Another Look at the Cost of Working in Games

After talking with a couple of friends I decided to take another look at the overtime data I posted on the 26th.  Specifically, I decided it would be interesting to look at a weekly breakdown.  People are more used to talking about hours-per-week and it makes the data a lot more approachable.  I'll still do it in minutes, to keep the integer accuracy.

I went through and sorted the each day's OT number into one of 5 categories:

1. Slacking off (working a short day)
2. Comp Time (specifically given time off in lieu of a holiday worked)
3. Regular OT (extra time spent working on a regular work day)
4. Holidays Worked
5. Weekends Worked

 I then summed the daily totals into weekly totals in each category and generated the following chart.

And for completeness, the net sum as well:

While doing that, I ran into a few days early on where I wasn't counting holidays worked/comped in the same way I was later.  I corrected those for this set of charts.  I may go back and adjust my previous data if I get the time.

Anyway, on with the cool stuff!

A couple of trends are pretty apparent.  After weeks of OT, and especially when I worked a weekend or holiday (or both), there is a bit of relaxation.  Mostly that came in the form of comp time, but I did slack off a bit after a run of weeks of OT.

You can also see the amount of slacking build up just prior to my post-project comp time and vacation.  That won't surprise anyone working in the industry - things slow down as the project is wrapping up.  There's really not a lot you can do at the office if you don't have bugs to fix.  So you come in a little later and maybe leave a little earlier.  As long as you stick around long enough to offer moral support and make sure those that do have work won't need help from you, you're free to go.

Finally, the overall trend of the project is a little more apparent.  Things start out quiet, with maybe a spike early on for a deadline.  Then a slowly building pattern of pulses - a push for a deadline followed by a little down time, then another push.  Toward the end it looks like I added more weekend time, but cut back a little on the regular-day OT a little.

Some stats

Weeks tracked: 132
Weeks with a 0 balance: 18
Weeks of holiday or vacation: 16
Working weeks with a 0 balance: 2

(Apparently I'm pretty bad at hitting a 0 balance.  Heh.)

Across all weeks, all numbers in minutes.
S & C = Slack & Comp time

	s & c	OT	total
Count	132	132	132
AVG	-159.8	246.5	86.7
MEDIAN	-60.0	108.5	25.0
Min	-2250.0	0.0	-2250.0
MAX	0.0	1941.0	1941.0
STDEV	334.6	344.1	517.9

Across weeks with non-zero values, again in minutes:

	s & c	OT	total
Count	98	104	114
AVG	-215.3	312.9	100.4
MEDIAN	-94.0	169.5	53.0
Min	-2250.0	2.0	-2250.0
MAX	-5.0	1941.0	1941.0
STDEV	373.1	360.1	556.4

The weeks where I had a lot of comp time is skewing things quite a bit, making it harder to see how much slacking I did.  Subtracting those weeks I get:

	s & c
Count	95
AVG	-148.8
MEDIAN	-93.0
Min	-784.0
MAX	-5.0
STDEV	151.7

That still has the occasional comp day mixed in, but takes out the worst of the effects, so should be easier to compare against the OT weeks.  Since the OT still contains the holidays worked and those are the reason for the comp days, it seems only fair to leave them in.


Conclusions

Again, this is by no means a complete picture.  These numbers don't capture things like the effects on my health and well being, relationships with friends, etc.  But it's a start.  Now to see if I can figure out a good way to start tracking something quantifiable for those other aspects of my life and start including them on my new spreadsheet...