Construction photos: Spending the day 'organizing' rather than 'taking' them—the invisible administrative work that creates overtime on-site

When I talk to company presidents who visit construction and facility sites, there is one phrase that almost always comes up: 'On-site during the day, paperwork at night.' They return to the office after the sun goes down and finally face their computers. Among those nighttime tasks, the one that quietly eats up time is 'organizing construction photos.' Taking them takes a moment. But organizing them takes all day. Today, I want to write about this 'invisible administrative work' while keeping the faces of those site presidents in mind.

The true nature of overtime is not 'spirit' but 'where administrative work is placed'

First, let's start with the numbers. Overtime for construction management (the work of coordinating site processes, quality, and safety) is not just a matter of perception; it is clearly shown in surveys.

• Engineers working over 45 hours of overtime per month on average: 13.09%

• Maximum monthly overtime exceeding 45 hours: 42.60%

• Likewise, exceeding 80 hours: 19.13%

(Source: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, 'Survey on Promoting Work Style Reform through Appropriate Construction Scheduling, etc.', 2023)

Since April 2024, the upper limit regulation on overtime work (in principle, 45 hours per month and 360 hours per year) has been fully applied to the construction industry. The 'over 45 hours' figures listed here mean that they are already on the verge of touching or crossing the legal line. It is not just a work-style issue; it has become a matter of protecting the company.

Even in private surveys, the average overtime for construction management is 38.5 hours per month. Compared to the 13.0-hour average for all company employees (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare), it is roughly three times higher (Source: Seko-Can Plus / ten-navi). Why does this happen? Because they are stuck on-site supervising during the day, administrative tasks like photos, records, and reports have to be done all at once in the evening. In other words, the true nature of the overtime is not the individual's ability or spirit, but a time-design problem where 'the only place to put administrative work is at night.'

Construction photos are a job that doesn't end with taking them

Among the many administrative tasks, what makes construction photos troublesome is that they 'don't end with the shooting.' If you write out the flow, it looks like this.

• Shooting: Taking photos with a small blackboard (showing the construction name, type, dimensions, etc.) included. Preparation and filling it out alone require manpower

• Organizing: Returning to the office and sorting into folders by shooting date, construction type, and location

• Creating ledgers: Pasting them into Excel or specialized software to create photo ledgers for submission

In an introduction case for photo management software, it is noted that 'just importing photos taken with a digital camera into a computer and organizing them could take over an hour a day' (Source: Photoruction, Hirayama Construction case). One hour every day for one project. If two or three projects are running in parallel, the night simply disappears. This is even more true for facility and civil engineering sites with a high number of photos to take.

I want you to stop and think about this for a moment. Can you answer immediately how much time is spent every month in your company organizing construction photos? Shooting is visible on-site, so it is easily noticed. But the organizing and ledger creation done quietly by one person in the office at night often goes unnoticed by anyone, and the entire burden rests on one person's shoulders.

The content of 'busy' is usually mixed up

What I feel when talking to presidents of various sites is that the content of being 'busy' is almost entirely 'mixed up.' Work that only you can do, work that can be handed to others, and work that is unnecessary in the first place are all lumped together in a big bag called 'tasks.' That is why you don't know where to start and end up holding everything yourself.

Even the common administrative task of construction photos changes its appearance when you break it down.

• Things that can only be done on-site: Shooting, confirmation during inspections

• Streamlining at the office: Importing photos, sorting folders, and creating ledgers

• Rethinking from the start: Are you taking too many photos, and which ones are truly necessary for submission?

The trick to writing it down on a single sheet is not to overthink it. Put the 'task being performed' on the left, the 'person doing it' in the middle, and the 'approximate monthly hours' on the right. This is enough. The moment you write it down, the question, 'Does the supervisor really need to be doing this?' will naturally arise.

Introducing tools like electronic small blackboards (a system for digitally embedding blackboards into photos; it can be used as official submission data if it meets Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism standards) is one option. However, what I want to emphasize strongly is that before introducing tools, you should first write down 'what tasks are being done, by whom, and for how many hours a month' on a single sheet of paper. If you get the order wrong, you will fall into the common trap of just adding more tools while the site remains the same.

Before hiring more people, first divide the work

When you are short-handed, you tend to think, 'I have to hire.' But for administrative tasks that are taken for granted, like construction photos, if you break them down into 'taking' and 'organizing,' you will definitely find parts that the president or site supervisor does not need to handle. If you can let go of those parts first, your nights will become a little shorter without having to hire new people.

Tonight, please try writing down the work you do at your computer in the office just once. If you find even one thing that 'doesn't have to be done by me,' that is the first step toward letting go. Where is the 'invisible administrative work' hiding in your company?

Recommended reading

An article that organizes the 'waste' remaining in construction industry administration into three categories.

On the common traits of companies that are told their 'explanations are vague.'

The true nature of the 'fuzziness' regarding evaluations and bonuses can also be solved by writing down your tasks.

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ShakeHands LLC
A business partner that organizes labor shortages from a structural perspective
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ShakeHands LLC is a partner that addresses labor shortages and business expansion for small and medium-sized enterprises, organizing options for hiring, outsourcing, and AI utilization to design the optimal approach.
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▶〈Warifuru〉 Streamlining labor shortages in the construction industry through 'task decomposition'
Before increasing staff, first divide the work. In a 60-minute free consultation, you can take home your company's 'first draft of a task decomposition sheet (1 page)' (consultation and consulting fees are 0 yen).