| Topic Name: |
Average hours/week |
| Message Name: |
Allow me to explain... |
| Date Posted: |
03/12/2006 |
| In Reply To: |
you will be a worker bee. |
| Message: |
As a senior manager, when I am budgeting a project I assign tasks to the amount of hours that it should take an "average" person to finish it. Sure - sometimes this is made too low by some managers - but that is a subject for another thread. I know darned well that a supremely competent, experienced consultant can probably finish that task in much less time. What they do with that time is their business. I scope things rather tightly and very seldomly assign extra work - some managers do not, but that is for another thread.
Like many things, consulting is a practiced skill. The longer you do it (my case, 8 years), the better you get. At least that is how it works with the people who are good at their job. But I always budget to an "average to below average" denominator - you always don't get a supremely competent, efficient person. So if it takes them longer, that is their problem. Yes, I expect them to ghost hours - but that has been covered in other threads. Please not here.
So yes, I do stand by my comment that I can do 40 hours of work in 20 hours. That is, a task assigned 40 budgeted hours. I have been doing this type of work for so long there is very little that I haven't run into before. That is simply a matter of my experience in this profession. This stuff is not rocket science. Being able to work quickly and efficiently doesn't mean one is slacking. It means they are working smarter. That entails shutting off your IM, ignoring non-important e-mails, putting your phone on silent mode - and cranking out work. The comments that it takes 40 hours to do 40 hours of work - and anything else is "slacking" - is just plain stupid, and a major factor why I find ACN has an equally stupid culture of face-time. If you can't deliver under a reasonable amount of budgeted hours (yes, I know, some budgets aren't), I really do think you are a dumb, inefficient consultant.
'Nuff said.
And to that strange "lad" poster - yes (!!!!), I put it in "writing" !!!!!!!!
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