I enjoy family weekends; I enjoy short trips over a weekend sometimes.
But the weekends I really treasure are when I can go full nerd-out on some electronics or electronics/firmware or pure software side-project. Even if it’s just a 3 hour uninterrupted block (both not interrupted but also knowing that you won’t be) each day, that’s pure bliss.
No Jira tickets, no sprint stand ups, no estimates, no slack brush-brushes, no zoom calls, just nerding out.
I like the ticketing system for tracking issues, especially with a distributed team. But especially with bigger corporations it gets so damn tiresome. I crave a Kanban-only system and software leaders who just talk to their developers to inform/influence what's to do next.
Perhaps this is just grass-is-greener daydreaming. Is anybody doing this/how does it perform? Perhaps I am just so thoroughly conditioned by agile-everywhere-all-the-time and I can't think pass it and this is a very bad idea?
HubSpot has this type of culture. Engineers would work on problem areas or projects. They would be empowered to communicate progress in whatever way the team thought was best.
The vast majority of teams didn’t use stand-ups, scrum, or agile.
Wait, isn’t that the book where the guy stayed there for like 2 years just to log all the crazy stuff that happened so he could write a book? Weren’t people like having sex in the company beds during work hours?
Yeah, I noticed that I'm clearly in different "modes" in my free time and act accordingly.
Sometimes I really only want to lie on the couch and consume. The thought of my electronics projects then seems exhausting. Sometimes I really want to be productive and stimulated, then I work on those projects or read a math or EE textbook, and the thought of just sitting there and consuming seems excruciatingly boring.
The key aspect is to recognize that none of those phases will last forever, and cycling through those various hobbies gives variety.
I agree with you on that; specially after the lockdown & wfh combo. I started a cricket team in my town just because of this. Best thing I have done for my physical fitness!
I dislike house cleaners not because of the cost but because I really dislike other people sorting through my things and putting them back in the wrong places. It also feels like an invasion when they arrive.
Most people take entirely too long to clean the house. Optimize for economy of motion and it becomes a sort of bin packing problem where you try and find the most efficient way to layer the various tasks that can be sort of fun in and of itself.
I agree with you. The best way to clean house is to divide it into small chunks and do each one as an exercise each day after work(you know, those garbage time). Sadly wifie doesn't agree with me.
My wife makes us clean the house, run the laundry, and do any budgeting we need to do on a Saturday (the time depends on our plans). It takes an hour or two in total if you just focus on finishing quickly. Does it suck? Yes. Do I moan about it? Yes. Am I a big kid? Probably. But get it out the way as soon as possible and the rest of the weekend is yours to enjoy :)
I don't understand. Do you mean you have to do boring chores on the weekend (because they simply have to be done, e.g. laundry), or do you mean that you choose to do boring things?
If the latter... just don't do boring things? That's never been an issue for me. I cycle between many hobbies: Electronics, signal processing, my 90s record collection, video games, watching TV shows, aviation... sometimes it's clear that my body just wants me to lay on the couch and consume. Sometimes it's really the opposite and I ache for something "productive" and stimulating. Then TV shows seem boring, so I work on my electronics projects or learns some maths. Sometimes I hit the road in my car.
If it's chores, then for many of them there's ways to make them more enjoyable. Lot of chores don't require your full attention, so you can listen to a podcast, an audiobook, or even watch a movie or TV show while doing so (works well for folding laundry, or doing the dishes if you have an iPad).
I really place importance on the fact that what I watch or listen to has to be fun, though. No podcasts that are work-related, or about "serious issues". For podcasts, it's mostly about video games for me. Audiobooks are novels, i.e. fiction. Movies and TV shows likewise. Otherwise it isn't relaxing.
> Out of 52 weekends, I didn’t work more than 30% of them.
Assuming you are working a standard Mon - Fri, the correct amount of weekends to be working is 0.
There is some tradeoff point if you make overtime and you need the money. If you are salaried, then just say no.
I occasionally get asked to work a late night or a weekend. It's never a real emergency - nobody is blocked, it isn't software that impacts live users, etc. It's just scheduling fails by some middle manager somewhere. My answer is always the same:
This is one of those reminders that most of the stuff you read on the internet is written by abnormal people. In this case, it's someone claiming they "only" work 30% of weekends and regularly go to 5am meetings explaining why you should have the abundant work-life balance they achieve.
