The reason they're not doing any work is because they're waiting for their code to compile!

Seriously though the managment literature I've seen indicates that the amount of productive time (ignoring toilet breaks, coffee breaks, nose picking, surfing etc.) people spend at work is actually surprising low. To the extent that the average is something like 50% and if someone's doing above 60% it's an achievement, and that's just actuall productive time spent. If you've also got meetings to attend and other office stuff your actuall time spent coding can get quite low which is a fact often forgoten by PMs and other managment types when arranging work plans.

Secondly high levels of effort are just not sustainable over the long term. To avoid burnout people should be operating at an average of around 60% of peak capacity. Higher levels of activity are off course possible and required but their needs to be corresponding periods of lower activity to recuperate. The concept of going to work every day and giving 110%, as some people seem to like to proclaim they do, never happens and those that try it are just heading for an early visit to the mortician.

The reason they're not doing any work is because they're waiting for their code to compile!

Seriously though the management literature I've seen indicates that the amount of productive time (ignoring toilet breaks, coffee breaks, nose picking, surfing etc.) people spend at work is actually surprisingly low. To the extent that the average is something like 50% and if someone's doing above 60% it's an achievement, and that's just actual productive time spent. If you've also got meetings to attend and other office stuff your actual time spent coding can get quite low which is a fact often forgotten by PMs and other management types when arranging work plans.

Secondly high levels of effort are just not sustainable over the long term. To avoid burnout people should be operating at an average of around 60% of peak capacity. Higher levels of activity are of course possible and required but there need to be corresponding periods of lower activity to recuperate. The concept of going to work every day and giving 110%, as some people seem to like to proclaim they do, never happens and those that try it are just heading for an early visit to the mortician.