Work, life and strangeness

[Robert Hall]

The last month has been intense at work...pushing hard to meet deadlines...had the quarterly production install Friday night (pulled an all nighter that night). It's been exhausting, 4 60+ hr weeks in a row...and I don't see it letting up soon, as we are chronically understaffed--the department has lost a net of 6 people in the last 6 months, but the upcoming quarters still have a lot of work to be done, and they seem to be under a hiring freeze (cheap bastards, considering they are one of the few big banks that's profitable).

To make matters worse, on Thursday (was a bank holiday for me), my team lead dropped dead of a heart attack at 34 while at cricket practice. He'd been putting in probably 50-75 hr weeks here the last 5 years. Did the job kill him? Don't know, seemed healthy and fit. Everyone is still in shock I think over this.

The expectation of long hours are part of the package in trade for a six-figure salary and 4 weeks vacation, but I do have days where I question if it's worth it...maybe I should quit and go back to contracting, which is less stressful than being an employee in this kind of work environment...

I've been plagued by insomnia the last month, cranking up my sleeping pills and antidepressants...looking forward to a few days off at Thanksgiving..need to reevaluate what I'm doing.

Edited November 14, 2010 by Cubical-aka-Moltar

[balthazar]

I've slowly learned over time that excess stress & excess time in general spent at work has more of an effect on me than I used to think. I tend to think of myself as a kind of Terminator as far as work & my ability to handle it... but that's not entirely accurate.

I once worked long longs days consecutively, wondering where my 'tipping point' was- turned out it was 28 days straight. Took a day off, then IIRC I worked the next 2.5 weeks straight (immovable deadline).

I have also worked 80+ hours for a few weeks at a time. WRT to your team leader, no one (short of a dedicated medial inquiry) can answer your question, but I believe the majority of lay persons would agree (unscientifically) that it contributed at least somewhat. Everyone is different, tho.

Periodic reevaluation is ALWAYS good practice. Good luck in working thru it, Cubie.

[loki]

is it enjoyable most of the time? if not, then one has to weigh the benefits of leaving/changing jobs

[Robert Hall]

is it enjoyable most of the time? if not, then one has to weigh the benefits of leaving/changing jobs

Generally, yes. But with the 1 hr daily commute (25 miles each way) it gets very tiring. Plus that fact I don't want to be here (I want to leave AZ, but that isn't practical right now), makes for a lot of frustration...plus the tech job market is weak here compared to other large metros..still regretting leaving Denver.

[A Horse With No Name]

Make the change...I used to work 65 hours a week, now I work more like thirty five.

simplify, simplify, simplify....

[Camino LS6]

You aren't alone Cubitar, many folks are questioning what they are doing/not doing.

Not a bad thing to do - taking stock can really give you some perspective.

All the best to you.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

I've struggled with this myself.

Not long ago I was a fulltime student and worked 2 jobs (Then I would come home and blog, LOL, no wonder I couldn't remember posting a lot of stuff)

My education has taught me a lot about how stress affects our body and how ESSENTIAL it is to balance and manage those effects. I'd be a hypocrit if I told you that I'm excellent at doing it, though.

I think one thing to consider is your personality. Do you enjoy working that much? Personally, I'm a big fan of structure and I'm very 'type A' oriented in that I have to be accomplishing something at all times. "Down time" (for example: sitting on the couch during the day) stresses me out really bad. So, with that type of personality, I find that working a lot actually decreases my stress because I feel as if I'm accomplishing things and advancing myself in life (through experience and pay)

However. (And that's a big however) you have to be very aware of stress level and be able to 'turn it off' if you need to. For example; I'm very bad to stress myself out about the smallest details of life. And when that happens, I have to 'distract myself' (READ: unplug) from what is stressing me out. It's as simple as planning a day out or taking a walk around the block and enjoying the weather.

I like to think of this as 'simple psychology' because in psychology, we treat people by altering behavior or establishing new behaviors. So, if something makes me stressed out, I find some way to alter my behavior (the walk -- getting out of the office)

I have made the decision in my life (already) that I WILL NOT be a hired slave just to get more money. I'm very willing to forfeit a higher standard of living in order to actually be able to enjoy my life and the money I make. (Example: 60 hours a week and 6 figures is probably awesome, but I'm not that dedicated. I'd probably accept a lower paying job with 45 hours a week)

I think, as a society, we are in a VERY bad place right now in relation to working and 'not being able to unplug' I mean, you ride the train to work in the morning and use that time to work on your job on a laptop. The you go in and pull 8-10 hours. Then you ride home on the train repeating the laptop scene. Then at home, you get on your PDA to either check email or take a call... WHERE DOES IT END? That isn't healthy behavior (IMO) and I, personally, refuse to be 'wired to a job' like that.

