Today at the office, I told a co-worker I was proud
this year I have only averaged 6.7 work hours per day (47-hour weeks' average)
if I worked all seven days of the week. I stated that I was happy it had decreased from last year to 7.9 hours a week (55-hour weeks). I explained
that it is based on total hours worked divided by the number of days (365 days for
a calendar year). So yes, I worked 6.7 hours a day
every year. Of course, I had not been in the office
every day, as I have 53 days (including weekends) that I was not in the office
at all. Over half of those days were two vacations and moving my son.
I made the statement because I was proud that I was improving on my
goal to return to a manageable work schedule. She said, "That's a
modest way of bragging." I felt terrible! That was not my intent
at all. In fact, I was happy I reduced the time spent working but also not glad I was still taking too much time off for our office.
My goal is to be closer to 6 hours or less. The typical employee who works Monday through Friday has 11 Holidays and 10
vacation days and would average 5.2 work hours a day if they worked all
365 days. This is also 37 hours a week. My goal is to be at 42
hours a week or less.
We have a professional office staff of 8. At
the peak of the economy in 2007, we were an office of 11. We worked more than wild animals during that period to meet the demand. Of
course, only the three non-union staff members, me being one, get
the privilege of working without overtime pay, so the other five are
basically 8-4:30, and we pick up where we are behind.
From 2005 to 2009, I could work out and was much happier. Then the economy fell, and we were a staff of
6 at one time. As I stated, we built up to 8 staff, but more are needed. I wish my ego would let me toss my arms and say, "You have
to wait a week for an answer," or even, "Wait a month as you're on the
pile." That is the reputation of government; we just do what we need and
make you wait. I can't do that to people.
A staff member on
maternity leave recently came in and told us she would not be returning. So, we have a staff of 7, when we could easily have used closer to the 11 we had to
accomplish the workload in 2007. Then there is the other side: finding
good employees is becoming possible.
What it comes down to is that I take a high degree of
personal responsibility and care for our team's success. I meet people
on nights and weekends because they need help getting into City Hall during
regular work hours.
This is how I was raised, so I work as
hard as possible to keep us functioning. I usually go to work
at 6:30 AM and work past 7:00 PM during the week just to return voicemails and
e-mails I get during the day. I tried one week in September to force
myself to leave at 5:00 PM for a week, and I was over 110 e-mails behind by the
end of the week. I spend 14 hours over the weekend to get caught
up! So that did not work.
I'm figuring out how to keep this up, as I know my health
is impacted. Stress is at an all-time high. I am so fatigued that I find walking hard, let alone working out. I am trying to figure out what choice there is to
keep the high customer service standards I have for dealing with people. I either have issues with my personal beliefs or keep doing what I am
doing.
So it was not a "modest way of bragging" but
admitting I was getting close to failing. I hate to fail, but things need
to change, and I am trying to figure out how to change them. It may be time to
evaluate changing careers, but I can retire if I hold out six more years. But if this keeps up, I wonder if there will be much of a retirement. In the past decade, I had two friends retire and die within 4 years. It should be an easy decision, but it is another difficult choice I cannot make now,
as I do not have time to do anything but work, eat, and sleep. Makes me
tired, fat, and unhappy.
Carry on, my friends, carry on...
Carry on, my friends, carry on...
