surveillance software at work

There are few jobs where there is no useful tasks that can be done for a large percentage of the time at work. Jobs where that is the case usually have recreation facillities for the employees "on call" and there will be no problems with employees doing personal business.

.. Cynic

That depends upon whether there is any work that needs doing. I doubt that you would appreciate a shop assistant who ignores you in a crowded shop because she has served her quota of customers for the day and is busy doing the crossword.

If a job involves a lot of spare time where ther is no work to do, it could indicate that the company is over-staffed.

In article , Ronald Raygun writes

You are thinking of the Carlsberg Complaints Department.

It's been shut down now for lack of complaints and the people employed there have got new jobs with the Carlberg Bank or been made redundant.

But your example is a case in point. What is the shop assistant to do between customers? If there is only one assistant in the (small) shop, it can hardly be called overstaffed.

personal activities that can be instantly interrupted are in such cases usually acceptable. most service stations have a TV for the assistant, for example.

But even if I were the only customer top enter the shop all day, I would not expect to be kept waiting while the assistant finishes a personal phone call or completes a game on a playstation or watches the end of a football match on TV..

If it takes you longer to do the work than the allotted time, do you get paid overtime?

That'll be the CCTV to spot chancers outside trying to nick the flowers.

Indeed not, but that doesn't mean he would have to end his phone call. He could interrupt it, serve you, and return to it. In fact there would even be nothing wrong with continuing the phone call while serving you, unless serving you involves you asking him which farm the cow came from which gave the milk for this half pound of organic free-range GM-free vegetarian butter.

And (not that it would be any great consolation to you) the call might

If the reason it took you longer was because you were doing personal stuff, I guess you'd be expected to make up the time without extra payment.

It all depends on the nature of the work. In a "thinking" job you often have your best ideas away from the office, so in effect you are working while "away from" work, so it's only fair you be allowed to do non-work stuff while "at" work.

In other jobs you might end up either doing overtime or carrying the work forward to the next day and getting a smaller new allocation.

In the bad old days of British Leyland, there were quality issues with their new cars, owners constantly having to return the cars because of defects etc.

In order to address these issues, the management decided to switch away from piecework - this was payment according to how much you produce. They came up with measured day working instead, a fixed amount of work per day.

Unfortunately, in the fine tradition of state owned industries, most of the management hadn't got a clue about making production built cars and the unions were able to run rings round them.

Most of the workers were able to complete the measured day in about two hours. On the night shift, quality remained abysmal as the workers rushed to complete their work so they could get some kip.

After a few years, it led to the notorious News of the World expose of night shift workers asleep on sunbeds. As they were able to sleep at night, some of the workers had got themselves another job some even in other BL plants where they also worked another measured day.

"allan tracy" wrote

I wonder why they didn't simply continue paying piecework, but only pay for ones without defects...?!

In that case the garages I have visited have *very* interesting forecourts, with football matches and soap operas and all sorts of things taking place on them.

I would consider that to be rather rude.

It is usually perfectly apparent as to whether a call is personal or business.

IOW you deliberately pretend that the job takes longer than it should take so as to get a lower work load. Remind me not to employ you.

No, that was the generic "you", I was in no way referring to myself.

Pah! I wouldn't want to work for you even if you paid me! :-)

Besides, if I were in the market for a job, I'd be after a "thinking" job, so my final paragraph above would not apply.

There is a point, though, that the workload should be tuned to the productivity of the worker, and if you overload him, efficiency will suffer. I would seriously expect a worker who is given the opportunity to take time out, be it to drink tea, make personal calls, book a holiday, or nip to the shops, to be more productive overall than one who is not.

Yes, I think you're right. I too would consider it rude of a customer to quiz a shop attendant on the provenance of one of the products being sold. How the hell is he supposed to know? And what right does the customer have to presume to interrupt the attendant's phone call for such a frivolous purpose, when his primary duty (to ring up the prices of the items tendered and take your money) is not one deserving of his full undivided attention? I mean, we're not talking about old fashioned shops where all the goods are behind the counter and you have to ask for them all to be weighed out etc, and if your fish is fresh today I'll have one kipper, please, otherwise just give me a couple of eggs, and half an ounce of butter to fry them in. In that case, no, he couldn't really use the phone at the same time. They didn't have Bluetooth headsets in those days.

But of what consequence is it whether it's one or the other, if you would be equally offended by either?

"...Yes, I think you're right. I too would consider it rude of a customer to quiz a shop attendant on the provenance of one of the products being

sold. How the hell is he supposed to know? And what right does the customer have to presume to interrupt the attendant's phone call ..."

Not too far removed from the reality of customer service in the uk but on the bright side it does make it all the more enjoyable when one does find bright, courteous,and motivated staff (often with eastern european accents).

But I wouldn't be equally offended.

If I am waiting to be attended to at the service counter of a computer shop for example, and the technical support person is on the phone to another customer sorting out their technical problem, I regard in the same way as if I were waiting in line behind that other customer, and am happy to wait until the support person has finished with the call before attending to my question.

If OTOH the support person ignores me whilst he spends 15 minutes discussing the football match or his latest girlfriend with someone on the phone, I'd get pretty miffed.

Absolutely - it is swings and roundabouts. My employees can take the odd hour or two off for private business pretty much without comment. But that's because I know that they will also work an extra hour or two on occasion when it is necessary to meet a deadline - usually without needing to be asked. I also recognise the fact that it is sometimes more productive to take a 15 minute break to clear your head than to try to continue a task that requires deep concentration for too long at a stretch.

There are however some jobs where such latitude cannot be given. If one worker on a production line pops out to buy a newspaper in the middle of a shift, it can stop many other employees from working also.

OK, but what if the technical support person's phone rings just as he's about to see to you, how would you feel if the caller turned out to be another customer with a technical question, and was given priority over you?

What if the call is work related, but not customer related, e.g. you're in a pub waiting to get your pint poured and the only barman is on the phone to the brewery sorting out next week's delivery (at great length, with the conversation occasionally straying onto football scores)?

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

Especially if said customer on the phone is standing in the queue behind you, mobile phone to face! ;-)