And the same can be said about "the information age" in general. You almost cannot escape news, media, social media, entertainment media, etc... And that's something I have a hard time with. I'm one of those guys that's in love with his iphone and checks it every 5 minutes. And I've almost considered trashing it because of that.

Edited November 15, 2010 by FUTURE_OF_GM

[regfootball]

what i find bizarre and am absolutely livid about.

why work has to be 'feast or famine'.

to me, its mismanagement of the highest order and of course I say this having been out of work for quite some time. i meet ex coworkers for lunch and they are all working on 2-3 month contracts and mandatory 25% unpaid overtime. places fire full timers with benefits and simultaneously cycle in temps for assignments the full timers were doing.

In your situation I am guessing its probably just hard to find qualified people. But also the deadlines are set in such a way that you pretty much have to crash it.

I think with better managment the work could be spread out to more folks and deadlines negotiated better possibly too. Basically they know they can abuse the workers so they do.

I think that sucks. DOing what I do / did, they could employ 20-25% more people. The work is there, they are just milking an employers market as long as they can.

We need to move toward a workplace that can spread the work out so we have lives outside of work, and so more folks are working, and so its not an all or nothing, economy crippling proposition.

off my soapbox, signed

bitter and pissed off.

take care of yourself and manage the stress. live for yourself a little more. no one cares what anyone did for a living when they turn you to ash or put you 6 feet under in a box.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

what i find bizarre and am absolutely livid about.

why work has to be 'feast or famine'.

to me, its mismanagement of the highest order and of course I say this having been out of work for quite some time. i meet ex coworkers for lunch and they are all working on 2-3 month contracts and mandatory 25% unpaid overtime. places fire full timers with benefits and simultaneously cycle in temps for assignments the full timers were doing.

In your situation I am guessing its probably just hard to find qualified people. But also the deadlines are set in such a way that you pretty much have to crash it.

I think with better managment the work could be spread out to more folks and deadlines negotiated better possibly too. Basically they know they can abuse the workers so they do.

I think that sucks. DOing what I do / did, they could employ 20-25% more people. The work is there, they are just milking an employers market as long as they can.

We need to move toward a workplace that can spread the work out so we have lives outside of work, and so more folks are working, and so its not an all or nothing, economy crippling proposition.

But that would defy efficiency and piss off Wall Street, so NO GO.

In Political Sociology we talk a lot about "increased efficiency"

In an ideal world, "increased efficiency" is supposed to benefit EVERYONE. Employers (the elite, upper class) make more money and therefore bump up the middle class pay scale and time off. However, the reality is that this "increased efficiency" is NOT being passed down the line. That has resulted largely in the gap in earnings and the decimation of the middle class. The elite have GREATLY benefitted from OUR increased efficiency and it shows as they continue to become more and more wealthy. However, the wage for the middle class has stayed roughly the same for YEARS while the cost of living continues to rise. That results in a situation where a middle class person can either 1) Accept a lower standard of living (As I've said before, Sociologists believe that Gen Y -- my generation -- will be the first generation that has a LOWER standard of living than our parents) or 2) WORK HARDER to try and hang on to the standard of living that he/she feels they deserve.

It's sad, really. And that's why I continue to maintain my bleak outlook on the future of most of us.

[intrigued]

I have similar issues going on. Still finishing my undergrad (fulltime work and part time school sucks) and I'm gearing up for trial. I have a base 35 hour work week. The first half of the year I averaged 45-50 hours a week while taking 2 classes. Totally mannagable, especially because I get 20 days vacation.

The last 5 months have been insane. My primary case is heading to trial Nov. 30 December 10th, I am taking my finals for the 2 classes I'm in now early so I can go while I am working 70+ hour weeks. I havent slept longer tehn 6 hours in months I havent been able to work out and my personal life is strained because I'm never around.

I'm going to wait till a graduate and then see how my sress level is, this would be a lot more managable if I didn't have to deal with school on top of everything else. My OT is off the charcts though. I'm at 550 for the year and will likley clear 700 at the very least before the end of the year.

[Blake Noble]

Despite the fact I've put more on my table during the last few months, I've noticed I'm stressing less and less about things. Instead of having a well-defined idea of what I want and how I want things to go and trying to maintain a claustrophobic style of control over that, I'm just taking things in stride and keeping a rough idea in mind of where I want things to go.

I'll be a full-time student next semester and there might be a good chance I'll still be working part-time after the holidays as well (I wouldn't bet anything on it, though). On top of that, I've currently decided to put any and all previous projects (mainly ones pertaining to music) on an indefinite hiatus and start brand new ones (again this is mainly pertaining to music; I'd really love to play with a band again since I've been ingesting a lot of stoner rock/metal and garage rock ... stuff that really stayed true to the roots of rock and metal).

