We had a company meeting today, where the management reviewed our 2007 performance and the bonus we have received @yawn@, and also looking forward, announced the 2008 targets and objectives etc..
One small issue they mentioned made me skeptical. An overtime meal of $7 will be allowed for those who worked late, an increase from $5. Its not a bad thing the company is looking into "welfare" of the staff, but lets look at the other side of the coin.
Typically those who need to work late in our company are those consultants or programmers. Let me take an example of just a programmer. He comes to work at 10.30am - we start work at 9am but somehow they are "allowed" to come late because presumably they worked late the night before. By the time he starts work, its almost 11am, but after half an hour, need to go out for a breather, a smoke with fellow programmer and perhaps have a cuppa. He comes back into office at 11.30am "to work". He walked to the sweet young things in the office to chit chat, this is called socialising, for maybe about 5 minutes. Then at about 1pm, its lunch time. He and fellow colleagues went for one and half hours lunch, because need to catch up with colleagues what. By the time he settles down "to work" again, it's almost 3pm. He walked to the sweet young things AGAIN in the office to catch up, again this is called socialising. So another 5 minutes at least wasted. By 4pm, its time for a breather again, so down he goes for a smoke and coffee ! By time he is back at 4.30pm its serious work time. All the way till 6pm, then its snack time because he is supposed to work late. So off he went again for the next 30 minutes. By 7pm its time to work again. Then its dinner time at 8pm, with the laptop still on, he goes out for dinner. And dinner is on the company, must remember to claim. Then followed by a smoke etc... by the time its 10pm (official time you are allowed to claim taxi fare), its time to call it a day.
Assuming this is a typical programmer's work day. All the "break times" aside, we have about say 30 programmers, and just assuming everyone of them comes to work at 11am and knocks off at 8pm. Hey they can still claim dinner, although they work only a typical 8 hours! That aside, assuming a programmer's pay is $2500 per month, he is paid $15 per hour. For the 30 programmers who work from 11am, 2 hours are wasted each day. For a year, this works out to be about S$ 270,000 the company lost in utilising its resources. $270,000 lost just because 30 staff comes to work 2 hours later. In addition another $63,000 the company needs to pay for the 30 staff who claimed the $7 dinner every night (assuming they work 5-day nights for the whole year everyday). Thats a total of $333,000 lost which could have resulted in more bonuses for the entire company! Damn.
PS. I am not a programmer in my company.
One small issue they mentioned made me skeptical. An overtime meal of $7 will be allowed for those who worked late, an increase from $5. Its not a bad thing the company is looking into "welfare" of the staff, but lets look at the other side of the coin.
Typically those who need to work late in our company are those consultants or programmers. Let me take an example of just a programmer. He comes to work at 10.30am - we start work at 9am but somehow they are "allowed" to come late because presumably they worked late the night before. By the time he starts work, its almost 11am, but after half an hour, need to go out for a breather, a smoke with fellow programmer and perhaps have a cuppa. He comes back into office at 11.30am "to work". He walked to the sweet young things in the office to chit chat, this is called socialising, for maybe about 5 minutes. Then at about 1pm, its lunch time. He and fellow colleagues went for one and half hours lunch, because need to catch up with colleagues what. By the time he settles down "to work" again, it's almost 3pm. He walked to the sweet young things AGAIN in the office to catch up, again this is called socialising. So another 5 minutes at least wasted. By 4pm, its time for a breather again, so down he goes for a smoke and coffee ! By time he is back at 4.30pm its serious work time. All the way till 6pm, then its snack time because he is supposed to work late. So off he went again for the next 30 minutes. By 7pm its time to work again. Then its dinner time at 8pm, with the laptop still on, he goes out for dinner. And dinner is on the company, must remember to claim. Then followed by a smoke etc... by the time its 10pm (official time you are allowed to claim taxi fare), its time to call it a day.
Assuming this is a typical programmer's work day. All the "break times" aside, we have about say 30 programmers, and just assuming everyone of them comes to work at 11am and knocks off at 8pm. Hey they can still claim dinner, although they work only a typical 8 hours! That aside, assuming a programmer's pay is $2500 per month, he is paid $15 per hour. For the 30 programmers who work from 11am, 2 hours are wasted each day. For a year, this works out to be about S$ 270,000 the company lost in utilising its resources. $270,000 lost just because 30 staff comes to work 2 hours later. In addition another $63,000 the company needs to pay for the 30 staff who claimed the $7 dinner every night (assuming they work 5-day nights for the whole year everyday). Thats a total of $333,000 lost which could have resulted in more bonuses for the entire company! Damn.
PS. I am not a programmer in my company.
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