Intel Austin a testing ground for productivity

Intel Corp. is the biggest, richest and most formidable chip company in the world, but that doesn't mean it can't be more productive.

The company has more than 81,000 employees and nearly that many meetings, if former employees are to be believed.

But Nathan Zeldes, an engineer for the company, is pushing Intel to consider practices that would allow workers to get more work done. Engineers actually worry about stuff like that.

Last year, Intel bought into some of Zeldes' suggestions and authorized pilot studies for 300 technical workers in Austin and Chandler, Ariz., on two ideas.

The results?

The first study, called "Quiet Time," was judged a success.

A lot of Intel workers liked the idea of having designated quiet time so that they could get heads-down into the enormous complexities of an engineering project or similar work without being called into a meeting or otherwise interrupted.

Intel Austin is incorporating the idea as standard practice.

Tuesday mornings are now official quiet time at Intel's Austin operations. No meetings are scheduled, and other interruptions are minimized unless the matter is critically important.

"The intent was to give people a half-day of continuous uninterrupted time to work," said Brad Beavers , Intel's Austin site manager. "In that time, you could focus on things that needed uninterrupted attention, and people wouldn't be bothering you."

After seven months of Quiet Time, 45 percent of the workers involved said it helped them in their jobs, and 71 percent recommended that the program be extended elsewhere in the company.

The second study, called "No E-mail Day," was judged more of a flop. Chip engineers tend to regard e-mail as far too valuable to do without, even for just one day a week.

No E-mail Day was actually just a day of limited e-mail, when employees were encouraged to talk to colleagues face to face instead of bombarding them with marginally useful electronic messages.

But in a company like Intel, e-mail can be valuable because workers are frequently away from their workplace for meetings, laboratory work or travel.

"Some people find that e-mail, rather than being invasive, is actually a good mechanism to reach someone," Beavers said. "It is easier for me to deal with an e-mail request because I can prioritize it as the need dictates."

So the No E-mail Day got a thumbs down. Twenty-nine percent of those involved said it was effective for them, and 60 percent recommended extending it to the rest of the company.

But in Austin, Intel will recommend that employees not bombard others with marginal messages.

Zeldes now says he will take the Quiet Time concept to Intel management to see if it can be expanded beyond Austin.

The idea for more quiet time at Intel is not unique to Zeldes. Mark McDermott , a key manager for Intel's Austin chip design effort a decade ago, says he constantly pushed for fewer meetings and more quiet time to boost his engineering group's productivity.

He gave away copies of a book on forming more productive work teams as a way of trying to get around interruptions.

"I met with every new employee who joined the group and gave them a 30-minute diatribe about the challenges of getting work done at Intel," said McDermott, who now teaches engineering at the University of Texas.

"One of the many things new employees don't realize is that in the cubicle environment, along with the plethora of meetings that Intel likes to have, that it is very hard to be productive."

kladendorf@statesman.com; 445-3622