What hours do you expect someone to work?

[Daniel Larn]

I used to do 14 hour shifts (average), with an hour break, 7 days a week for 12 weeks at a time. We got 4 weeks off in between.

...it was 'kin awful.

I see both sides of the argument here, and there is no right answer.

For me i'd go for a salary, and define a clear scope of work for the day/week/month for each role. You pay people for work, not for hours.

So long as you're happy with the work being done, and the price you're paying for it, does it matter if it takes 4hrs or 14hrs a day to complete?.

 

[Beowulf]

For me i'd go for a salary, and define a clear scope of work for the day/week/month for each role. You pay people for work, not for hours.

This. If you want good people then you have to treat them as good people. Treating people as slaves and chaining them to the job for X, Y or Z number of hours each day/week is automatically assuming them to be incapable of managing their own time.

The people who work for me don't have fixed working hours. They all have a base salary plus a share of the profits, in return I set each of them a performance target which is appropriate for the area of the business they operate in. If they can't meet the target they usually self-select, otherwise I show them the door.

Plenty of my guys only work 15 or 20 hours a week, mostly from home, because they are capable of meeting their targets in that time. Some choose to sit at their desk in the office for 8 or 9 hours a day. It's their choice.

I'm not in the business of chaining someone to their desk for an arbitrary number of hours each week though. I would much rather communicate what needs to be done and leave them to get on with it, and if they can do what's necessary without working full days then good for them.

 

[michael N123]

As a farmer with stock I really have never seen the need to work like you are suggesting is necessary.

Dad drove round our cows for 20 minutes to see everything was upright and that was all the stock work that needed done today

Some people like to create hard work out of nothing

 

[beefandsleep]

Dad drove round our cows for 20 minutes to see everything was upright and that was all the stock work that needed done today

Some people like to create hard work out of nothing

As a farmer with stock I really have never seen the need to work like you are suggesting is necessary.

Every farm is different, I have cattle on feed every day of the year as well as grazing. Arable and sheep enterprises also, contract baling. Not everyone is pottering about with a few beasts.

 

[michael N123]

Every farm is different, I have cattle on feed every day of the year as well as grazing. Arable and sheep enterprises also, contract baling. Not everyone is pottering about with a few beasts.

We’ve 1600 sheep +lambs and 90 cows + calf’s do all our own cropping and abit of contract work hardly pottering aboutI’ve lambs on hoppers and cows on feed but it’s not hard to fill everything up for the weekend is it

 

[beefandsleep]

Certainly not but assuming everyone farms in the same way on similar land with the same type of stock and therefore must be making work for themselves or doing something wrong for working 3 hrs a day over the weekend is a wee bit arrogant isn’t it? If you don’t spend at least a couple of hrs checking 1600 ewes and lambs every day I’m quite surprised actually. Would you mind me asking if you work weekends at lambing and calving? I’m sure you wouldn’t dream of asking staff to help in the lambing shed on Sunday morning. Average out those hrs. But I’m sure that’s different, it’s only 3 months if the year! And harvest and drilling, silaging.
I might be small scale in feeding terms but I don’t see why 400 feeding cattle should get any less attention than 4000.
Attention to detail is vital in any well run business and locking the yard gate on Friday evening and strolling in at 8 on a Monday morning will never be acceptable here thanks.

 

[michael N123]

Certainly not but assuming everyone farms in the same way on similar land with the same type of stock and therefore must be making work for themselves or doing something wrong for working 3 hrs a day over the weekend is a wee bit arrogant isn’t it? If you don’t spend at least a couple of hrs checking 1600 ewes and lambs every day I’m quite surprised actually. Would you mind me asking if you work weekends at lambing and calving? I’m sure you wouldn’t dream of asking staff to help in the lambing shed on Sunday morning. Average out those hrs. But I’m sure that’s different, it’s only 3 months if the year! And harvest and drilling, silaging.
I might be small scale in feeding terms but I don’t see why 400 feeding cattle should get any less attention than 4000.
Attention to detail is vital in any well run business and locking the yard gate on Friday evening and strolling in at 8 on a Monday morning will never be acceptable here thanks.

everyday when lambing and winter but at this time of year There’s no need to be there all day everyday if I can get worked up well on a Friday there’s not a lot to do the next few days is what I meant so we can do other things

 

[beefandsleep]

That’s great for you, it works for you on your farm, anyone who knows me would laugh at the suggestion I make hard work of anything. Dairy farming friends and relations think I have a very easy laid back life, hence the forum name. Point is it’s a bit silly to generalise and make assumptions about the labour requirements of someone’s business based on a few forum posts.

 

[Stevethemeat]

I once worked a herdsmans job where I was doing 96 hours a week I had an hour for breakfast and was burning out fast after 2 months started to take a couple of hours after breakfast off to catch up and owners wife complained about not working hard enough next day they were back in full control and I was gone straw and camel was the moral on this employer [emoji57]

 

[thesilentone]

Employment of people is reasonably simple if you follow the protocols.

The question and opinions in this thread are interesting, but not that important. If you put 10 people in a room and asked them to comment on the perfect working hours/environment you would get 10 answers.

Just follow the protocols, be good employers and develop people.

I mean, we have one poster off a Dairy Farm who feels a quick drive round the cows, and that's it for the day..ppht

Typical youth 'look but don't see' I'll bet any other set of eyes could find 101 things needing done....