Slack

April 16, 2001
DeMarco (Peopleware), a management consultant, says that in today's competitive, fast-moving economy, managers work far less effectively than before. Responding to restructuring and staff reductions, managers overemphasize deadlines and rush employees, sacrificing quality. Instead, says DeMarco, executives should encourage teamwork, discourage competition and allow training time. Unfortunately, tedious, jargon-heavy writing dulls DeMarco's worthwhile message.

May 1, 2001
International consultant DeMarco (Peopleware) presents his views on how corporations can become more effective. He states that in an age of acceleration, in which more work is crammed into less time, knowledge workers need slack time for reinvention, creativity, and growth. Slack time here is defined as "zero percent busy" and knowledge work is "think-intensive." The author offers his philosophy to all levels of management and gets to the core of what he thinks is wrong with today's modern corporations. Some of the problems he addresses include operating with meager staff, extended overtime, and unnecessary organizational meetings. His contention is that too many meetings take away from normal workday hours and create a need for managers and workers alike to incur overtime. While his views may sound innovative, they appear to be unrealistic and provide little direction for management trying to figure out how to keep with the competition. A marginal purchase for public libraries with business collections. Bellinda Wise, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2001
A recent national survey found that as many as one in six American workers are so overworked that they cannot use up their annual vacation allowance and nearly a third are so busy that they must eat lunch and work at the same time. These employees will welcome DeMarco's admonition to corporate America. He warns employers that it is time to "cut some slack." More than a decade ago in " Peopleware: Productive Projects "and Teams (1987), DeMarco suggested that management problems were more likely to be "sociological" than technological, and he now shows that doing more with less has its costs. Emphasizing the difference between efficiency and effectiveness, he argues that "organizations tend to get more efficient only by sacrificing their ability to change." Opportunities for growth, organizational learning, and risk-taking are also lost. Noting that employees who have no "down time" suffer stress and burnout, DeMarco catalogs the effects of stress on organizations. Employees might want to buy a copy for their boss!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)