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Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by Causality1 on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @07:40AM (#25927485)
I'd say anything that prevents you from, for instance, browsing the internet for pleasure counts as work. Meeting in a boardroom? Work. Zoom call in which you have to regularly participate? Work. Zoom call you can basically ignore while you read HN? Not work.
Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by acdha on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @08:11AM (#25927780)
> Zoom call you can basically ignore while you read HN? Not work.

Still work: if it’s preventing you from focusing but not personal time, it’s work. Your employer choosing to waste your time on low productivity meetings is something to try to improve but you shouldn’t feel any obligation to make up for it with your own free time.

Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by Bootvis on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @07:45AM (#25927538)
In that zoom call I’m not walking along the beach or napping on the couch or cleaning the house or any other activity I prefer to attending a meeting. So I’d say it’s work as well.
Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by intev on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @07:52AM (#25927603)
By that logic, you could get away with doing <anything that is not my most favorite thing> and calling it work. You must be "working" a lot ;)
Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by bhaak on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @08:20AM (#25927874)
As long as you get paid for it, it's work.

A Zoom call you can basically ignore but have to be around. Still work but not "working".

Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by toyg on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @08:10AM (#25927761)
if that time is paid-for by someone else and you cannot decide what it is used for, then it's work. Period.
Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by necovek on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @08:09AM (#25927749)
Are you suggesting that cleaning their house is their "most favorite thing"?

While not impossible, I find it implausible ;)

Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by eru on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @07:55AM (#25927623)
That's an interesting definition. I'm not sure it's useful.

Eg when I am oncall out of hours, I could browse HN almost all the time, but it is still low-intensity work, even if nothing breaks and pages on that day.

Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by srtjstjsj on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @08:30AM (#25927972)
Oncall is a bit special, usually counted as partial time work for time spent not responding to calls, or with overtime rates for time actually called in.
Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by eru on Thursday January 28, 2021 @01:30AM (#25938894)
At Google SRE we had a flat ratio regardless of whether you had a page or not.

The idea was two-fold: reduces paperwork, and incentivizes the SRE team to reduce alerts that have to be dealt with.

In any case, my main point was that anything that prevents me from having a beer or going bungee jumping is 'work' in my books. Though, obviously, there are different levels of intensity.

Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by grep_name on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @05:02PM (#25934647)
Disagree. I may be on HN right now, but if I were not at work I wouldn't be on HN. I wouldn't be on my computer at all, in fact. Right now I am available, which provides value to my employer at my personal expense.

Not using part of my life in the way I see fit because I need to make a living? Work.

Re:One-third of tech workers admit to working only 3 to 4 ho... by Causality1 on Friday January 29, 2021 @05:09AM (#25955804)
It's not a binary solution set. People locked in a jail cell are not working either.