• buh [any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    79
    ·
    2 months ago

    chronoworking is when I look like I’m working but actually I’m playing chrono trigger

    • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 months ago

      Fairly sure I was taught that the very concept of ‘clock watching’ was due to workers in workhouses staring at the clock all day. Or something.

    • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      44
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      Apparently it’s employees working with their own circadian rhythm. Which actually can be a nightmare to deal with, unless you have really explicit boundaries. Otherwise the nightowl group gets dragged into morning meetings and the 9-5 group ends up having to field questions when they’re winding down for the night.

      Management probably loves it because without boundaries everyone ends up working extra hours in a way that’s very stressful but the nature of it makes it difficult for people to even realize they’re working overtime.

      • bleepbloopbop [they/them]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        23
        ·
        2 months ago

        huh. Yeah I’ve noticed that with my work. I can technically be flexible with my hours to some extent, but in practice I am expected to always be available during normal business hours, so its hard to justify ever really deviating from that schedule too much, I just end up working more after hours and can’t really detach during 9-5.

        I do have one coworker with explicit boundaries that are just like “I don’t work x weekday and I’m off x morning until noon” and it seems to work well for her, but she may have explicitly negotiated that (used to be an independent contractor).

        Offering this flexibility is one thing but yeah, keeping it vague and pushing people to work more by aggressive deadline and such are definitely shitty management tactics.y

        At least for me, the circadian rhythm thing isn’t as set in stone as I thought (not that I have total control over it but recently it shifted to where I always wake up at 6am, when I used to struggle to get up at 8 or 9)

        • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          23
          ·
          2 months ago

          but she may have explicitly negotiated that (used to be an independent contractor).

          Or she’s a chad that just says it and everyone assumes it was explicitly negotiated.

          Who’s gonna check? lol

          • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            22
            ·
            2 months ago

            Lol, at my old work your manager didn’t know the details of your contract. I think it was a strategy to reduce pay in the long term, but it let my coworker claim she was on a remote contract for like 4 months before anyone noticed.

            • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              11
              ·
              2 months ago

              Yeah exactly. And most managers also don’t care enough to check them or know the details. Really all they care about is whether work gets done or not and whether their lives are being made easier or harder by a particular employee. You can get away with anything as long as the perception is that you are a net-positive to their life being easier and the work getting done.

        • SerLava [he/him]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          2 months ago

          Flexible schedules don’t really help you set your own schedule, but sweet God do they make it easy to get fucking errands done. Just go do what you gotta do check the phone a few times and maybe chat something back to someone. Boom, your car is fixed. Your teeth are clean. Amazing

      • driving_crooner
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        There’s something I really like in the company I work, and is that between 20hs and 9hs the computer didn’t even let you login (neither on weekends). And if your boss wants you to do extra hours or do something on the weekend, it had to be approved by the VP of your area and the HR director. Still remember when my boss asked me if I had plans for the weekend, or if I could finish a report he wanted and I told him that I had no plans, but I couldn’t help because the computer didn’t even turn on on weekends.

  • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    2 months ago

    This has been pretty common in German offices for the last five to ten years but it’s all a facade. Sure you are allowed to put in your eight hours (or less) however you like from 6:00 to 21:00 or so, but in reality you’re there from 8-16 because that’s when your coworkers are there and calling you and scheduling meetings. I’ve often been teased for “sleeping in” for showing up and returning calls at 8:30 by colleagues who start at 6:30.

    At least everyone respects your free time in the evenings and there’s no expectation that you answer emails or messages after 16:00 or so. Not yet anyway.

    • 7bicycles [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      2 months ago

      You can tell your coworkers to shove it and probably should in this scenario, I think the more pressing matter is that realistically you are free to set your hours freely between 6:00 to 21:00 except you have to be there from 9:00 - 15:00 or some other six hour chunk as a “core time”.

      Does give you some options but the only real flexibility you get out of it is you can put some more overtime in if you want

      • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        2 months ago

        I could and I probably should. We used to have the 9-15 core time but that was completely dropped at some point. Still hasn’t changed the cultural expectation that you’re available from 7 or so onwards.

    • Tachanka [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      2 months ago

      yeah my job became this way during the pandemic and it never went back to normal. for the first year or so I was able to fuck off more but then like the proverbial frog in a pot they kept cranking up the heat and the expectations/meetings/phone calls/task pileup leads to me being there 8-16 a day.

  • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    There have been no good tech innovations for like a decade and the Musk brand future has been hilariously stillborn in rust and fire, now it’s like they’re cranking the big overclock lever at the new words factory to put out the impression that future things are still future happening.

  • Evilsandwichman [none/use name]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    2 months ago

    huh…both parties should be raising eyebrows if they’re both using the same term. To an employer chronoworking means unpaid overtime, but to an employee chronoworking would most likely mean unworked regular hours. If I was an employer I’d be be very concerned about why my employees are enthusiastically using some nonsense made up word I came up with that’s supposed to benefit me and not them.