Time-on-Task

My dad introduced me to the concept of time-on-task.

He was the principal of a "Junior High School" as they were called back-in-the-day.

One of his jobs was to evaluate every instructor once a year. Many of them failed his evaluation and were put on improvement plans.

Two "high runners" for failure were "Failure to write a lesson-plan" (i.e. they were winging it) and "Low time-on-Task". 

As my dad explained it to me, the low time-on-task instructors dilly-dallied at the start of the session. They chit-chatted about what they had done on the weekend or their plans for the evening. Or they might let the kids horseplay or have conversations...waiting for them to calm down before starting instruction.

Kids adapt to the teachers' styles. My dad was very much in favor of giving them enough time to pull out a note-book and turn to a blank page before starting instruction. What is that? Maybe 30 seconds after the second bell rings.

Some instructors NEVER got to the required material before the end of the class session.

My dad deviated from the minimum requirements for the teachers who he judged to be inadequate. He demanded copies of daily lesson from those who did not use them. He was shocked to learn that some universities were teaching education majors that lesson plans were OPTIONAL. Many of the students who had attended those universities did not have a clue about how to organize and document an effective lesson plan. My dad had to teach those teachers what a functional plan looked like.

For the teachers who failed time-on-task, he typically moved them down a grade and "partnered" them with a good teacher who was in the grade they left. My dad coached the senior partner to remind the slacker that he was screwing the team if he did not deliver students who lacked skills and knowledge required to be successful the next year. Peer pressure can be a wonderful thing.

Later in life

Later in life I was given a lesson on time-on-task by a third-shift, alternate Committee Man (a Union Steward).

He was explaining why management was lucky to get five hours of work from a tradesman in an eight-hour work day. That is kind of a big deal on a Sunday when they are getting paid double-time, i.e. sixteen hours worth of wages. Five hours of work for sixteen hours of pay isn't a great investment.

"Look here, Joe. Right off the top you lose ten-percent for breaks. Contractually, you have to give them 0.8 hours of breaks. There is nothing you can do about that."

"Then you look at the goat festival (not his actual wording) in the mornings. You have them stand around waiting for their work-tickets. Doug (the planner) is still making changes to the tickets after the starting bell and the first electrician might get his work-ticket a half hour after he punches in. The last one waits an hour."

"Then the tradesmen have to go to the parts-crib to get any special parts they need. They stand-in-line until it is their turn."

"Then they go stand in line at the tool crib and pick up special tools."

"By then, it is time for first break. So they don't turn a wrench until 9:30 and two-and-a-half hours have gone by."

"Then, at the end of the work-day they have to return the special tools and any of the unused special parts, so they start standing-in-line right after last-break. You easily lose another hour there."

"It only gets worse from there. If they get into the middle of the job and they were given the wrong part or if they discover that then need a different special tool...the have to make another trip to the cribs."

"And it is MANAGEMENT failures that prevent you from getting 7.2 hours  of work out of your people." 

Things were much more organized by the time I left that company. They had a skilled tradesman with restrictions "kit" the jobs. The special parts and tools were put into snap-top bins and prepositioned those bins the job-site. The bins had a printed "manifest" taped to the lid listing what was included in them with boxes to check-off when the parts/tools went in and when they were returned. 

The tradesmen were informed of their weekend jobs late in the shift on Friday. That is something management had resisted because they were concerned that some tradesmen would be no-shows if they were assigned to unpopular jobs.