Would you be proud of “overtime”?

In my original unit, there are several departments that work overtime all year round, and the overtime hours are among the best in the statistics every year. For this they often receive praise from their leaders. At the end of the year performance appraisal, some departments think that they have made great contributions and should receive higher rewards, and they will always be led with a sentence of “Do you have XX overtime?” “Refused.

Is overtime worth encouraging?

From the perspective of project management, overtime is a manifestation of uncontrolled management.

Why is it always overtime? There can be several reasons for this:

Usually ignore, imminent overtime

Many things, although they are told to complete the node when they take over, but how to complete it may not be well planned, or even if it is a simple plan, it is put on hold because it is not so important, until it is close to the completion node, and it is urged to remember, and the remaining time is already very tight, only by desperately working overtime to sprint to complete the node. The funny thing is that once a very capable person, by working overtime desperately, completes the task before completing the node, he will also be regarded as a “hero”!

Take pride in the overtime culture

Some managers see the “overtime” person, will think that he has a passion for work, has a strong sense of responsibility, and even thinks that he is worth reusing. There is no manager to think about whether he has carried out relevant planning, how much time and energy he has invested before approaching the node, and how much related work he has done.

This also makes the “unplanned” project personnel not feel that there is anything wrong with this, since they can be recognized by working overtime to complete the task.

Respond to the user’s request without brains

There is also a relatively passive overtime, that is, the scope of the project or the sprawl of demand.

Perhaps the project personnel have a reliable plan according to the initial requirements, and can also be executed according to the plan, but the user is constantly adding new requirements, and the project personnel can not refuse the other party’s request for their own or external reasons, so they can only deal with these increased needs through overtime.

In short, overtime is caused by a lack of planning or a lack of monitoring.

While this “catch-up” overtime culture doesn’t always fail, and it can accomplish a lot of things, it can never construct big things, because that requires a complete and effective plan, a stable “output,” and a “plan and then move.”

This is exactly:

Overtime culture is not desirable, and projects lack good management

The officer plans and then moves, unless it is really a last resort

Bibliography: Project Style: In-depth Understanding of Software Project Behavior Patterns, Author: (US) Tom DeMarco et al., Translator: Jin Ming, Publisher: People’s Post and Telecommunications Publishing House