Journal FortKnox's Journal: What Kind of Worker Are You?? 19
For the past few weeks, my wife has had her new job downtown (full days wed, fri; half day thurs). Since we both work downtown full time two days a week, we decided to start driving together. Its ending up being a bit of a hassel.
We don't like the same kind of music, we are two VERY different drivers (she gets free parking, so I drive until we drop off Joey, then she drives the highway into town), and we both get frustrated at different things (on the road). This makes the drive to and from work a bit stressful. But this isn't the bad part.
She gets to work at 8:30, and is ready to leave by 4. I'm usually (when I drive myself) a rather late morning person. I get to work about 9, and I work 8 hours, then keep working until I come to a stopping point (usually 5:30 or 6). I work through lunch (I pack it and eat it while I'm working), so I put in over 8 hours each day, but only report 8. This is why I'm a consultant. I get the crap done and sacrifice some of my own time to make sure stuff is done the right way.
So, everyday at 4 there is a phone argument (and then another one every 10 minutes until I leave). She's the type that puts in exactly the time that is told to her, and that's it. She's out the door. I'm the type that puts in extra time, and make sure everything is working good. Perhaps its because IT is economically still on shakey ground, but I always want to make sure I leave the day with my bosses happy and knowing that I put in a full day.
So what kinda of worker are you? You work 8 hours and you're gone? You stay late? You leave early? Do you report extra/less time?
On a side note: Joey decided to start talking this week. Instead of just a noise coming out of his mouth, he's trying to mimic speak. There are specific "words" of gibberish and pauses between the words now coming out of his mouth. He'll sit and carry on a conversation for hours now. Its great fun. No sign of his tooth cutting through, yet, either...
We don't like the same kind of music, we are two VERY different drivers (she gets free parking, so I drive until we drop off Joey, then she drives the highway into town), and we both get frustrated at different things (on the road). This makes the drive to and from work a bit stressful. But this isn't the bad part.
She gets to work at 8:30, and is ready to leave by 4. I'm usually (when I drive myself) a rather late morning person. I get to work about 9, and I work 8 hours, then keep working until I come to a stopping point (usually 5:30 or 6). I work through lunch (I pack it and eat it while I'm working), so I put in over 8 hours each day, but only report 8. This is why I'm a consultant. I get the crap done and sacrifice some of my own time to make sure stuff is done the right way.
So, everyday at 4 there is a phone argument (and then another one every 10 minutes until I leave). She's the type that puts in exactly the time that is told to her, and that's it. She's out the door. I'm the type that puts in extra time, and make sure everything is working good. Perhaps its because IT is economically still on shakey ground, but I always want to make sure I leave the day with my bosses happy and knowing that I put in a full day.
So what kinda of worker are you? You work 8 hours and you're gone? You stay late? You leave early? Do you report extra/less time?
On a side note: Joey decided to start talking this week. Instead of just a noise coming out of his mouth, he's trying to mimic speak. There are specific "words" of gibberish and pauses between the words now coming out of his mouth. He'll sit and carry on a conversation for hours now. Its great fun. No sign of his tooth cutting through, yet, either...
it depends (Score:1)
I am salaried. (Score:1)
Re:I am salaried. (Score:2)
Same with me... (Score:2)
My wife works exactly her hours. Why? Because she's a cog in a giant machine, and there are many cogs like her. Not that her work isn't important, it's just that if she doesn't get it then done someone else will.
There is nobody that will do my job if I don't. If I have a problem that I leave overnight, it is still there in the morning pretty much 100% of the time.
Well... (Score:2)
Congrats on the tyke talking. I've always wanted to try and get my friend's kids to talk in an English accent. I wonder how hard that is to do?
Re:Well... (Score:2)
I wasn't very clear. He isn't speaking english, its just that instead of a squeal or whatever, he just talks gibberish (no real words, but it 'sounds' like speech).
But teaching a kid to talk in an accent is easy, if everyone around him uses an english accent for a couple years. Kids pick up speech by mimicing others.
My son's babysitter/daycare lady is italian, so all her kids are bi-lingual (which is funny, because none of them listen to her when she asks them to do something in english, but if she speaks italian, they know she means business). Can't wait for Joey to start picking up some italian....
drinking the poison kool-aid (Score:2)
Then I kinda saw that I was just a pawn in the big game board that was that place. So I detox'ed and left.
Now, hell... I work retail. The first law of working retail is what I call the "Law Of Least Aggravation". Do whatever is necessary to get done with your day without any pains in the ass.
Of course there are no issues that can really come home with you, no alert pager, no company email.
At the on-hiatus tech job... Man I worked my ass off, and I still do lots of work for free, but it's a question of being "close to the metal" in that place. It's like 6 people, I know for a fact that I am an integral part of the company.
Depends on the job.. (Score:1)
also might have something to do with the programming being more mentally stimulating then password resets and reboots.
but boy, do I ever get to read slashdot more..
--
8 hours (Score:2)
Well... (Score:2)
At certain times of year I am working a LOT. At other times of year, when the big big project has lots of time before it is due, and there aren't any little projects around, I sort of work a bit, do some stuff, work a bit more, do some stuff....
And then, at one particular time of year, after the big project is done, but before the next big one can be started (well... more can always be done, but nothing imminent or interesting or inspiring really), if there are no little projects, I do practically nothing. Last year during that time period, I bought a house, and started actually posting to
What does this mean in terms of hours per day? Well... I never really work more than 9 hours a day. But sometimes I only work 4, and sometimes I work 7 days a week.
Ditto (Score:2)
Sometimes I have slashdot days, sometimes I don't (this week has been particularly thin on slashing)
I also have the ability to work from home, which is key.
