At one point in our lives, we’ve all thought about what it would be like to have a job that didn’t require us to do anything. Often, this is just a simple response to the constantly shifting set of priorities we’ve all have to deal with in the work place. But for one particular person, this was his reality.
Reddit user FiletOfFish1066 (NOTE: The post has since been deleted) once held a pretty lucrative job. Working in the software development industry, he was highly skilled at leveraging technical resources to solve complex problems. When he landed a gig at a large company in the San Francisco bay area, he thought he had found his dream job. But once arriving at work, he found that the job involved repetitively completing the same tasks on a daily basis.
Although it was boring, the $95,000 yearly salary was pretty incentivizing. Shortly after realizing that the position wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, he would arrive at his desk and refuse to complete even a single productive task. He would earn over $500,000 dollars before his employer finally caught on. How could a major tech company take six whole years to remove an unproductive employee? The answer may shock you.
Early into his job, Fish used his knowledge of programming to make a few simple tools that would help him with the most challenging aspects of his job. Whenever he had a little free time, he would make a few small changes to his program. With every update to his program, another simple task became automated.
After 8 months, every single one of his responsibilities were being completed automatically. It wasn’t until a computer technician discovered what was going on, and reported it to Fish’s seniors. Despondent, he had this to say on Reddit:
“In the past 6 years I have maybe done 50 hours of real work. So basically nothing. And nobody really cared. The tests were all running successfully. I sh*t you not, I had no friends or anything at work either, so nobody ever talked to me except my boss and occasionally the devs for the software I was testing.”
While this is an extreme example, tracking employee efficiency is an essential procedure for organizations of any size. Even when employees are not maliciously attempting to shirk their responsibilities, understanding how your staff spend their time can help you optimize operational procedures.
With the data provided by time tracking software, your project management team and the human resources department, you’ll be able to find new ways to meet your organizational goals more efficiently than ever. Then, guys like Fish won’t want to stick around.