Engineer Andy's Journal: small offices and mad working hours

Small offices develop some interesting dynamics compared to large ones. There are about twenty people in the office I'm seconded to, and the hours that they work compared to my home office are very long, and they seem far more stressed than my home office.

As a "for instance", my boss here gets in to the office between 6:30am and 7:00am every day, and thinks nothing much of it.

The guys (all on salaries, and not getting overtime) work on average, a dozen hours overtime a week. To friends outside of engineering this doesn't make sense, as there is, in the health sector, always someone else who can carry a shift if you can't get all you need to do in your allotted time. If I don't do the work, nobody else will be doing it, so you work what hours you have to in order to get things out the door. The guys here take it as time in lieu which is an ok way, but not crash hot if you struggle to get time off to relax.

It is unusual, but a workmate and his drafter up here just did an all-nighter. Has yet to go home to sleep, and wont be going home til after work tonight. That is crazy! If he had to work a very late night yesterday, he shouldn't be here today. It just plain isn't healthy.