Do you think you add value in your job?

In the 5 man team within a greater engineering department, we designed/created product which generated £8million last year but even then the scum sucking piece of **** private equity firm still is holding the sword above our heads.
 
So which part of HR or cheesey management do you work for using phrases like "adding value"?

PK!

I used to have similar views, but I actually used it myself a month or so ago.

My opinion is that I do genuinely add value to one project in particular at work, which was backed up by fulltime members of the project team when consulted on the issue. Whereas there is other stuff I work on where half the time it just feels like I am 'going through the motions' and not really adding much value in the sense that it would be more cost effective to bypass my involvement altogether and get someone else to do 80% of it in 20% of the time.

So in summation I feel that the value I add in some areas is offset by the wastage in other areas. If my employer wanted to maximise my effectiveness, they should allocate me accordingly.

On a less personal level, I do think there is quite a lot of 'wasted resource' around the country based on what people say. Or in other words, there are opportunities out there for firms to make cost savings (in the medium-long term) by laying off some staff.

On a related note, what percentage of your contracted time do you think you are actually adding value (or perhaps just 'doing actual work')? My firm works a 37.5hr week, but I reckon by the time you take out chatting, fag breaks, internet browsing, getting the teas in, personal phonecalls, waiting around for things (e.g. people who are late for a meeting), technical downtime/issues, unnecessary admin yadayadayada you are talking probably something nearer 32hrs or less.
 
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Yup I think I do, for starters the guy doing the job before me got £500 a day, I don't, therefore they are saving buckets by having me, arse :(

'Adding value' a term used at my place of work a lot as we're all about increasing the 'GVA per hour' of the region.
 
No.

All my work is project based and I complete my tasks in budget while making no profit.
For instance the Government have thrown £250,000 at us to deliver the new BTEC Diploma in Health & Social care.
We will have to spend all the money and account for it.
 
The thing is you can still add value even if you are idle a lot of the time. A few years ago I used to have a job where I would spend a fair bit of time on the forums, would leave 20mins early most days etc. But the work I did do was necessary and I was only one of two people capable of doing it without extensive training. I was also very poorly paid (£11-13k) so I didn't cost the company much in terms of salary - as they found out when, a couple of months after I moved on, they made the other role redundant and tried to bring in a contractor to do it.

I've often thought that one of the problems with resource accounting is that the 'bean counters' often have at best a very limited understanding of what the individuals involved actually do. They can count revenues and costs, but they can't always account for things like manual workarounds undertaken by people which would result in drastic changes to the above if they were ceased.
 
Most of the time, but not when my boss puts me on a job that he hasn't finished designing like the job I am working on at the moment.

Two weeks work looking like it could go down the pan because of a little lack of forethought over something very obvious.

At least I'm getting paid!
 
Not really, I'm cheap though so the time wasted doesn't cost them much.

Most useful stuff I seem to do is helping people with computer issues even though thats not my job in any way or form.

Don't think I'm suited to be a wage slave, would much rather do something for myself.
 
They laid me off last year, then took me back on two weeks later. I've had a pay rise since so I guess I'm worth it ;):p
 
You make great cups of coffee, that's adding value right there... :p

(Yes, I work with knowlesy and yes I am joking! He does make a good cuppa' though.)

I think I add value to the company, who else is going to configure switches/routers/etc for peanuts?

my cups of coffee are amazing !!!!
 
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