[GMTruckGuy74]

Unfortunately, my wife and I are tied to our debts (oh, the American Dream!) and in order to get ourselves out of this hole we must do what is needed with regards to both working a lot of hours right now, which takes us away from family life and personal time. Our credit tanked by late 2008, so we entered into a credit/debt management program this year after realizing we could not get a handle on it ourselves. We live paycheck to paycheck because all of our debit and our family needs, our credit card accounts were closed (this happened before we entered the credit/debt management program unfortunately) so there's no option but to spend only in cash and only on what we absolutely need (which can be a good thing when trying to get a grip on uncontrolled spending). Though we were making very good money, we bought a (town)house that in hindsight is out of our comfort zone in regards to the monthly mortgage payment and taxes in NJ. At my insistence, we leased our vehicles ('99-'07) and I spent home equity money for the Saturn SKY (which I could no longer afford to keep by late 2007). Being laid-off from teaching at the end of June, and due to the state's (actually, the govenor's) attack on education/teachers/teacher union, I was unable to find a replacement teaching job for Septmeber. Unemployment killed my meager savings account and by mid-September we were in financial trouble again, leaving me no option but to take a contingent (temp) position at the pharmaceutical company where my wife is a 10+ year full-time employee. I get no paid holidays, no paid sick time, no benefits (thankfully me & my family are covered by the wife's), and no perks. I work for peanuts per hour now instead of salary, which is about 40% less than what I was paid per hour of teaching (but is more than what I was getting in unemployment pay). I am on a 6-month contract basis (Oct-Mar), though there's the option that it will be extended (but on the flip side of the coin it can also be folded at any time too). The company I work for is raking in the profits at the expense of a ton of contingent workers efforts and time (there is no paid overtime either). So for we're making our monthly payments on our debts again, keeping food in the house (not as much though) and gas in the cars (frivilous and/or extra travel has been cut though), and there's diapers & formula for the baby. But when we looked at our empty savings account and our upcoming paychecks, we realized Christmas for the kids wouldn't be possible without a third paycheck. I am working part-time for a Toys R Us for both the Christmas money and the employee discount (which isn't enough but helps). The good thing to come out of this p/t job is that there will be no debit in January for Christmas, something that we experienced last Christmas too. All in all, I'm doing 40 hours at my primary job (plus 30 mins each day for lunch), 20-24 hours at my secondary job, spending 11-12 hours per week in travelling time between the two jobs, and then whatever time is left is spent eating/sleeping/family time. Now I'm not complaining in general, because I realize I made the bed so now I have to sleep in it. The part I am complaining about is that it is all happening at once, something I haven't been use to. I can deal with change, but found out not as much as what I've been going through. Thanks for letting me vent, and I can see from this topic I am not alone.

[regfootball]

But that would defy efficiency and piss off Wall Street, so NO GO.

In Political Sociology we talk a lot about "increased efficiency"

In an ideal world, "increased efficiency" is supposed to benefit EVERYONE. Employers (the elite, upper class) make more money and therefore bump up the middle class pay scale and time off. However, the reality is that this "increased efficiency" is NOT being passed down the line. That has resulted largely in the gap in earnings and the decimation of the middle class. The elite have GREATLY benefitted from OUR increased efficiency and it shows as they continue to become more and more wealthy. However, the wage for the middle class has stayed roughly the same for YEARS while the cost of living continues to rise. That results in a situation where a middle class person can either 1) Accept a lower standard of living (As I've said before, Sociologists believe that Gen Y -- my generation -- will be the first generation that has a LOWER standard of living than our parents) or 2) WORK HARDER to try and hang on to the standard of living that he/she feels they deserve.

It's sad, really. And that's why I continue to maintain my bleak outlook on the future of most of us.

i sure as hell don't blame you. i hit 40 and all of a sudden am fairly worthless. I don't have a nice ass or rack, and i am not an extrovert, and there was not money in my family to jump start me with wealth.

the price of everything goes up but magically the wages decline, unless your job goes bye bye. then you have no wage.

the company i was working for, privately owned, turns out the owners got sued by many people they stiffed, because apparently the fam was funneling to much money to their fam trust funds and not enough back to the business to cover operating loans etc.

and hundreds went jobless.

but truth is it does not matter if its private business or public, the motivations have reached a level of stench that makes me ill and insists on corporation at all costs with no regard for society as a whole.

i am fairly convinced that most businesses these days only give back to the community for either tax or marketing advantages. and if they do give back, they actually do so in a manner that risks putting their own employees out of work too.

the only way to go about fixing the corporate influence and to break up the wealth is to go full assault on breaking up the companies. of course, that would starve the political parties of their funding......

its fairly sad, i have no words of encouragement for the up and coming generations. all i can say is 'watch your backs' and be leery of anything that requires you to continually be the ones to have to invest in something. education, training, investing in stocks, time, anything that asks YOU to give, be leery.

if i were just starting out these days i think i would just be a waiter or bartender at a nice restaurant or bar. and then i would find a cheap place to live.

if you can marry into wealth, try for that. gain your assets that way is probably easier than through work and education.

