Timesheet Paradox

Fleeting

timesheet paradox

When people are asked to fill timesheets:

1. they first complain that it will take time,
2. then, they ask how precise it should be and are glad it is very coarse grained,
3. then, they start asking to be more precise, to be able to put meeting time, interruption etc,

The paradox is that people complain that the tool will takes time and then ask for stuff that will increase the time it takes to fill those.

It’s as if people considered that the times put in the timesheets would actually reflect real hours. I think this is due to the fact that the time units of the timesheet are generally split into hours, making one feel like they should not log a day when they had 1 hour interruption.

Somehow, people also behave as if the timesheet where a mean to measure how much time bullshit meetings take and eventually be able to claim “I said so!”. The fact that the timesheet tool provides time units explains this misconception. To my mind, people wanting to measure such times should use another tool, dedicated to that goal. Exploiting a tool that is obviously not designed to make those measures is the best way to feel good instead of do the right thing.

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