back to article Women spending more time at work - but less time working

A performance analysis software vendor has risked inflaming the battle of the sexes by declaring that "women work hard, but not quite as hard as men". OfficeMetrics claimed that its research showed that over the last nine months, UK office workers were tending to spend more time in the office, as they seek to impress their …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Stupid people

    Going through something like this at work, prove you work for 90% of your working day or get the sack, trouble is this does not take into account quality of work only quantety. I've been in this job long enough now that i can deal with eventhing in a timely manner but if i do i could lose my job? Guess me rebuilding a server now takes 50% longer than it did before the stop watch came out and i accept ever meeting request sent to me even if its not related to my department, free tea and coffee and a tick in the 90% work week.

    Only trouble is having to record the time i spend having a conversation with someone in the corridor or car park seems very petty?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    LET THE FLAMES COMMENCE!

    "But women were apparently only 94 per cent as productive as men in July, compared to 87 per cent as productive, back in November."

    Yeah, it's because of Men, they're all bastards and not nice enough to women and they don't make it easier for women to be as productive as they are. It's all men's fault. Men should be banned from the workplace unless they have a Female line manager and are banned from being competitive in any way.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Time & Motion again?

    Time and Motion studies were debunked in the 1960's, why are these idiots trying re-introduce them?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Pseudo-science

    Yet again someone with a product to sell comes up with a study which proves that the solution to all your ills is to buy from them. Fancy that.

  5. Aaron Em

    Consider the source

    Or, as you limeys so charmingly put it, "Well he would say that, wouldn't he?"

  6. Jonathan White
    Thumb Down

    About the worst possible measure of productivity...

    I'm currently sat twiddling my thumbs because the beancounters can't get their act together and make a their minds up so I can move my project on. How dos that affect my productive time percentages, and how does it affect theirs? Do I assume because they're in another sodding meeting trying to avoid having to make a decision, they still count as working but I don't?

  7. Aaron Em

    Actually...

    ...I'd be perfectly happy to have men banned from the workplace. I can think of worse things to do with the rest of my life than keep the missus happy -- which is not difficult if you're at all competent at it; think about how you use a mouse, boys, it's the scroll wheel that is key -- and otherwise do what I damn well please.

  8. BoldMan
    Thumb Down

    Productive?

    So how do they measure whether you have been "productive" or not? Does it measure efficiency, which means you get more done in less time or is it simply time spent "working" which could just as easily be a measure of inefficiency?

    Whatever it is, I hate these idiotic "time and motion" studies... measure the size of my motions when I visit the gents why don't you?

  9. Joe Blogs
    FAIL

    WTF?

    Have you look at what/how this software works?

    <quote>

    Internet:

    The title, address, classification and time spent at every web page a user visits.

    The sender of each email a user receives and how long they spent reading the mail plus the recipient of every email a user sends and how long they spent writing the mail.

    Instant Messaging buddy's names for each IM conversation and how long each conversation lasted.

    This information tells employees how much time they are engaged in non work related web activity.

    </quote>

    How doe it know what you are looking at? I have 3 screens, If I open a browser on one, and then open excel on another, I can click on the Excel.exe window, but keep reading theregister on the first one...this is bollock, like wise, how does it know how long it took me to read an email? I may have moved on to something else? Another screen (without clicking anything), maybe some paper work?

    <quote>

    Idle

    After a period of inactivity, OfficeMetrics records a user's computer as being idle.

    This information tells employees how much time they are spending on short breaks possibly conducting personal business or socializing with co-workers

    </quote>

    How long? Long enough to be doing some paper work? talking to someone (work related), in a meeting? maybe reading a document on your screen?

    This software can't tell you when a person is idle, only when a PC is idle. It can't tell what you are doing, it can only tell what you last clicked on and how long ago that was...

    Utter FAIL

  10. Melvin Meatballs
    Go

    survey gestation times

    "research showed that over the last nine months", a new breed of time keeping corporate clone was born. Male of course.

  11. Gordon is not a Moron

    Isn't this just the Dilbert principle in action?

    More time in work * Less effort per hour = same overall of work done

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    @AC Re: Stupid people

    LMAO! Thanks for that. The grammar and spelling coupled with the subsequent irony of the title has really made my afternoon. ;0)

    But hey, while we’re all sat on our asses reading this crap courtesy of el Reg', we’re proving them right in the productivity stakes.

  13. The Jase

    I can guess

    "Only trouble is having to record the time i spend having a conversation with someone in the corridor or car park seems very petty?"

    Is it a big blue company? Sounds very much like them.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Seriously who cares?

