I still find the daily strip pretty funny, and I never read anything by him but that, so my opinion of it doesn’t get colored by anything else he might have said.
Funny you should mention that particular strip. ~5 years later (originally printed in 2003):
Did you find the recent introduction of his first black character as pretty funny? That’s blatantly bringing his politics and opinions into the strip.
Everybody finds different stuff funny, but I find about 1 in 10 strips to be funny these days. Otherwise it’s filled with right-wing “humor” like ridiculing the concept of ESG, mocking people who indicate their pronouns, and lame takes on other social and political issues.
Adams has a lot of crazy ideas but refusing to go along with a corporate culture of expecting additional, unpaid hours at work isn’t one of them. Maybe some employees genuinely want to work longer hours, but it soon becomes an arms race as employees try to outdo each other by spending 50, 60, 70 hours a week at the office. Technically it’s voluntary, but in reality, promotions and advancement opportunities go to those employees who show their “dedication” and “commitment” by being there from sunup to sundown.
I have found this to be an expectation in businesses where you have to have a lot of billable hours, like lawyers, accountants, and consultants. In tech, at least for projects other than product development, it’s more that both clients and management always have unbridled optimism about what can be done in a given amount of time. And then the company tries to meet its unrealistic goals on the backs of the workers. Yes, some people really do get into it and like to work more than a normal amount of hours, but despite stereotypes they are the exception. I have never worked in product development but management always wants to be first to market and pushes staff to unrealistic objectives, ultimately for the money.
I spent most of my career in product development. Long hours during crunch times like when a deadline is about to hit and often at quarter end are part of the job. You can take it much easier in between those times. If there is never a “between those times”, it a failure of management.
I was an IT manager for many years. IMO long hours and crunch time near deadlines indicates a management failure. It always happens but I still say it’s a management failure, because it means one or both of 1) management has underestimated the effort and the gap has to be made up near the deadline, 2) management has not created an appropriate sense of urgency at the beginning. But I know that what you describe is almost always the pattern that actually happens.
This may be true for IT but it’s not nearly as true for manufacturing. Issues happen that are way beyond the control of everyone. An extreme example are the recent supply chain issues.
I can see that. With software, you are never waiting for a late shipment of bits and bytes.
I can’t really disagree with you, but that thinking only applies to a particular subset of jobs, namely the ones where the employees hate their jobs, or at least, would rather be doing something else, yet are coerced one way or another to working unpaid overtime. What irks me about this particular theory is that Adams advances it as a universal solution for all forms of employment, and seems not to understand that there are many people out there – usually the ones in creative jobs with a lot of autonomy – who absolutely love their work. They appear to work long hours because to them, it’s not really “work” at all. Adams seems to believe in a world where, universally, all managers are fools and all employees are hapless victims of abuse.
We spend so much of our lives working that we owe it to ourselves, if at all possible, to do the kind of work that we love, and managers owe it to their employees, if at all possible, to empower them with the kind of autonomy that gives them ownership and satisfaction in their achievements. This is admittedly not possible in all jobs, but it’s possible in more situations than one might initially expect. Adams doesn’t seem to recognize that it’s possible at all.
People who love their work might also hate being coerced into working unpaid overtime. I would be one of those. If I’m doing anything that brings you value, pay me for the moments of my life that I’m infer your direction. … motherfucker. (Speaking to a hypothetical employer)
I respect that you feel this way, but I’ve seen too many situations where employees have had their genuine love for and pride in their work essentially weaponized against them by management. “We can’t do this without you!” and “You’re doing such important work!” and “We’re all making sacrifices!” cheerleading from management to get workers to work insane, uncompensated hours. Usually accompanied by a lot of talk about “the team” and how “we’re really a family here.” But when a leave request comes in or the staff budget gets tight, suddenly it’s all just an impersonal business decision.
Thank you. That is one thing for which I would give Adams credit, insofar as realizing that in the greater cost-benefit analysis the risk that this will be abused by being turned de-facto into what is expected of all is too high.
More than a nitpick. The former telcos had nothing much to do with Bell Labs. I did work for Bell Labs up to the trivestiture. There was also no Bell Labs location I was aware of in California - and I’ve been to most of them.
hajario’s manager friend was lying - except maybe he worked for PacBell and did have pointy hair. Fits his delusion of grandeur. 
I just got the name of the company wrong. The brain fart was all me.
I thought it might have been your friend. That wasn’t one of Adams’ sins.
This may darn me to Heck, but I’ll always have room in my heart for Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light.
The flip side of the “strict 9 to 5” schedule thing is that even if you do finish what actually needs to be done early, you still can’t go home. And you also can’t come in early one day so you can leave at 4 to pick up your kid after school, or whatever.
You’re not alone. I wish he’d been used more.
I forget exactly where I came across it, but there was a mini-arc where it was revealed that Phil is Pointy-Headed Boss’s brother.