{"id":88,"date":"2007-06-29T07:53:13","date_gmt":"2007-06-29T06:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/progmanager.wordpress.com\/2007\/06\/29\/being-effective-not-busy\/"},"modified":"2007-06-29T07:53:13","modified_gmt":"2007-06-29T06:53:13","slug":"being-effective-not-busy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2007\/06\/29\/being-effective-not-busy\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Effective – Not Busy!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Over\u00a0worked!\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are some interesting pieces from The Standard, a Hong Kong newspaper, reporting on a seminar for corporate executives held there last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe long working hours are a sign of loss of productivity and efficiency,” said Ambrose Linn, Hong Kong manager at Dutch mail company TNT, which enforces a maximum 48-hour week on its employees with no more than 12 hours\u2019 overtime.<\/em><\/p>\n


\n. . . a survey by local non-profit organization Community Business found that employees work an average 51 hours a week – 25 percent higher than the maximum working hours set by the International Labour Organization. A third of respondents said their productivity was being affected by long hours while 31 percent said long hours were causing health problems.<\/em><\/p>\n


\n\u201cSenior management has to change its mind-set, especially with the new graduates coming out of university. They don\u2019t want to work 60 hours a week, and companies won\u2019t attract the talent,\u201d Shalini Thakur, associate director of diversity at investment bank UBS, told the seminar.<\/em><\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n

BP says it has stopped making it mandatory for senior management to be supplied with smart phones and e-mail devices because constantly checking and responding to messages goes against the company\u2019s philosophy of promoting work-life balance.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Does this sound familiar?<\/p>\n

What about reflecting on these obvious – but frequently overlooked questions:<\/p>\n

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