    You wont get paid more than the other guy who goes home at 16:58 and come the cull to save Corp HQ you will both get the boot anyway! So seriously unless you work for yourself, or hate your wife, whats the point of living in the office??

    Fresh air its good for you...

  15. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    As usual..

    "He added that it may be women might actually be more productive than men during the time they're actually applying themselves to their jobs."

    As usual any scrap of information that dares to show men might actually be better than women at something has to be couched in these terms. It's the same time and time again, if your research doesn't fit the current pro-femist agenda you'd better damn well explain why.

  16. Anonymous John
    Unhappy

    Not an easy article to comment on..

    Not if Sarah is moderating comments.

  17. G R Goslin
    Thumb Down

    Productive?

    Having spent a lot of my life in offices, I fail to see how "work" in the office environment can ever be expressed as "Productive". Particularly in the modern, post industrial age.

  18. Matt D 3

    @Anonymous John

    Sarah is not in today, but will be in tomorrow, so don't get too excitable.

    Matt D

    (Reg Sub-Ed)

  19. Liz 1

    AC 14:20

    ooh, aren't we tetchy today!

  20. The Dorset Rambler
    Pint

    @Anonymous John

    Damn right feller.

    "No comment"

  21. D@v3
    Coat

    A womans work is never done....

    Take that how you will

  22. TeeCee Gold badge
    Thumb Down

    Re: WTF?

    Crikey! The Phorm lads must be green with envy.....

  23. Anonymous John

    @ @Anonymous John

    Ah. She only works a four day week. Say no more.

  24. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge

    Nice save

    "He added that it may be women might actually be more productive than men during the time they're actually applying themselves to their jobs."

    It looks like Mulligan won't be sleeping in the garage tonight after all.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    @AC 14:20

    Pro-feminist what? Ahh you mean the agenda where everyone gets a fair shake rather than just the good-old-boys club. Typical divide and conquer stuff really, set one group off against the other and the status quo shall remain. Divide the workforce into groups, tell one group the other isn't pulling their weight, wants to take away something, wants to stop you from doing something or whatever contentious bullshit they can come up with to stop us from focusing on the real arseholes. Same tactics that have been used for decades to avoid providing decent wages and a safe working environment for the people who make rich, greedy CEOs all their money.

    Last week I saw a bunch of weak minded idiots march into Washington protesting against being given fairly priced health insurance that doesn't discriminate against people who need expensive treatment. Basically marching in support of the rich and greedy who stole their pensions, moved their jobs overseas and put their homes into foreclosure. You can tell these retards anything and they'll believe it.

    It's so easy to manipulate the slow witted and set them against each other. The people laughing at the back of the room are those making millions off the back of a workforce they know they should be paying a decent wage. Next week a study will come out suggesting gays work less hard than straights or minorities get to work later than whites.

  26. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge
    Happy

    Equality

    I'll help restore the balance by reading the Reg for a while.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    I'm obviously not productive.

    I once worked for an etailer. I wrote almost their entire system, from the ground up. It's very successful. However, at least half the time was reading the news.

    The guy next to me used to spend hours scheduling meetings, and writing bits of code to replace the nvl/isNull function he didn't know existed.

    Over the four months where I averaged 16 hours a day in the office, he'd done maybe ten, but no surfing. Though he'd achieved more or less nothing, and I'd delivered an enterprise ecommerce system, from scratch.

    Using these test metrics, I'd clearly be less productive than my neighbour.

    Bill the devil because there's no reinstall facility for WMP11 on Vista (f*cking F*cking sucks! I hate it.)

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Headmaster

    Sexism

    I'm afraid I see more sexism and "gang" mentality in women nowadays. Guess we had our turn.

  29. _wtf_

    re Aaron Em

    You mean I should be using my tongue on my scroll wheel?

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Eh...

    That's what she said?

  31. JC 2
    FAIL

    All Nonsense

    ... and I will issue a report that people with their toes dyed green get more done every day regardless of all other factors. Report comes free with each bottle of green foot dye and this month we're offering free shipping and handling!!

  32. This post has been deleted by its author

  33. Richard 102
    Flame

    Women are just as productive as men!

    And my wife let's me say so.

  34. ElReg!comments!Pierre
    Coat

    Well wymin _are_ a problem in the workplace

    Take a team of efficient (if somewhat smelly) geeks in mission control. Throw a short-skirted cleavage-flashing blond chick in there. Watch productivity plummet.

    Surely this can only be the girl's fault?

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    @Matt D 3 - Anonymous John

    I wouldn't cross the moderatrix. She's liable to get back and have Matt in cuffs before you can wink and then we'll all be next up for a good belting.

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