Labor Log Analysis
When we first began to discuss our major assignments and we began to talk about the labor log assignment, I was very intrigued and curious about many things. It was the first time I’ve had an assignment that was a culmination of a self report and truly revealed the nature of my work ethics. Will I be able to remember to do the log regularly or forget about it? Will I be judged for the way I work? But most importantly, what will the labor log show about my work ethics? At first, I didn’t believe that the assignment would reveal anything I didn’t already know: that I spend a lot of time working for many different reasons. But as I look back at the many different log entries that I have, I see that there is some surprising stuff and how much it shows about my day to day routine.
The labor log showed a lot of things such as the number of times I slacked off, my preferred choice of place to do work, how engaged I am in my work, and how I felt while I worked. To me, I feel like it really demonstrates a lot more than that. For example, I would usually begin to work around evenings or at night. This would mainly be because I would procrastinate often and put it off in the morning and tell myself that I have other things to do and I will get back to it later in the day. Another reason as to why I usually began to work at the end of the day was because my school schedule had me there from morning to evening and I would get home late.
Looking at my slacks on the labor log, I feel like the amount of times I got distracted was a bit too excessive. Although for me, it kind of makes more sense that my slacks overall are high because I don’t enjoy reading and writing (I’m more of a math fan). For the logs with less slacks but have a long working period, I think have really long slacks and less amount of time spent actually working. I feel like for the majority of my engagements were a bit higher than they should’ve been when I compare it to the amount of slacks I have. A correlation I notice as well is that when my mood is a negative emotion, the amount of slacks increases by a lot compared to when I’m feeling happy.
The location of where someone works also hugely impacts the amount of work they can get done and how fast they can get it done as well. Being at home wasn’t really a smart decision because of the many distractions at home. Especially because I’d come home at night and be tempted to work from my bed to then get comfortable and not get any work done. Working from the kitchen table wasn’t much of a better option because of my family walking in and out or I’d get distracted thinking about what to eat.
Something interesting I noticed about my logs from the start of the semester to the end is how low my engagement levels got. Even though I stated earlier that I believe my engagement levels should’ve been a bit lower, my engagement at the end was even lower. This was because of how quickly I burned out from having papers to write from multiple classes other than this one. For me, writing papers has been something I dread, not because they’re hard to write but because it’s just not my preferred subject to do for school.
To be honest, looking at the labor log and the information it provided was kind of eye opening. It’s a different feeling from knowing that I don’t have the best work ethics to visually seeing how the current work patterns I have do not suit me very well. The amount of slacks and
how much time it takes me to complete assignments is not very efficient and could be better. The labor log showed me what NOT to do in the future going forward in my college career and even in my future jobs. For example, maybe changing where I do my work could be what I need such as going to the library or even a cafe. Changing the environment could remove distractions such as my bed and my family. Another change I feel like I can’t ignore is having my phone around me, the fact that it’s so easily accessible and always by my side is not helpful especially when I’m looking for any excuse to avoid my work.
Honestly, making a labor log was a refreshing assignment and something I’d consider doing again for myself instead of for an assignment. It makes me feel accountable for my work ethics and makes it a bit easier to pinpoint what I need to improve on.
