<story><title>“I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54289152</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nip</author><text>One day you come home and realize that you locked yourself out of your home.&lt;p&gt;You call the locksmith.&lt;p&gt;He arrives, looks at the door, fiddles with the lock for one minute, opens the door then leaves.&lt;p&gt;The next day you receive the bill, 150€.&lt;p&gt;Are you mad for spending so much for one minute of work?&lt;p&gt;You shouldn’t: you paid for the experience that allowed him to open it in 1 minute.&lt;p&gt;—&lt;p&gt;Recalling it from a discussion with a friend of mine on a related subject: the cost of experience.</text></item><item><author>zenincognito</author><text>I once went to court against a client who wouldn&amp;#x27;t pay his bills. The sum more than 35K. It took over 9 months to get to court ( as the court wouldnt give a date ) and countless docs and hours spent to come up with evidence folder. In Australia, a citizen can argue their case which I did without using any lawyers.&lt;p&gt;Finally, we both argued our case to a point where the client&amp;#x27;s defence was that there was no time log for the work that I had done. I pointed out that the contract stipulates performing of tasks and is not contingent on time spent. The judge laughed and ruled in my favor because he was fully onboard the argument that it doesn&amp;#x27;t matter ,legally speaking, how much time I was at the computer but matters that the task promised were delivered with high quality. The funny thing is that the client agreed that he has seen positive returns but felt overcharged. The judge on hearing this reprimanded him for wasting everyone&amp;#x27;s time and awarded costs and interests.&lt;p&gt;Pay for work not time spent on the computer.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aemreunal</author><text>Reminds of an exchange, potentially misattributed ([1]) to Picasso:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  A woman approaches Picasso in a restaurant, asks him to scribble something on a napkin and says she would be happy to pay whatever he felt it was worth. Picasso complied and then said, &amp;quot;That will be $10,000.&amp;quot;
  
  &amp;quot;But you did that in thirty seconds,&amp;quot; the astonished woman replied.
  
  &amp;quot;No,&amp;quot; Picasso said. &amp;quot;It has taken me forty years to do that.&amp;quot;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;quoteinvestigator.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;14&amp;#x2F;time-art&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;quoteinvestigator.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;14&amp;#x2F;time-art&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>“I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”</title><url>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54289152</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nip</author><text>One day you come home and realize that you locked yourself out of your home.&lt;p&gt;You call the locksmith.&lt;p&gt;He arrives, looks at the door, fiddles with the lock for one minute, opens the door then leaves.&lt;p&gt;The next day you receive the bill, 150€.&lt;p&gt;Are you mad for spending so much for one minute of work?&lt;p&gt;You shouldn’t: you paid for the experience that allowed him to open it in 1 minute.&lt;p&gt;—&lt;p&gt;Recalling it from a discussion with a friend of mine on a related subject: the cost of experience.</text></item><item><author>zenincognito</author><text>I once went to court against a client who wouldn&amp;#x27;t pay his bills. The sum more than 35K. It took over 9 months to get to court ( as the court wouldnt give a date ) and countless docs and hours spent to come up with evidence folder. In Australia, a citizen can argue their case which I did without using any lawyers.&lt;p&gt;Finally, we both argued our case to a point where the client&amp;#x27;s defence was that there was no time log for the work that I had done. I pointed out that the contract stipulates performing of tasks and is not contingent on time spent. The judge laughed and ruled in my favor because he was fully onboard the argument that it doesn&amp;#x27;t matter ,legally speaking, how much time I was at the computer but matters that the task promised were delivered with high quality. The funny thing is that the client agreed that he has seen positive returns but felt overcharged. The judge on hearing this reprimanded him for wasting everyone&amp;#x27;s time and awarded costs and interests.&lt;p&gt;Pay for work not time spent on the computer.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>_trampeltier</author><text>Just almost a good example. In this case, the biggest part from the bill would be the time to drive to your home. Also it is not just one minute work. It is also the time he took the phone call, prepare, maybe load some special tools on the car, then drive, work, drive back, clean everything, replace some tools, oils, make the paperwork and so on.&lt;p&gt;I did once a kind of such work as electrician, once on a weekend I got a pikett call, the work was done in 10 minutes. I wrote 1.5 hours, then of course a drama .. but finally, even these 1.5 hours was not enought with all the time I spend frome home to back home this saturday morning, because she could not open here electric door.</text></comment>