Mandatory Overtime
Wow, it's been a tiring couple of weeks lately. Mostly it's all work related. One thing I have learned, the division of the company i work for isn't really good at crisis management. well, they just aren't that good at management period because this shouldn't be a crisis in the first place.
What's the crisis? We have more work than was expected. No, really.
Being a customer service area, there's all sorts of forecasts and trends done to try to have the right staffing and such for the work you expect. That's the easy thing, though. You actually have to work with the unexpected with contingencies and ways to get what you can out of some poor situations. When i worked at AIM we had a couple of years where there wasn't enough work to go around, which was pretty difficult, sending people home, letting people go.
Having more work is even more difficult because you have to ask for sacrifice, and you really have to decide whether this is a temporary trend, and you can get by, or if this is going to be long-term and you need to look at staffing up. Well, at my office we've been on a hiring freeze, so we've been losing people all year. With that we've had a record June, and then a record July, and for some reason our management was super surprised when we have had a record August following!
I haven't minded too much as I've been able to pull some extra overtime hours and make some money that I'm using towards my trip next month. Still, I like it when I'm in control of how many hours I work. It seems to be the same way with other people around me. yeah, I've worked some saturdays, and gotten my work done with the extra time, but it was mostly my decision to do so.
Well, last week we finally got so out of standard with processing and follow up that it was demanded of us to work a 60 hour week, and 8 of those hours would be on Saturday. No one was very happy about this, and when most people had been working 50 hour weeks for most of the summer, the fatigue of spending so much time at the damned office was really setting in.
Part of it was the way it was told to us, via email, third paragraph in on how unexpected this all was and no one could think we'd have several months of these volumes, and then under the paragraph beginning with "How Can I Help?" was the demand of overtime for all. this without so much of a thank you, and some mild admonishments of those who already had vacation days planned.
The email ended with the prospect that we would be under the same conditions for the next few weeks, probably until our new group in India was ready to take on some of the workload in october - which made no one feel good at all, and has been the reason for the hiring freeze, even when our company OWNS a temp agency.
Of course there are exceptions for everything, and man where there a lot of exceptions brought forward! People really wanted to get out of working a full eight on Saturday - especially when we're not that productive on the weekends when we can't make calls.
So this weekend, well, thanks but we're going to need another ten hours of overtime by Friday so we can try to avoid having to work Labor Day Weekend. This is all crap because no manager was scheduled to work Labor Day weekend and none of them want to be the one who has to do it. Well, if we had to sacrifice a Saturday, you can too.
Hell, two weeks ago when you announced the mandatory Saturday, you still had managers come around trying to make people come in on Sunday as well, with that little hint of passive aggressiveness that makes you never want to say yes again. I certainly said no.
We did finally get a lunch today as an appreciation for coming in on Saturday, but if you took the free lunch, you would have to skip your lunch and take it back to your desk. Really, it's kind of a backhanded complement, really.
Yeah, I'll work overtime - but only one hour a day this week. I'll work a short shift Saturday if they an coax someone to supervise on Saturday (how about me?), so I'm giving in some, but I'm suffering work fatigue and today i spent a long time looking at the cruise website really hoping all this work will be worth it.
I think the job search begins anew after I get off that boat.
What's the crisis? We have more work than was expected. No, really.
Being a customer service area, there's all sorts of forecasts and trends done to try to have the right staffing and such for the work you expect. That's the easy thing, though. You actually have to work with the unexpected with contingencies and ways to get what you can out of some poor situations. When i worked at AIM we had a couple of years where there wasn't enough work to go around, which was pretty difficult, sending people home, letting people go.
Having more work is even more difficult because you have to ask for sacrifice, and you really have to decide whether this is a temporary trend, and you can get by, or if this is going to be long-term and you need to look at staffing up. Well, at my office we've been on a hiring freeze, so we've been losing people all year. With that we've had a record June, and then a record July, and for some reason our management was super surprised when we have had a record August following!
I haven't minded too much as I've been able to pull some extra overtime hours and make some money that I'm using towards my trip next month. Still, I like it when I'm in control of how many hours I work. It seems to be the same way with other people around me. yeah, I've worked some saturdays, and gotten my work done with the extra time, but it was mostly my decision to do so.
Well, last week we finally got so out of standard with processing and follow up that it was demanded of us to work a 60 hour week, and 8 of those hours would be on Saturday. No one was very happy about this, and when most people had been working 50 hour weeks for most of the summer, the fatigue of spending so much time at the damned office was really setting in.
Part of it was the way it was told to us, via email, third paragraph in on how unexpected this all was and no one could think we'd have several months of these volumes, and then under the paragraph beginning with "How Can I Help?" was the demand of overtime for all. this without so much of a thank you, and some mild admonishments of those who already had vacation days planned.
The email ended with the prospect that we would be under the same conditions for the next few weeks, probably until our new group in India was ready to take on some of the workload in october - which made no one feel good at all, and has been the reason for the hiring freeze, even when our company OWNS a temp agency.
Of course there are exceptions for everything, and man where there a lot of exceptions brought forward! People really wanted to get out of working a full eight on Saturday - especially when we're not that productive on the weekends when we can't make calls.
So this weekend, well, thanks but we're going to need another ten hours of overtime by Friday so we can try to avoid having to work Labor Day Weekend. This is all crap because no manager was scheduled to work Labor Day weekend and none of them want to be the one who has to do it. Well, if we had to sacrifice a Saturday, you can too.
Hell, two weeks ago when you announced the mandatory Saturday, you still had managers come around trying to make people come in on Sunday as well, with that little hint of passive aggressiveness that makes you never want to say yes again. I certainly said no.
We did finally get a lunch today as an appreciation for coming in on Saturday, but if you took the free lunch, you would have to skip your lunch and take it back to your desk. Really, it's kind of a backhanded complement, really.
Yeah, I'll work overtime - but only one hour a day this week. I'll work a short shift Saturday if they an coax someone to supervise on Saturday (how about me?), so I'm giving in some, but I'm suffering work fatigue and today i spent a long time looking at the cruise website really hoping all this work will be worth it.
I think the job search begins anew after I get off that boat.