[barmar]

BTW, I'm posting now from work, so obviously I can be unproductive no matter where I am.

My job is mostly reactive, so work waxes and wanes. Some days I even get in a few rounds of Robot Rewards tourneys in. Today has been incredibly dull, so I may do that next.

But I feel guilty about it. Nor have I ever had anyone, coworker or boss, complain that I was underachieving.

[Winstonm]

Quote

so work waxes and wanes

That must be through the looking glass - around these parts work does not do the waxing - waxing IS the work.

And when it wanes, it pours.

[orlam]

Interesting. BBF posters' productivity is much more likely to decrease when working from home. I wonder why that is...

[jdonn]

orlam, on Jan 14 2009, 10:08 PM, said:

Interesting. BBF posters' productivity is much more likely to decrease when working from home. I wonder why that is...

Well you would think the same logic would apply to cnn.com readers, and yet...

[matmat]

is "productivity" how much you accomplish by a given date or how much you accomplish in a given number of hours?

[barmar]

The question should be: Is my company better off having me than doing without, or with someone else in my place?

There are some days when I get relatively little accomplished. On the other hand, when there's something that needs to be done, I'm very good at it. Also, much of what I've done in the time I've been here (I've been in my current position a little over 2 years) has made things run more smoothly, with more automation and transfer of responsibility from engineering to operations, so there are fewer times when my expertise is required. In effect, I've engineered my own boredom. But that's what I've always liked about programming computers -- I take repetitive tasks and teach the machines how to do them for me.

I can't take all the credit, much of it goes to the programmers who have implemented many of the improvements in the system I'm responsible for. But they wouldn't have made many of these improvements if I hadn't made them a priority.