Saturday, March 2, 2019

Venting - Work Edition

It’s the weekend!!!!!!! Which means what … nothing ….. well nothing to me. I worked last weekend so this weekend I’m being more lazy than normal. I woke up this morning and realized it’s nearly time for my social media break (March 6 - April 20th). It’s a rough time to go on a social media break to be honest. In March alone I’m going to North Carolina for a SMPS conference (Ashville) and then going to spend a few days afterwards with my cousin and a friend who just moved to the area. Other interesting things of note for the lent season: my Auburn Tigers will join the rest of the SEC for the Gymnastics Championship in New Orleans (the weekend after my trip or I’d be there); my boss is planning an employee appreciation night at our local college’s baseball game which was really fun last year; my SIL has a birthday; then in April my friend Katie and I are going to see Kiss in Birmingham, and I personally think Baby Sussex will be here sometime in March cause I don’t think Meghan is making it to April, but that’s just my opinion. I’m sure there’s other fun things in the mix I haven’t even thought about yet.

It should be a fun and relaxing month or so, and I can’t begin to tell you how I need it. The last month at work has been beyond insane, and I know I say that a lot but this past month nearly broke Marcy. A submittal I should have had over a month to work on solid, ended up being crammed into a week and a half and in that timeframe, I also had another one to get out the door, and assist with two others. The week to get it done would have been ok but I had a Subconsultant that just wouldn’t send me their information. I finally got it the DAY BEFORE I HAD TO PRINT. That’s not good. That did not make for a happy Marcy. The submittal ended up being 5 pages shy of 200 pages. Not gonna lie almost added some fluff to get me there but I ran out of time. It’s a good submittal. Do we have a snowballs chance in hell of getting the contract? Time will tell. I can honestly say that I did my part. That’s all I can do.

As you know dear reader, I’ll give my job everything I have all week long, I do my best to NOT work a weekend. I think it’s good for me and good for my company for me to have those two days. However, as I recently told a co-worker sometimes you do what you have to do to get it done. Her response to that made my blood boil. She basically told me to my face that I “Shouldn’t be working on Saturdays” then she sent me a link to an article that said “Always leave office on time” saying “you really should read this.” I guess implying that I needed the wisdom of this article in my life. To summarize the article this random dude on Linked In had shared an image of 7 points about why someone should always leave the office on time, then he gave his own 2 cents about each of those points after of course telling everyone how surprised he was that his post nearly went viral, whatever dude.  
Look don’t get me wrong I get it … balancing work and life is a struggle everyone has. Some have kids, husbands, pets, that require their attention at certain times, I myself like my quality time with my TV and adult beverages. I get that I totally do. However, I would argue I’m paid, quite well I should add, to do a job. It’s up to me to get that job done. Literally whatever it takes to get that job done is what I’m going to do. If I need to work a couple extra hours during the week to make that happen then that’s what I’ll do. If a Project Manager isn’t getting back with me the way I think he/she should then I’m going to start putting together pieces and parts knowing that when he does finally engage it may change but at least I’ll have a start of something. . . . anything. The deadline doesn’t change cause she/he isn’t doing his/her part. What my coworker fails to realize is that that PM is usually doing actual work work. Don’t get me wrong our work is important too, but the work HE/SHE does pays my salary which in turn allows me the benefits of enjoying my life away from work. That same PM likely works many a weekend and doesn’t get to complain about it, then again that PM makes way more money than I do for that privilege. Hell last week we had a PM who ended up in the hospital last Friday after spending 3 days walking around unable to breathe. Like for real guys he was not able to take a breath but he did a presentation, had 3 conference calls, visited two offices and then on Friday his coworker drove him to an Urgent Care and the Urgent Care put him in an ambulance. He’s better now but Friday night it was scary wondering if we were ever going to be able to talk to him again. So that’s an extreme that I don’t condone but I can totally understand the mentality behind it. YOU DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO GET IT DONE! Then you lie down, recharge, and start back up again. If these guys can put that effort into it, then I can sacrifice a couple of hours a week and an occasional weekend for them. It’s only fair.  

However, I was talking about this asshat’sarticle, feel free to read it if you wish. The article is a lot of “feel good comments and clichés that really just justified his ass being able to go home at 5. 

His points are shown below …
  •  Work is a never ending process
  • Interest of a client is important, so is your family
  • If you fall in life neither your client or boss will lend you a helping hand, your family will
  • Life is not only about work, office and client
  • A person who stays late at the office is not a hard working person
  • You did not study hard or struggle in life to become a machine
  • If your boss forces you to work late
Then as I said he justifies each of these points with his own bouts of wisdom which frankly sound good on paper but that’s all …. It’s not always practical. I do agree with him that work never ends, if it did we’d all have to find new jobs. However, I’d argue that tasks do. If I can stay an extra 30 minutes or and hour at the end of the day to finish something so I can move on to the next task then I’m going to do that cause it will make my tomorrow better. The best part of my job is that the deadlines are hard. Once that deadline gets here the job is done cause if I haven’t submitted then submitting late isn’t going to get us anywhere. So at some point I get to move on no matter if I am ready or not.