I think you’re so right. It is an achievement than just a reward. I had to be disciplined to accommodate my sleep routine and be productive. The goal is not to think about work at all during “not the working hours” but how?.
I am sorry for not being clear. But with wfh, it changed. I haven’t done 5am calls before the pandemic wfh was in full flow. But I meant to mention that how I got used to it to be a team player for my transatlantic mates. But you’re right.
Sometimes there is a real reason for someone to work a weekend or off hours. In every reasonable place I've worked, this has been offset with some other free time. Work Saturday, but take off on Tuesday to make up for it. Or work a late night maintenance window, but take a quiet no meetings day the next day.
As a salaried worker I am perfectly fine working weekends as long as I get compensatory time off in exchange - days I can take off the following week(s) on top of my usual PTO allowances. If a team cannot promise me this I don't want to work for them.
Sometimes, weekend work with a team is some of the most engaging work one can perform in a salaried role. I have fond memories of the cycle of scrambling before a launch, the catharsis of the launch, and then the ensuing vacation.
The key thing is committing to the whole cycle - crunch is sometimes a necessary evil but must be followed by equal and opposite rest. Any group that doesn't respect this yin-yang is undeserving of your labor.
I view working weekends as equal to working overtime. If I work a full week and then work into the weekend, I want more than equal PTO for the weekend time worked, or more pay than I would normally receive.
If looking at a potential employer I find out they expect weekend work and don't treat it like overtime, I assume they are bad employers and move on.
"Sorry, no." Done. Either it's a shitty enough work environment that they'll fire you, in which case they would have gotten around to it any way, or it's not, and they won't, and nothing happens.
Because it's a colloquialism, and because despite that "No is a complete sentence" post from earlier this week (last week?), it often comes across across as rude, unnecessarily harsh, and over time will make people think of you as an asshole.
though how should I find out about important news without reading the news? like what are current COVID/travel restrictions etc? it's easier to just check news site once a day than check dozens of gov sites
Europe, there were almost weekly changes through the pandemic and you still failed to answer my question where I will find this information without checking the news, I find much easier check daily the news than check them once a week trying to catch up what I missed in whole week looking for some summary, that's not what I would call efficient use of my time
It's less about the time spent and more about the mental impact of reading about all the bad things in the world. For a while, I literally consumed no news at all, but important news still reached me through friends. (Now, I'm back to reading the news almost daily, mostly because of the war and because there are big changes regarding COVID regulations in Germany at the moment.)
the impact is really up to you and how thick is your skin, whether you are getting angry/scared when reading the news or not
news through friends work only if you have many local friends and not friends scattered across the world, so they won't have much useful news for your day to day life and these days I try to avoid small talk about news with local people, because almost everything is way too controversial unless you agree with MSM propaganda
What you chose to do not not do on weekends or even weekdays is none of my business. I was just curious about where in the world Covid restrictions were still changing on a day to day basis.
I haven't actively read news for over a year and I still manage to get this information, try not reading the news and just check what you need to check. The news comes from sources that you can check instead and if anything big happens it will find you anyways.
why no free nights? I put kids to sleep around 19:30 and then I have free evening mostly just watching TV shows/movies and surfing to rest up until midnight, heck I even enjoy weekends with them, anything beats work
You can't "catch up" on sleep. The only way to get enough sleep is to have a schedule that you stick to.
It's ok to think about work off hours. Write down your thoughts, do some meditation practice to learn to let the work thoughts flow by and notice them, but let them go.
Saved you a click, these are only advices among the ballast:
> For starters, try to disconnect from work and social media. Dedicate some time to yourself and do something that makes you happy, whether it’s reading, going for a walk, or spending time with family and friends. You can also use the weekend to catch up on sleep.
> That’s why professionals recommend taking a break from work at least one day each week. And not just any kind of break — a real break. That means no checking email, no working on projects, and no worrying about what’s happening at the office.
81 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 149 ms ] threadBut the weekends I really treasure are when I can go full nerd-out on some electronics or electronics/firmware or pure software side-project. Even if it’s just a 3 hour uninterrupted block (both not interrupted but also knowing that you won’t be) each day, that’s pure bliss.
No Jira tickets, no sprint stand ups, no estimates, no slack brush-brushes, no zoom calls, just nerding out.