My turn, my turn!!!!! (Score:2)
i work about 60hrs a week (Score:1)
At the regular job we are 24x7 datacenter support.
With the clients it's whatever coes up during the week.
Normally I like to work a problem straight through or till i'm at a reasonable stopping point.
As I get older I'm not as Gung Ho as I used to be.
My job.. (Score:2)
On a serious note, my job is really fluxuating as far as the business goes. Some days it's a 12er, others I have about 10 minutes of actual work. When an application is going through QA, I get to sit back and wait for the bugs to come in. Easy work, I play some chess, post on slashdot.
I put in 40 hours a week, or I should say I put down even if I'm at 32, because chances are the week before I put in 48. It balances out, and my boss is happy with me just always putting down 40 on my timecard. I'm a consultant, I make sure I can satisfy the need my company has, and I make damn sure of it.
I really applaud you for staying extra to make sure everything is taking of. More consultants need to do that... now back to chess ^_^
Hmmm (Score:2)
Beginning in July I was hired full time. I am the only one at the company creating online help and training courses; so my time really varies. If I have an urgent deadline, I'm here until it is done right. If I'm cruising in the middle of a long project (like today) I'm out at 4:00.
I believe you need to do what you need to do to get the project done and done right the first time; but at the same time you need to have a life outside of work.
Out
Right now a contract programmer... (Score:2)
The only bummer is that once in a while I have to make a trip out to the HQ, and that is usually crunch time. (Get work like a bachelor for a few weeks while out of town). Anyway, for the most part it's a good life.. crawl out of bed at 8:30am, warm up some coffee and get behind my PC and check my email. 10:00am start coding, 12:00pm take a 2 hour break. 2:00pm go back to a couple more hours of coding... 4:00pm unit test my code for the day.. if at a point where reasonable.. and then spend some time checking my email again, helping co-workers, getting things wrapped up.. etc.
Nicest thing is, I am home all day long to watch my 2 month old girl grow up.
Well (Score:2)
On the other hand, when I'm home, I'm home. No Email, pager, cell, whatever. Same for vacation--it also helps that since Ms. Cap is a Travel Agent, we usually end up going somewhere that is either out of town or that doesn't have reliable communications, or both. The last time I went out of town, a fire started and they decided to put it out with gasoline. (sigh) Fortunately, before sr. management got a chance to get moving and really mess things up, I returned, typed in Oreo* and everything became all golden and light.
* Obligatory Urban Legend Joke
I get the job done... (Score:2)
My posted hours are 7:30am to 4:15pm M-F with breaks from 9-9:20am and 2:30-2:50pm and lunch from 11:45-12:30. I usually show up between 7:30 and 8am, I think I have taken a break twice sense I've been there, and I usually take about an hour for lunch, although I have taken as much as one and a half before. I usually leave between 4:30 and 5:00, although it isn't unusual for me to leave at 6pm. I have been there until 1am before. I have to carry the pager every other week, so I'm on call 24x7 then. If I get a call in the middle of the night, it is usually a backup error with the tape drive, and backup runs at 2am. I can fix this from home, so it isn't a big deal, except waking up and being coherent enough to troubleshoot an AS/400 problem at 2am tends to wreck your sleep cycle.
While at work, I'm not neccessarily working. I browse /. sometimes, I go out to the production line and flirt^H^H^H^H^H discuss user needs with the cute girls on the line. (They fight over me, it's great... "Hey, you talked to her yesterday, talk to me today!") Hey, it's a hard job, but somebody has to find out the users' needs. :-) And I might swing by and talk to my EE friend in development engineering. But that's usually just to get up and move around after sitting at the PC for a while. I usually average about 45 hours of actual work a week, not including the things I do to prepare for work. Like right now, I'm rewriting our shipping program from RPG on the AS/400 to Java with a JDBC interface with the AS/400 and a TCP/IP interface with FedEx's system, since they are our "Preffered shipping partner" now. (Good riddance, UPS!) I currently reading some books on JDBC interfacing with AS/400, and learning more about servlets. So, even when I'm not working, I'm working. An extreme example of this would be yesterday, when I was in the hospital [slashdot.org], I had my Java Servlets & JSP book and my laptop, writing some code. (Note to self: Go back and make sure code makes sense... I was on morphine and some other opiate which is supposed to be twice as strong as morphine.)
So, I guess to summarize, I get the job done, if it takes 4 hours or 12 hours. But I try to make it balance out so I'm not slacking and not killing myself either.
I used to be salary, now... (Score:2)
The nice thing about being hourly now is that I can give myself a pay raise by working more hours. I've decided to work an extra 10 hours a week giving myself an effective 25% pay increase. (No higher rate for longer hours, but I don't have to ask if I can work OT or not.) I figure an extra 10 hours a week isn't abusive to either me or my employer and so they're not likely to want to revise their OT policy.
But I remember working 50 hours a week on salary. Then in a crisis you put in 80 or something insane... and you get nothing for it. If I can help it, I'm not doing that again. It sure didn't help me not get laid off. Hell, one job I used to work holidays (salary job again) and when the lay-offs came it was "so-long, sucker!" Working hard for a company is no guarantee that you are going to keep your job so why kill yourself?
You should meet some of the jokers I know who kept their jobs through the lay-off cycle. Lazy. Lazy slobs who shrugged work off on to the likes of me. Those guys kept their jobs, but all the hard workers went out the door. Needless to say those companies are in serious trouble or toast now... but I don't want vengence or vindication, I just wanted to keep my job.
Sorry, I've got a little shell-shock from being laid-off so many times in the last year.