man-year
A project manager estimates the task will require three man-years to complete.
Noun: A unit of measurement representing the amount of work done by one person in one year, typically calculated as 8 hours per day for 260 working days (or a similar standard), used to estimate labor requirements or productivity in projects, industries, or organizations.
- (The project needed the equivalent of 50 workers working for one year each.)
- (The work would take 12 people working full-time for one year.)
- (A standard calculation for a full-time employee's annual labor.)
"per man-year": Used to express productivity rates or costs relative to a single worker's annual output.
- The factory produces 10,000 units per man-year. (Each worker produces 10,000 units annually.)
"cumulative man-years": The total number of man-years spent on a project over its entire duration.
- The cumulative man-years for the research exceeded 100. (The total effort across all years and workers was over 100 man-years.)
Person-year (n): A gender-neutral alternative to "man-year," referring to the same unit of work.
- The agency now uses person-year instead of man-year in official reports. (A more inclusive term.)
Man-hour (n): A unit of work done by one person in one hour, often used for smaller-scale calculations.
- The repair job took 20 man-hours. (Equivalent to one person working 20 hours or two people working 10 hours each.)
- Work-year: The amount of work accomplished by one worker in a year.
- Labor-year: A unit measuring labor input over a year.
- Annual work unit: A standardized measure of annual labor.
- "a man-year of effort": A common phrase emphasizing the total labor input.
- Writing this textbook required a man-year of effort. (It took one person working full-time for a year to complete.)