I've started a list of what I call "Big Picture Observations" which include societal-wide falacies. Your example of the "late workers" falls into the category of "who's fooling who?".

I also include in this category the infamous "exit interviews" where HR departments are supposed to collect these insightful comments about their organizations from exiting employees. Does anyone really think that an exiting employee is going to burn any potential bridges?

Great article.

Just wanted to add a few of my own observations:

If a company has an on-site gym, it's not because they care about your health....it's because you're going to work long hours.

In the biotech industry it's common to get 4 weeks of vacation per year which sounds very generous....better take your laptop with you and don't forget to bring your beeper because you'll be working those 4 weeks.

And I'd like to add to Jay's 'Big Picture Observations':
What about the 360 reviews of your manager....people are too afraid to speak out so the exercise becomes a big waste of time....unless of course you consider stroking someones ego a good use of time.

Sandra Gauvin
http://CurrentQuality.com

Bill,
I completely disagree with your comments. Just because someone stays late at work does not mean they are attempting to please the boss.
Most folks stay late at work because the current financial situation in the US resulted in highly reduced revenues, (especially in manufacturing). People that currently are employed are taking on extra load to attempt to keep the business running under extreme cost constraints.
Many employees have taken temporary measures such as reduced vacations or elimination of vacation for 2009, in a attempt to control costs and keep people employed.

These are desperate times and they call for desperate measures when it comes to business costs.
With financial times being as difficult as they are, I don't think managers are keeping staff that is non productive. I don't think you fully understand what you claim to be observing. Moreover non of us salaried folks (including me) would give up their job for two weeks of pay or the ability to leave at 5pm.

This is likely to get worse before it gets better, as economists are indicating a flat market for the next 3 -4 years.
Personally, I would hold any of my managers responsible for not adequately managing the load of their staff. If I discovered that issue as a repetitive failure, there would be a management spot open up on my staff of direct reports.

Hi! Bill, we have corresponded before ref. some Baldrige comments along the way. I too am a past Baldrige examiner and am now semi retired from a BIG corporation (thank goodness).

I agree with your recommendations/observations at 100%. I have worked along people who have not taken vacation or who stay after 5 PM every day and when the "right sizing" occurs, it doesn't matter since the people making these "sizing" decisions usually do not know you from Adam and your immediate supervisor's input matters little if at all. I am ashamed to say that I have led projects to reduce staffing and when reviewing the data on hand to support these decisions there never was a piece of data that said so and so worked to 8 PM every night! Even if there was data it had no bearing on the outcome!

Long ago I inherited a new boss (the hospital President) when I was working in the hospital industry. He came from one of those then big 5/6/8 accounting/consulting firms and firmly believed that everyone should work after 5 PM. After observing his patterns for a while I came up with a tactic. Being an intelligent guy I would stop by his office once a week or every two weeks around 6:30 or 7 PM to ask him a question about one of the projects I was working on. He thought I was working late every night because he did not ever walk by my office to see if I was around every night. This tactic worked perfectly! In effect he perceived me as a "hard worker" giving the job all of my hours. When I was staying late under this tactic I worked on my homework assignments for my MBA program anyway (this organization was paying 100% of my education expenses). At other times I would work on homework on my own time. As a knowledge worker how much time I spent at the job counted very little for the success of my project assignments.

This point re: knowledge workers is not to be overlooked since if an organization is equating time on the job (or at your desk) with project/assignment success they are operating with a flawed model in the first place. One thing I learned as a Baldrige Examiner and also as a Master Black Belt is what is most important is working on the "RIGHT" projects not how many projects are completed. Most knowledge workers are not making "widgets" and the more hours you work the more widgets you produce -- they are hopefully making process improvements while delivering every increasing value to their customers.

Keep those thoughts coming Bill!