Comments on: Busy and/or Bursty?

By: Niche Blueprint Bonus

Niche Blueprint Bonus — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:56:24 +0000

This is an interesting discussion.

Now as company goes global and some of the boss are regional boss, it is really no such thing as 9-5 job.

I guess the performance based on results instead of busyness.

By: voip service

voip service — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 02:20:16 +0000

Just busy, and worn, maybe not to much bursty. The problem is the volume of emails you have to deal with everyday, it kills a lot of time and make everybody very busy.

By: Singapore Property

Singapore Property — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:16:51 +0000

I’ve discussed this topic with some of my friends. Interestingly, we observed that “busy” is more important in structured work like manufacturing while “burst” is more important in creative work like advertising. Ultimately, the approach to work must agree with the type of work. Therefore, I think the right formula is to look at the type of work within the 2 ends of the spectrum between structured and creative. If it leans more towards structured work, then the approach should lean towards “busy”. Vice versa.

By: Parenting Expert

Parenting Expert — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:04:52 +0000

This is an interesting discussion.
Most companies are going global nowadays and its inevitable that there could be members within a team from differing timezones. How do you justify a member in a team sitting in his own timezone from 8-5 while the others starts work in his own “8-5″ ?
While there should be a balance between busy and bursty, i think companies should give credits to the deliverables instead of ‘clocking’ time – appearing ‘busy’. My team works virtually from differing timezones and there is no exact yardstick to measure our ‘busyness’ “)

By: Alan Crane

Alan Crane — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:43:25 +0000

With the proliferation of technology and collaboration tools, it is inevitable that companies need to re-look into the ways they conduct business and work. Bursty or busy ? it all boils down to the deliverables. To be honest, I kinda like the idea of bursty as i’ve seen and am aware that some employees could be well “busy” while not really doing anything productive. I know there will be camps that might say bursty has its downside as well. Example would be how do you quantify whether an employee is really supposed to be doing what he is doing at a given point in time ? I think certain level of trust has to be given to companies who embraces bursty types.

I think IBM is one good example of allowing its staffs to work from anyway and focusing on its outcome. And i am sure they have balanced “bursty and busy” as well. At present, unfortunately, i have little examples that i can think of from the BIG blue.

By: Online Calculater

Online Calculater — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:08:25 +0000

Here is my thought: the busy need the burst and vice-versa.

A new company always began with burst because they need to be creative and test out a lot of functionality. As they master all the basic skills and understanding of each specific task, the busy slowly take over. Through time, the busy are required to maintain the business. However, the burst must also coexist with the busy in order to expand the business. A business with only the busy will slowly die down and though they may still exist, their business will only decline or if they are lucky, they might stay constant for a while.

Technologies are very important and it’s always up to the burst to keep up with each new creation. Most small businesses tend to fail over time because they fail to change their old ways and they usually witness defeat and then they start to wonder what happened? They are always busy with their daily work and they neglect adapting to the new ways to meet the demand. Whatever your business is, busy + burst is a must. Burst help expand the company and busy help maintain the expansion.

By: Bruno Baketalo

Bruno Baketalo — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:26:13 +0000

I.T. is affecting nearly every facet of human endeavor, and that effect is to speed up, to simplify the process of work, of innovation, of scientific exploration. Everything is speeding up, business is more open to public, everyone can be successful. For me, a student of computer science, the future is bright, even in country like Croatia.

By: Jennifer Okimoto

Jennifer Okimoto — Mon, 14 May 2007 05:34:59 +0000

Two thoughts – 1) as more people work on virtual teams rather than traditional office settings the busy/burst issue becomes less of an issue because “face time” disappears. Instead companies will have “presence” to see whether people are online or not…and the nature of how an individual goes about his or her work becomes much less important.

2) As social computing tools become more prevalent in the enterprise, the business value of bursty will begin to be recognized largely because it is visible. Instead of “I’m working on the document and will get it to you next week for your review,” colleagues will converse, collaborate, co-create together and “managers” (or whoever might be interested) will be able to watch, moniter progress, and chime in as they wish. In the bursty world the hierarchical distinctions break down and leveraging different expertise and each individual’s actual contribution become much more important to getting to end game.

One other thought – quality standards and deadlines don’t disappear in the bursty world.

By: TheAnand

TheAnand — Sat, 12 May 2007 16:15:52 +0000

yea, though I dont understand this whole post, but i think it enough to be dynamic and productive than be stuck to traditions and discipline!

By: Edmund Ng

Edmund Ng — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:24:04 +0000

As office co-workers get more advanced and more structured, there are more meetings, more tele-conferences, video meetings. Unknowingly, the job scope of any known person has probably increased by 3-4 folds over the last ten years.

Busy and burst approaches are just too hard to distinguish. While there are productivity tools like black berry that makes people more mobile, it has inherently increased ones responsibilities.

There will always be people acting busy, e.g. “Oh I’m on skype with a customer” when they might be probably spending their time watching a clip on YouTube. Probably their protest against the additional job scopes that was not indicated on their job appointment letters.