overtime
"I think that overtime can be divided into good and bad, and that good overtime benefits both the devs and the projects. With good overtime, the extra hours are not the thing that benefits the project. They're a side effect; a symptom of people fully engaged in work they think is fascinating and worthwhile, and they stay later because it's more fun than whatever else they would be doing. "
"But, Reigning in overtime is like taking away someone's cigarettes. They will resent it, fight it, whine and complain loudly. "It's not fair." they'll cry. "We can't afford to live on this lousy salary with out OT." they will scream."
" Overtime is like a two-headed snake. It cost you time and a half, and you loose productivity. If you work a man 60 hours in one week, you loose 50% of his productivity for the 20 hours overtime."
"To cops, overtime is like a drug. It's something you'll crave, and something that influences far too much of what you do on and off duty."
"Overtime is like sprinting: It makes some sense for the last hundred yards of the marathon for those with any energy left, but if you start sprinting in the first mile, you're just wasting time. "
"Working overtime is like throwing extra distance into the next race. One of two things is going to happen. Either the person is going to push themselves like the normally do but become exhausted by the end (in this case, they'll complete the extra features ok but will suddenly slow down on Monday when they're supposed to be working on the "main" development), or they'll adjust their pace to suit the extra hours. While you used to budget 8 hours for a certain kind of task, it will now take them 9 hours to do it because they're going slower. "
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.