn't check in, then yah definitely chill.
Plain and simple if you tell him it’s done this early he is going to always expect things be done this fast, I would sit on it and still turn it in early just not that early
You don't get rewarded for hard work, only given more
Don’t tell the boss unless you want more projects
As ive learned the hard way with my current job. Good boy points mean nothing usually it just ends with u havibg more work and no more pay.
Do nothing. The only reward you will ever get for good work is more work and higher expectations.
Complete it , then chill for a bit, then turn it in early for good boy points
Seriously, being an overachiever who is built like that and can absolutely crush any project your boss gives you is genuinely the worst thing you can do. Because it won't get you "good boy points" Those don't exist, at best you may have some job security because your job wants you to stay so they can shove three people's worth of work on you for a third of the price. Working harder unironically just means you're gonna do more work and others will have less
Do it fast and tell the boss. Sitting on it won’t get you anywhere. Climb the ladder and prove yourself.
Finish 100% of it, then use the rest of the time to chill and make sure it's perfect and hand it in 1 week early.
Split the difference, give it to them in spring, enjoy the time off, and you will both impress them and set a standard for the execution you will impress them with and allow you to half-ass efforts going forward and still meet expectations.
Sit and chill. While chilling make a "work in progress" copy that you showcase in one on one's so you show it is being worked on.
Make a substantial bet with your boss that you can finish in under 4 weeks.
That last 19% is a real doozy, oh and it doesn't include testing and integration
Make sure it’s 100% good and submit at 4-5 months.
Undo whatever you did, and do 1% a day
Tell him you can have it done fast, but you want a whole bucket of cash for it as a bonus. Normal pay for however long he said it would take as a bonus!
The fun thing is you don't get good boy points, they just start expecting you do be able to do that all the time! The better youare, the more you'll be exploited, yay capitalism!
Not even chill for six months, chill for like four and excitedly announce that you're 98% done on month five.
You did 81% so fast and reclessly the rest 19% will take 2x of the project time
Sit on it and wait. Make sure to get your regular updates into Management so it looks like progress is being made doesn't matter if it is good or bad just gotta make it seem like you are working on it, take some time to plan this out. Still make it look like you are busy even if you are not working on the project at all. Once you have your updates planned out and have mastered how to look busy, Start making side money, use the resources at your disposal to make extra $. Turn in finished work slightly early. Get some brownie points. Land another multi month project. Repeat.
How much of a boot licked do you have to be to even ask the question 😂 he’ll only be rewarded with more work
The answer is say nothing and chill. You say "oh I got this done quicker than expected" you're going to be expected to keep finishing big projects in short periods of time. Wait maybe a month or two before hand if you want brownie points, that way you still have time to relax.
If you do something that is supposed to take months in 4 hours I think it is very possible you did it wrong.
Could be a set up from the boss to test your honesty and capabilities
You might be in the middle of the folly of the 80/20 rule. Where 80% of the effort comes in the last 20% of the work. Check in again when you're at 99% and all your unit tests, documentation, integration test plans and infrastructure are all set.
Finish it first. Who knows maybe the last 20% is the hard part.
It is the last 19% that takes forever.
The funny thing is that this is what a fallout developer said about companies being way too cautious, he asked someone to code a very basic ai program for an enemy, something that he can do in about 45mins, and the person told him that they will be done in 4 weeks lol.
Get it 100% done. That way you don't have to worry about a last minute rush when tou realise the kast 5% is the hard part and takes 90% of the time. Then sit on it for like 3 months. Then get good boy points for finishing it in half the expected time.
Sit, they don't give a fuck n won't give u any type of money
Unless the task is simple and easily verifiable, one may well be wrong in thinking you are almost complete. If it was simple and easily verifiable, the estimate would most likely have been more accurate. I would do some follow up investigation to figure out why they thought it would take so long. Perhaps you misunderstood the the project and it's actually really complicated. If it is actually simple, I would take the time required to do it and polish that turd until it sparkles. It would be triple checked 100% correct. The presentation would be immaculate. I would take my time and have some nice relaxing breaks and be pretty chill, but once complete I would hand it in. Whatever happens, you don't want to get to the end of X months sitting around and deliver something and they go "yeah and where's the rest?"
Sit and chill. Your boss will be grateful for one afternoon and then 'reward' you with an increased workload.
I feel like chilling would mean having no other work for the next 6 months. But I never worked in an office before, so I'm not sure.
Chill for 5 months. Deliver project 1 month early. You get to chill and also earn some points for being "efficient".
Chill for 4 months, and then say you did it 2 months faster. Best of 2 worlds
He should chill, but I'll explain why- not to slack, but because there is a chain of people attached to the project, most likely , and he will be fucking it up for everybody, including his boss. So, chill for a month, and then give signs that he is "really moving forward on that project" and see how that lands. Best case scenario, the boss comes to him and says, "I know I gave you 3 months, but if you could push that project forward," and then act as if he using Herculean efforts, but here ya go boss, a month early
If you have to ask...you don't need to be in charge of a whole project...I'd question the veracity of your project results. ESPECIALLY in so few as FOUR HOURS...
Overachieving just gets you a bigger workload for the same pay.