IT needs heroes, not zeros - heavy workloads, overemphasis on efficiency - Industry Trend or Event

In recent years, the business press has paid much attention to CIOs, IS managers, software developers, and others in IT-related fields who work long hours at their jobs. Our increasingly longer workweeks have impressed not only journalists, but the entire country.

I remember when 60-hour workweeks were considered unusual. Suddenly we were hearing about the IT community cramming in 70, 80 and even 100 hours worth of work. Recently, I was delighted to read of a young engineer who puts in 20-hour workdays, seven days a week. What with cyberspace, virtual reality and parallel processing, I look forward to the day some pioneering soul succeeds in logging a 200-hour workweek.

Compare these heroic schedules to those of corporate slackers working only 40 or 50 hours a week. Why, these folks don't have to leave for work before 8:00 in the morning and can arrive home by 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. These guys typically put in only five days a week. They rarely come into the office on weekends, contenting themselves with reviewing some documents, spending a few hours responding to corporate E-mail on their home PCs, or catching up on their trade press reading. These sloths have been known to engage in hobbies, family meals, community meetings and other non-work activities.

How do these short-timers take life so easy and still manage to stay employed? Well, it appears that these guys have figured out a way to reduce the number of crises affecting their work. Crises mean long hours. They mean working into the evening. They mean coming in on Saturdays and Sundays. These slackers know this, so they're proactive in averting problems. Granted, when an IT crisis arises, they jump into the fray and do what has to be done. But when it's all over, they're back to their old habits. Often they can be seen conducting an analysis of the crisis shortly after it's over. After all, they don't want to be dealing with problems at 9:00 at night, so they go after the cause to make sure it never happens again. They can be downright ruthless about it.

Another thing these people have discovered is that if they don't delegate, they have to work longer hours. If they behaved like the rest of us and made themselves crucial links in every chain of events, then there would be too many demands on their time. Instead, these people have hired competent subordinates, trained them, and then delegated responsibility. There's no end to their trickery.

There's more. Faced with the same increased workload as everyone else and determined to keep the workday to less than ten hours, short-timers arc forced to work very intensely. They worship at the altar of efficiency. They appear to have little time for idle conversation and none at all for discussing the strengths and weaknesses of their bosses and fellow workers. This attitude is obviously another attempt to make the rest of us look bad.

Yes, these short-timers are cagey. To avoid work, the), separate their tasks into what they consider high priority, low priority and those they claim are meaningless. This is a slap in the face to those of us who have devoted long hours to all sorts of tasks without hesitation.

Perhaps the most flagrant abuse perpetrated by these IT laggards is their enthusiastic championing of movements to proceduralize the workplace. Under the guise of quality standards, business process reengineering, and so-called customer satisfaction programs, they claim to be bringing consistency and predictability to the way business is run. But their real motivation hasn't escaped us. They are seeking to reduce thc corporation's dependence on heroic effort.

These guys even go to the extreme of scheduling IT projects and deliverables in ways that make them achievable without Herculean efforts. This not only enables them to minimize their workload but deprives the rest of us of the opportunity to shine. Many of us have become corporate legends by increasing our hours as we approach an impossible deadline. We then outdo ourselves as we work longer and longer hours to complete the work. And we continue to do this for weeks, if not months, after the deadline has come and gone.

All these time-saving efforts may sound harmless, even commendable, but those of us, who are dedicated to advancement through long hours in the office should recognize them for what they are. They are an attempt to undermine the pedal-to-the-metal, take-no-prisoners approach that has served the rest of us well in our careers. Let these slugs have balance in their lives, spend time with their families, become bridge champions, coach Little League. But please, don't let them take over the corporation. It's ours. We won it fair and square. We paid far it with personal sacrifice. Many of us have been through divorces. Our children barely recognize us. Our communities only see us only under cover of darkness. Most of our friends haven't heard from us in months.

After all, we didn't make all these sacrifices for nothing.

John J. Abbott is director of corporate quality at Inso Corp. in Boston. He can be reached at jabbott@nso.com

COPYRIGHT 1997 Wiesner Publications, Inc.
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