The Boss Wants to Make You More Efficient

For years when AT&T Inc. threw a retirement party, employees had to enter the names of attendees in the telecom company’s expense-reporting system. It was the kind of small  annoyance that is an accepted part of office life for millions of white-collar workers. 

But a technology team at AT&T figured the requirement, plus a similar one for service-anniversary parties, was costing its workers 28,500 hours a year that they could be spending on more important tasks. So the company scrapped it, and in the past two years has made more than 160 similar moves it estimates are saving employees nearly 3 million hours a year.