This article stresses time management as the reason most people don’t leave the office on time. I’d argue that is true to an extent. However, is it my lack of time management that I spent say 3 hours of my day helping coworkers get their stuff done then have to cram my stuff into the rest of the day? Is that on me or them? When they are walking out the door at a quarter to 5 after me spending time on their work am I the idiot here? Yeah I guess I am. Again, I’d argue that’s the role I’ve risen to in my 15 years at the company. My boss trust me cause he knows giving me a task means he doesn’t have to worry about that task anymore. I take pride in that. I hate when I have to lean on him during a submittal (that 200 pager required him a lot more than typical and I felt bad about that cause every time I left his office one of my coworkers was walking in behind me). So should I be more selfish of my time so that I can increase my “time management” ? Hold that thought ….

The guys second point was that family enriches your life more than a client ever will. I agree with that too cause clients can be nothing of a headache cause clients rarely call when they are happy. However keeping clients happy is important to. I’d wager a guess that if you aren’t available when a client needs you he will soon stop calling you at all. This asshat also fails to realize you spend far more time with coworkers than family in a given week. What I truly love about my place of business is we rally in times of need and support one another in a way that family does. We are after all one big dysfunctional family. I’d also argue that family often let’s you down, so yeah on this one he can suck it. 


The one I took huge objection to was the person who stays late is not a hard working person, mostly cause he went on to say that person is not working effectively or a benefit to the company and is frankly a fool. See previous statement about helping others with their work while I have to do mine after the “time limit” this guy has established has passed. He states planning your day is a major factor in getting your stuff accomplished on time. I make a to do list daily. Sometimes the day before and it starts with the things I need to accomplish (including tasks left over from the day before) in order to meet my given deadlines. Then throughout the day other things get added to that list in another color. It’s always interesting to me at the end of the day seeing what’s crossed off and what’s not and typically it’s the things that get added to my day that are crossed off first. The ironic thing is when I do blow people off so I can focus on my stuff I’m told I’m not a team player, or called not nice names that often rhymes with witch because for one day … one mfing day I’m not being helpful when someone says jump. Again maybe he’s right maybe I am a fool. A fool for coming in on a Friday when what I really wanted to do was take that day off, and for staying until 4 when what I really wanted to do was leave at 3. What was I doing on this day? I spent half of it creating a section for a coworker and writing an approach for a submittal that wasn’t mine, then I pulled resumes for another office and helped a different office with language for a different submittal. However, that’s right it was my choice to not take that day off but if I had who would have handled all that other stuff … my coworkers?! I doubt it. My boss was on vacay with his family Friday so he couldn’t have done it … .so again I ask who!? So Mr. Go home on time guy … whose doing everyone else’s job when I’m being selfish and working on my stuff? Huh?! Ever think about that?! Maybe I am a fool.

His next point … you didn’t study hard or struggle in life to become a machine. Again he’s correct in theory. No one grows up as a small child thinking man if I could only get a job that requires, I work 40-50 hours a week that’s the dream! Mr. Asshat states you have 24 hours…. 8 hours to sleep (who the hell is he kidding), 8 hours for work, and 8 hours on your own. So he’s stating that essentially there are 16 hours to play with here. Cause let’s face it find me an adult who sleeps 8 hours and I’ll show you an adult who is not adulting at all. Then his 8 hours of “my time” does that include say the hour or so it takes to get ready for work in the morning, for the record I can do it in 30 minutes, it aint pretty but I can. What about life time … groceries, taking kids to various appointments, dr appointments, what about commute time, say that takes an hour a day both ways five days a week that’s 10 hours a week right there. What I’m saying is it’s a cute idea and a cliché premise but it’s not practical. That’s my issue with this entire article. Nothing in this article is practical and it might be what’s wrong with this generation. 


Lastly the comment about a boss forcing someone to work late. I’M SORRY BUT YES SOMETIMES PEOPLE NEED TO WORK LATE. THAT’S CALLED LIFE. However, I can tell you I have the best boss on the planet and he’s often begging me not to. He told me one time he had one employee he couldn’t get to leave the office and one he couldn’t get to stay in said office. The truth is my boss has never once told me to stay. He’s told me to leave but he’s never once said you need to stay. He gets that I have this thing that makes me want to succeed and this thing in my brain that if I leave without finishing something I might as well stay cause I’m not going to enjoy wherever I go. AKA I could leave a task unfinished and pick it back up tomorrow and go home but I’m going to be at home stressing about said task being incomplete so 30 minutes here or there will allow to me 100% be at home unstressed about my work life. Plus I’ll sleep better for the 3-4 hours a night that I do get. I will also add that stress dreams about work suck super hard and I don't reccomend them at all.

My point is this …. I work hard, I am very good at my job, I wish others around me understood and were able to also state those things before they send links to me about how I need to reevaluate how I do said job. 

That is all. 

Marcy (@beaslma)

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