Edited November 17, 2010 by regfootball

[regfootball]

Unfortunately, my wife and I are tied to our debts (oh, the American Dream!) and in order to get ourselves out of this hole we must do what is needed with regards to both working a lot of hours right now, which takes us away from family life and personal time. Our credit tanked by late 2008, so we entered into a credit/debt management program this year after realizing we could not get a handle on it ourselves. We live paycheck to paycheck because all of our debit and our family needs, our credit card accounts were closed (this happened before we entered the credit/debt management program unfortunately) so there's no option but to spend only in cash and only on what we absolutely need (which can be a good thing when trying to get a grip on uncontrolled spending). Though we were making very good money, we bought a (town)house that in hindsight is out of our comfort zone in regards to the monthly mortgage payment and taxes in NJ. At my insistence, we leased our vehicles ('99-'07) and I spent home equity money for the Saturn SKY (which I could no longer afford to keep by late 2007). Being laid-off from teaching at the end of June, and due to the state's (actually, the govenor's) attack on education/teachers/teacher union, I was unable to find a replacement teaching job for Septmeber. Unemployment killed my meager savings account and by mid-September we were in financial trouble again, leaving me no option but to take a contingent (temp) position at the pharmaceutical company where my wife is a 10+ year full-time employee. I get no paid holidays, no paid sick time, no benefits (thankfully me & my family are covered by the wife's), and no perks. I work for peanuts per hour now instead of salary, which is about 40% less than what I was paid per hour of teaching (but is more than what I was getting in unemployment pay). I am on a 6-month contract basis (Oct-Mar), though there's the option that it will be extended (but on the flip side of the coin it can also be folded at any time too). The company I work for is raking in the profits at the expense of a ton of contingent workers efforts and time (there is no paid overtime either). So for we're making our monthly payments on our debts again, keeping food in the house (not as much though) and gas in the cars (frivilous and/or extra travel has been cut though), and there's diapers & formula for the baby. But when we looked at our empty savings account and our upcoming paychecks, we realized Christmas for the kids wouldn't be possible without a third paycheck. I am working part-time for a Toys R Us for both the Christmas money and the employee discount (which isn't enough but helps). The good thing to come out of this p/t job is that there will be no debit in January for Christmas, something that we experienced last Christmas too. All in all, I'm doing 40 hours at my primary job (plus 30 mins each day for lunch), 20-24 hours at my secondary job, spending 11-12 hours per week in travelling time between the two jobs, and then whatever time is left is spent eating/sleeping/family time. Now I'm not complaining in general, because I realize I made the bed so now I have to sleep in it. The part I am complaining about is that it is all happening at once, something I haven't been use to. I can deal with change, but found out not as much as what I've been going through. Thanks for letting me vent, and I can see from this topic I am not alone.

hang in there.

re: the toys r us bit, i actually need to finish up an app with them for seasonal work, it might be too late, but maybe we can share stories........if that materializes.

oh, and yeah, the alcohol budget is actually higher these days. survey, who drinks more these days? LOL

[Robert Hall]

Things have moderated at work this week...the project that's been my main stressor the last month has been pushed back to the 3rd quarter of '11 for delivery, some breathing space there. Everyone is still in shock over the death of our team member, esp. since we found out his wife was 6 mos. pregnant.

Management realizes we are down 7 resource units in the last 6 months (3 ftes, 4 crus), and plans to try and hire a few new contractors in the next month....plus we have 3 more rolling out in Feb..so it's going to be interesting...

Should be a 40hr week this week, then a short 2 days next week then a 5 day weekend for Thanksgiving...looking forward to some downtime..

[A Horse With No Name]

Enjoy your down time....

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

if i were just starting out these days i think i would just be a waiter or bartender at a nice restaurant or bar. and then i would find a cheap place to live.

if you can marry into wealth, try for that. gain your assets that way is probably easier than through work and education.

You know, it's funny you mention that. Both the GF and I (4 degrees between us) are managers at a local restaurant trying to ride out the storm. All of my toys (cars) are paid for and all of my transactions are in cash. As far as credit... Well, I'll just say that things aren't too good right now because all I have to pay is student loans (that I can BARELY afford) But I'm not about to take on more debt to 'prove myself' for a flawed system.

Really worried that I'll never be able to buy a house. But oh well...

[knightfan26917]

But I'm not about to take on more debt to 'prove myself' for a flawed system.

Really worried that I'll never be able to buy a house. But oh well...

Right there with you....

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