Perhaps this is just grass-is-greener daydreaming. Is anybody doing this/how does it perform? Perhaps I am just so thoroughly conditioned by agile-everywhere-all-the-time and I can't think pass it and this is a very bad idea?
The vast majority of teams didn’t use stand-ups, scrum, or agile.
Sometimes I just want to build and customize some models alone. Lego or Gundam or some ancient ship.
No phone calls, no friends, families and socializing.
Even though I love coding, but sometimes I do feel exhausted. Don't even want to touch the keyboard, gamepad or any electronics.
Sometimes I really only want to lie on the couch and consume. The thought of my electronics projects then seems exhausting. Sometimes I really want to be productive and stimulated, then I work on those projects or read a math or EE textbook, and the thought of just sitting there and consuming seems excruciatingly boring.
The key aspect is to recognize that none of those phases will last forever, and cycling through those various hobbies gives variety.
If the latter... just don't do boring things? That's never been an issue for me. I cycle between many hobbies: Electronics, signal processing, my 90s record collection, video games, watching TV shows, aviation... sometimes it's clear that my body just wants me to lay on the couch and consume. Sometimes it's really the opposite and I ache for something "productive" and stimulating. Then TV shows seem boring, so I work on my electronics projects or learns some maths. Sometimes I hit the road in my car.
If it's chores, then for many of them there's ways to make them more enjoyable. Lot of chores don't require your full attention, so you can listen to a podcast, an audiobook, or even watch a movie or TV show while doing so (works well for folding laundry, or doing the dishes if you have an iPad).
I really place importance on the fact that what I watch or listen to has to be fun, though. No podcasts that are work-related, or about "serious issues". For podcasts, it's mostly about video games for me. Audiobooks are novels, i.e. fiction. Movies and TV shows likewise. Otherwise it isn't relaxing.
Assuming you are working a standard Mon - Fri, the correct amount of weekends to be working is 0.
There is some tradeoff point if you make overtime and you need the money. If you are salaried, then just say no.
I occasionally get asked to work a late night or a weekend. It's never a real emergency - nobody is blocked, it isn't software that impacts live users, etc. It's just scheduling fails by some middle manager somewhere. My answer is always the same:
"Oh, sorry, I can't. Already scheduled."
Manufacturing Consent applies to more than just mainstream news media.
This right here cannot be overstated. Internet blogs are not a uniformly distributed sampling of the population.
Sometimes, weekend work with a team is some of the most engaging work one can perform in a salaried role. I have fond memories of the cycle of scrambling before a launch, the catharsis of the launch, and then the ensuing vacation.
The key thing is committing to the whole cycle - crunch is sometimes a necessary evil but must be followed by equal and opposite rest. Any group that doesn't respect this yin-yang is undeserving of your labor.
If looking at a potential employer I find out they expect weekend work and don't treat it like overtime, I assume they are bad employers and move on.
Typical pushback is a lecture about the importance of being a "team player" and pressure to cancel or reschedule things to make the boss look good.
"Sorry, no." Done. Either it's a shitty enough work environment that they'll fire you, in which case they would have gotten around to it any way, or it's not, and they won't, and nothing happens.
This pushed three of us (out of 5) to quit in the next couple of months (after getting another job sorted).
though how should I find out about important news without reading the news? like what are current COVID/travel restrictions etc? it's easier to just check news site once a day than check dozens of gov sites
news through friends work only if you have many local friends and not friends scattered across the world, so they won't have much useful news for your day to day life and these days I try to avoid small talk about news with local people, because almost everything is way too controversial unless you agree with MSM propaganda
I have no idea how such shallow faff got on the front page.
It's ok to think about work off hours. Write down your thoughts, do some meditation practice to learn to let the work thoughts flow by and notice them, but let them go.
> For starters, try to disconnect from work and social media. Dedicate some time to yourself and do something that makes you happy, whether it’s reading, going for a walk, or spending time with family and friends. You can also use the weekend to catch up on sleep.
> That’s why professionals recommend taking a break from work at least one day each week. And not just any kind of break — a real break. That means no checking email, no working on projects, and no worrying about what’s happening at the office.
Everything in moderation.
Even if I agree with some of this article, this quote is just blatantly false. You can't catch up on sleep.