The joys of a 55hour work week
I guess it could all be worse... I could be working in Korea where they put in 70+ hour weeks. Luckily I was smart enough to be born in America.
I suppose the only real downside to my job is how long I'm at it. The work isn't bad, I like my co-workers... I guess the other downside is attempting to translate for the Koreans... even the ones who "know" english- they speak Konglish at best.
On the plus side, I have the stamina to survive multi-hour meetings, which is apparently a very useful skill in this thing called the real world. Even after 10 hours of work, a 2 hour meeting was a breeze- maybe it's just because being in a meeting means my only responsibility is to stay awake.
+ #2- my boss... kinda. My 'TR' or Team Representative, who is also a Dispatcher (Korean working in America for 1-3 years), is awesome. My favorite part about him though is his analogies- twice this week he explained vast problems with lessons that began, "If someone takes a shit in the road". After my department had a good laugh we eventually realized that, absurd though it may seem, his analogy was right (both times) if a bit... odd.
The only other negative to my job is, at least in my department, total lack of American oversight. Usually departments have American TRs and PLs (part leader, aka Boss), with a Korean CL(no idea what the C is) who acts as a pseudo-boss. In YE (my dept) both TR's, the CL and the PL are all Korean. What does this mean apart from lots of loud Korean chatter? It means we're likely to get fucked on performance reviews because we don't all work 75 hour weeks. I hope not, but I guess I'll find out next month. Going above my department in the hierarchy the lack of American oversight continues. My boss (TR) his boss (CL) his boss (PL) his boss (Sr. VP) and HIS boss (Head of FAB 2) are all Korean. That's just here... if you draw it out further I'm sure that every one of the overlords beyond the head of my FAB are also Korean. So I have 3 layers of oversight in my dept, 5 in this country, and maybe 7 or 8 overall- and every one of them is Korean. I speak the wrong language.
The final plus, though not really work related, is how great it is to leave on the last day of the week (today for me). The 55+ hours finally end, and I can cruise on back home and not think about silicon or any other bullshit for about 60 hours. Plus the radio stations down here are Fly Ass Bomb Ass, as the YE expression goes. Take today for example where my taste in music combined with the local stations to produce the following 3-song chain: Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" followed by BNL's "One Week" and finished off nicely by Eminem's "White America". Quite the messed up set, but there's nothing like the expression on my fellow drivers' faces when the noise from my car changes from the king of pop to crazy middle aged men to crazy insane middle-aged man.
As a final note, I'm going to start writing soon... actually writing that is. I expect anyone reading this to pre-order at least 10,000 copies of my book(s) if/whenever I finish them.
I suppose the only real downside to my job is how long I'm at it. The work isn't bad, I like my co-workers... I guess the other downside is attempting to translate for the Koreans... even the ones who "know" english- they speak Konglish at best.
On the plus side, I have the stamina to survive multi-hour meetings, which is apparently a very useful skill in this thing called the real world. Even after 10 hours of work, a 2 hour meeting was a breeze- maybe it's just because being in a meeting means my only responsibility is to stay awake.
+ #2- my boss... kinda. My 'TR' or Team Representative, who is also a Dispatcher (Korean working in America for 1-3 years), is awesome. My favorite part about him though is his analogies- twice this week he explained vast problems with lessons that began, "If someone takes a shit in the road". After my department had a good laugh we eventually realized that, absurd though it may seem, his analogy was right (both times) if a bit... odd.
The only other negative to my job is, at least in my department, total lack of American oversight. Usually departments have American TRs and PLs (part leader, aka Boss), with a Korean CL(no idea what the C is) who acts as a pseudo-boss. In YE (my dept) both TR's, the CL and the PL are all Korean. What does this mean apart from lots of loud Korean chatter? It means we're likely to get fucked on performance reviews because we don't all work 75 hour weeks. I hope not, but I guess I'll find out next month. Going above my department in the hierarchy the lack of American oversight continues. My boss (TR) his boss (CL) his boss (PL) his boss (Sr. VP) and HIS boss (Head of FAB 2) are all Korean. That's just here... if you draw it out further I'm sure that every one of the overlords beyond the head of my FAB are also Korean. So I have 3 layers of oversight in my dept, 5 in this country, and maybe 7 or 8 overall- and every one of them is Korean. I speak the wrong language.
The final plus, though not really work related, is how great it is to leave on the last day of the week (today for me). The 55+ hours finally end, and I can cruise on back home and not think about silicon or any other bullshit for about 60 hours. Plus the radio stations down here are Fly Ass Bomb Ass, as the YE expression goes. Take today for example where my taste in music combined with the local stations to produce the following 3-song chain: Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" followed by BNL's "One Week" and finished off nicely by Eminem's "White America". Quite the messed up set, but there's nothing like the expression on my fellow drivers' faces when the noise from my car changes from the king of pop to crazy middle aged men to crazy insane middle-aged man.
As a final note, I'm going to start writing soon... actually writing that is. I expect anyone reading this to pre-order at least 10,000 copies of my book(s) if/whenever I finish them.